A Shaker Heights attorney convicted of casting ballots in both Ohio and Florida during two separate general elections has now lost his law license entirely. The Ohio Supreme Court suspended James Saunders, 60, after he failed to respond to a disciplinary complaint stemming from his felony election-fraud convictions, and ordered him to immediately stop practicing law, representing clients in court, giving legal advice or performing any other legal services.
A Bar Complaint Saunders Never Answered
According to Cleveland.com, the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association filed the disciplinary complaint against Saunders, arguing his convictions violated professional conduct rules requiring Ohio attorneys to obey the law and avoid conduct that reflects poorly on their fitness to practice. Saunders never responded, and a disciplinary board certified a default to the state supreme court, which then imposed the suspension. Saunders had previously worked as an attorney for the Internal Revenue Service, per the same report, and Cleveland.com has noted in prior reporting that he made donations to Donald Trump's campaigns and Republican political organizations.
The case traces back to a bench trial in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on July 12, 2023; Judge Andrew Santoli found Saunders guilty on August 22, 2023, on two felony counts of illegal voting. Court records reviewed by CourtListener show the trial court found Saunders guilty on both counts as charged, each a fourth-degree felony. Those convictions centered on ballots cast in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and Broward County, Florida, during the 2020 and 2022 general elections.
How the Double Voting Happened
Court documents cited by FindLaw, quoting the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals, lay out the timeline: Saunders cast an early in-person vote in Ohio on October 21, 2020, then voted in person again in Broward County, Florida, on November 3, 2020. Two years later, he voted by mail in Broward County and in person in Shaker Heights during the November 2022 general election, the same court record shows.
At trial, Saunders's assistant public defender, Scott Hurley, told the judge the double voting was a mistake, arguing his client had owned property and been registered to vote in both states for years. Prosecutor Andrew Rogalski countered that voting twice in consecutive general elections undercut any claim the conduct was accidental. Judge Santoli sided with the prosecution, saying an enhanced sentence was warranted because Saunders was an attorney and should have known better.
Sentence Overturned, Then Revised Again
Santoli initially sentenced Saunders to two consecutive 18-month prison terms, an aggregate of three years, according to court records on CourtListener. The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office separately reported that Saunders was sentenced to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine for voting twice in both the 2020 and 2022 elections, as stated in a release from the office.
The Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed Saunders's convictions but vacated his prison sentences, finding that Santoli had overstepped his authority by imposing a harsher sentence and ordering resentencing to community-control sanctions. On remand, the trial court imposed six months in the Cuyahoga County Jail on each count, but the appellate court later ruled that running those jail terms consecutively was contrary to law, per the court record.
How Common Is Double Voting in Ohio?
Saunders's case is far from isolated, but it remains statistically rare. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose's office identified 18 incidents in which people voted in Ohio and another state during the 2018 general election, with ten of those cases involving a second ballot cast in Ohio and referred for investigation, according to WOSU Public Media. LaRose described voter fraud and voter suppression alike as exceedingly rare and certainly not systemic, the station reported, noting those ten flagged cases amounted to roughly ten votes out of nearly five million cast that year.
A national review by the Brennan Center of the Heritage Foundation's fraud database found 749 cases involving almost 1,100 individuals nationwide, including 80 cases alleging double voting, and concluded that clerical errors and confusion are more often the culprit than intent to defraud. Ohio law is unambiguous on the underlying conduct regardless of intent: the Ohio Revised Code prohibits voting or attempting to vote more than once at the same election by any means, including voting by absentee ballot and by regular ballot at the polls.
