A federal jury has found a former Bucks County man double voted in the 2020 election rejecting an earlier defense that the crime was covered under a Trump pardon of other defendants who attempted to overturn the election.
The jury found Matthew Laiss, 32, of Bethlehem, guilty of felony charges of voter fraud and voting more than once in a federal election on March 4 following a two day trial in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Leeson Jr. deferred sentencing of Laiss until June so a presentencing investigation and report could be prepared.
Laiss, who is free on bail, faces a potential maximum five-year federal prison sentence, three years of supervised parole and a fine of $10,000 to $250,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Leeson also denied a defense motion seeking an acquittal for Laiss that his federal public defender sought on the grounds the government failed to prove her client intended to commit voter fraud.
Laiss never denied that he voted twice in the election, according to court documents.
During a visit to his parent’s Ottsville home in October 2020, Laiss acknowledged he filled out and returned a mail-in ballot for the November General Election the Bucks County Board of Elections sent him.
When he returned to Florida, where he moved two months earlier, he voted in person on Nov. 3, 2020. Both times he voted for Donald Trump, the prosecution alleged.
Laiss is currently registered to vote in Bethlehem, Northampton County, according to the Pennsylvania voter rolls.
When FBI agents interviewed Laiss in September 2024 about his double vote, he told them he didn’t know which one was “going to count,” and he didn’t intend to defraud or “do anything intentionally wrong,” according to the petition seeking his acquittal. He was charged in September.
Earlier this year, Leeson rejected a defense motion that Laiss’ crimes were covered under a November pardon that Trump issued.
The president pardoned 77 people involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election outcome, including his legal team and the so-called fake electors who attempted to submit alternative slates of electoral votes to Congress on Trump’s behalf.
The defense argued the pardon also stated that Trump was granting “a full, complete, and unconditional pardon to all United States citizens” for conduct related to the 2020 election, and Laiss was covered under the “plain language” of the document.
But Leeson found the decision whether someone is eligible for a certificate of pardon rests with the Office of the Pardon Attorney, not the courts, so he had no jurisdiction.
The judge also noted that the November pardon specifically mentioned the Office of the Pardon Attorney was part of the review process, and Laiss had not applied or received a certificate of pardon.
