2 weeks Ago
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has officially cast his ballot for president in the 2024 election. The former president was able to cast his ballot in Florida on Election Day, despite being a convicted felon , thanks to a quirk in Florida law. Florida is one of nine states where felons lose their ability to vote permanently when convicted .
But the state does have an asterisk for out-of-state convictions. If a voter has been convicted in another state, Florida defers to that state's laws on whether that felon can legally cast a ballot. Trump was convicted in Manhattan earlier this year on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
In New York, felons can vote as long as they're not incarcerated at the time of the election. For Trump, that means that he was able to cast his ballot in Palm Beach alongside his wife Melania Trump, without difficulty. Trump, who is the only former U.
S. president to be convicted of a felony, faces sentencing on Nov. 26 , although that sentencing could be held off indefinitely if he wins the presidential election.
Speaking to reporters outside his voting precinct, Trump didn't acknowledge the felony conviction, and said he had no plans to tell his supporters to refrain from violence should he lose — notable because Trump also faces a felony case related to his role in the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S.
Capitol by his supporters after losing the first time in 2020. “I don’t have to tell them,” because they “are not violent people,” he said. The former president also didn't offer promises to acknowledge the results of the election regardless of the outcome, a mainstay of healthy democratic transfers of power.
“If it’s a fair election, I’d be the first one to acknowledge,” the results, Trump said, though what meets that definition wasn’t clear. Trump later visited his Florida campaign office to thank supporters. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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