Jamaican ‘illegal alien’ sentenced to 1 day in jail for voter fraud in Broward

A Jamaican citizen with a lengthy rap sheet living in Broward County will spend just one day behind bars for illegally voting in a pair of 2022 Special Elections.

Alford Nelson, a 58-year-old immigrant known also as “Alfred Samuels,” pleaded no contest and was adjudicated guilty to two counts of voting as an unqualified elector.

He was sentenced to one day in jail, with credit for one day served, and $1,268 in fees, mostly for the cost of his defense and prosecution.

Nelson initially faced up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, based on third-degree felony penalties.

Judge Peter Holden of the 17th Judicial Circuit Court presided over the case, which began after Nelson’s arrest on Oct. 20, 2022, by Florida’s then-new Election Crime Unit.

Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Office of Statewide Prosecution prosecuted the case. Florida Politics contacted the Office for more information, but did not receive a response by press time.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) press release published after Nelson’s arrest in 2022 described him as “an illegal alien living in Ft. Lauderdale” who used a counterfeit birth certificate from New York City to register to vote in Broward under his “Samuels” alias.

The release said Nelson voted twice before getting caught, once on Jan 11, 2022, and again on March 8, 2022.

Gainesville resident Mark Glaeser, a database researcher and programmer, first flagged Nelson’s sentencing Tuesday.

Nelson became a lawful permanent U.S. resident in Miami in 1977, according to an FDLE affidavit. But the agency said he never applied for naturalization and “overstayed his original entry documents.”

Department of Corrections records show that before his 2022 arrest, Nelson went by at least seven different names and served prison time for 11 felonies, including cocaine possession and trafficking, selling or purchasing drugs within 1,000 feet of a school and resisting arrest with violence.

The arrest came as Gov. Ron DeSantis was facing criticism for using a specialized police force he requested from lawmakers to target felons who unlawfully cast ballots. Reporting about Nelson’s arrest at the time included references to those other arrests.

A constitutional amendment voters approved in 2018 restored the voting rights of many Floridians convicted of felonies. But it didn’t apply to convicted murderers and sex offenders, and felons were still barred from voting until they completed their sentences, probation or parole, and paid off their fines, fees, costs and restitutions.

Two months before Nelson’s apprehension, the Election Crime Unit arrested 20 ex-convicts who served time for murder or sex offenses. Police body camera footage of those arrests showed some suspects bewildered about why they were in trouble, with some officers sympathizing with their confusion.

It was later revealed that the state had issued all 20 of the people arrested voter ID cards, and two of the suspects remained on the voter rolls afterward, with one even being issued another voter ID card.

Little sympathy is expected for Nelson, who knowingly used fake documents to vote illegally.

His sentencing Monday comes less than a month before the White House return of Donald Trump, for whom mass deportation of undocumented migrants has been a signature platform policy.

Deputy Secretary of State Brad McVay said in September that 144 noncitizens were found to have been registered to vote in Florida’s — 0.0011% of the state’s total voter rolls.