(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) An Ohio man was indicted on voter fraud charges after allegedly voting twice in two major national elections.
Local prosecutors accuse James Dalton Saunders, a 57-year-old attorney, of double voting in Ohio and Florida in the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 midterm elections, local media reported.
Saunders registered to vote both in Ohio and Florida and has reportedly donated over $3,000 to Republican PACs and candidates.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose, R-Ohio, reportedly said that the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), an embattled multi-state voting database system. Several Republican-governed states have opted out from using ERIC on claims that the system opens the door for exploitation and potential voter fraud.
Far-left activists, however, now claim ERIC is needed because it flagged Saunders to election officials.
“This is literally the perfect example of the sole purpose of ERIC, which is to find potential double registrations and potential double voters,” Ohio ACLU aide Collin Marozzi claimed, according to a local ABC affiliate.
ERIC came under fire in 2022 over its compromising ties to leftist activists. According to a scathing report by The Federalist, far-left activist David Becker and Pew Charitable Trusts, who started the ERIC in 2012, secretly worked to drive voter turnout and gain leftist goals through the multi-state database.
Becker, who left the company in 2016, remained connected to the group through the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR). CEIR was one of the far-left entities that facilitated the funneling of Mark Zuckerberg’s “Zuck Bucks” in the 2020 presidential election. Zuck Bucks, as it has been widely reported, reportedly encouraged left-leaning counties to get out and vote.
In 2022, Louisiana became the first to withdraw from ERIC, citing “concerns raised by citizens, government watchdog organizations and media reports.” Florida, Missouri, West Virginia and Ohio followed suit in raising concerns of the leftist-tied group.
Ohio pulled out from the group in March 2023. Secretary LaRose condemned Eric for ignoring Republican-led demands for reforms.
“ERIC has chosen repeatedly to ignore demands to embrace reforms that would bolster confidence in its performance, encourage growth in its membership, and ensure not only its present stability but also its durability,” LaRose said. “Rather, you have chosen to double-down on poor strategic decisions, which have only resulted in the transformation of a previously bipartisan organization to one that appears to favor only the interests of one political party.”
A spokesperson to LaRose told local media that ERIC was filled with partisanship. “It was saddle-bagged by politics,” he said. “And as states continue to defect, the value to Ohio was dropping.”
It is unknown how ERIC flagged Saunders to Ohio officials. He is expected to be arrainged in May.
