‘Wightman is an illegal alien from the United Kingdom’, said FDLE officials. A British pensioner is in custody in Florida accused of illegally voting six times in elections over three years, authorities in the Sunshine State allege. The Brit has a colorful track record, as authorities shared he was voluntarily deported from the U.S. in 1989 for a drug offense arrest in Hawaii and was found to have overstayed on his visitor visa.
Authorities offered the man voluntary deportation that year instead of a formal deportation proceeding, said the release. But FDLE investigators allege that Wightman returned to the U.S. Thirteen years later, Wightman “presented a fictitious Ohio birth certificate to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles” when he went to renew his Florida Driver’s License.
According to The Ohio Department of Health, there was no trace of a birth certificate for Wightman under the biographical information he provided on the certificate at the time. Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd said: “Florida leads the nation in election security, and we continue to aggressively enforce our laws to stop non-citizens from voting.
“Under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis, The Florida Department of State Office of Election Crimes and Security swiftly reviews allegations of fraud working with FDLE and law enforcement to ensure Florida laws are followed.”. Wightman was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and is scheduled to be prosecuted by the Office of the State Attorney, 11th Judicial Circuit, according to the FDLE.
