Pennsylvania man accused of voting in two states faces federal court charges

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man faces federal charges for voting in both Florida and Pennsylvania in the 2020 presidential election and twice in Pennsylvania in the November 2022 election.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia announced Friday that it had filed five charges against 62-year-old Philip C. Pulley of Huntingdon Valley, accusing him of violating federal election law by falsely registering to vote, voting twice and committing voter fraud.

It is unclear how often double voting occurs or how often it is prosecuted, but an investigation published in December 2021 by The Associated Press found fewer than 475 possible cases of voter fraud in the six swing states that former President Donald Trump was seeking in the 2020 election. Those cases were too few to make a difference in his re-election loss.

Pulley is accused of providing a false Philadelphia address and Social Security number when he registered to vote in Philadelphia in 2020 while he was already registered to vote in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and Broward County, Florida. That year, he requested an absentee ballot in Philadelphia and cast his vote in both Montgomery and Broward, according to the criminal charges.

The indictments also allege that he voted in both Philadelphia County and Montgomery County in November 2022, when a U.S. Senate seat was up for election.

Federal prosecutors say Pulley used his Huntingdon Valley, Montgomery County, address to vote from 2005 until last year. Broward County records show he was a Republican in 2018, when he registered in Lighthouse Point, Florida, and that he voted from that address several times.

Pennsylvania election records show that Pulley was registered as a Republican in Montgomery County since the 1990s until he switched to the Democratic Party last year. A few years earlier, in February 2020, he was registered as a Democrat in Philadelphia – where he voted in the 2021, 2022 and 2023 general elections, records show.

Pulley did not have an attorney listed in court records, and messages seeking comment were left at the phone numbers and email addresses associated with him.

Mark Scolforo, Associated Press