MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Authorities say a British national deported from the U.S. more than three decades ago made his way back at some point — and, while living in the country illegally, voted in six recent South Florida elections, leading to his arrest Friday.
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Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents arrested James Ross Wightman, 65, of Miami Beach, on six counts of illegal voting. He was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Friday morning.
Miami-Dade voter records show that Wightman has been registered to vote since Nov. 1, 2000 and his address is listed as a South Beach apartment on Pennsylvania Avenue. He is registered as a no-party voter.
An FDLE news release states that Wightman was voluntarily deported from the U.S. in 1989 after a drug arrest in Hawaii. Authorities said after illegally returning to the country, he falsely affirmed that he was a citizen.
Authorities said he presented a fake Ohio birth certificate to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles in November 2013 while renewing his driver’s license. He “would then go on to illegally vote in six local and national elections in 2022, 2023 and 2024,” they said.
Authorities said the investigation into Wightman was carried out in conjunction with federal agencies and the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Office.
FDLE agents arrested Wightman in Miami Beach on Friday.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, whose office is prosecuting the case, said in a statement, in part, that there is “no excuse for such actions or conduct.”
Records show Wightman was in TGK on a $15,000 bond and an immigration hold as of Friday afternoon.