A poll worker holds voting stickers for community members Nov. 7, 2023, at Central Elementary School in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. (Matt Smith for Spotlight PA)
A man faces federal charges that he voted in both Florida and in Pennsylvania for the 2020 presidential election, and twice in Pennsylvania during the November 2022 election.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Philadelphia said Friday it had filed five charges against 62-year-old Philip C. Pulley of Huntingdon Valley, alleging he violated federal election law by falsely registering to vote, double voting and engaging in election fraud.
It’s unclear how often double voting occurs or how often it is prosecuted. But a review published in December 2021 by The Associated Press found fewer than 475 potential cases of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed by former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Those cases were too few to have made a difference in his reelection defeat.
Pulley is accused of using a false Philadelphia address and Social Security number when in 2020 he registered in Philadelphia while already being registered to vote in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and Broward County, Florida. That year he requested a mail-in ballot in Philadelphia and voted in both Montgomery and Broward, according to the criminal allegations.
The charging document also claims that in November 2022, with a U.S. Senate seat on the ballot, he voted in both Philadelphia and Montgomery counties.
Federal prosecutors say Pulley had a history of using his address in Huntingdon Valley, Montgomery County, to vote from 2005 through last year. Broward County records indicate he was a Republican in 2018 when he registered in Lighthouse Point, Florida, and that he has voted several times from that address.
Pennsylvania voting records indicate Pulley was registered as a Republican in Montgomery County from the 1990s until he changed it to the Democratic Party last year. A few years prior, in February 2020, he registered as a Democrat in Philadelphia — where he voted in general elections in 2021, 2022 and 2023, the records show.
Pulley did not have a lawyer listed in court records. Messages were left seeking comment at phone numbers and an email address linked to him.
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