Alleged illegal voter case dropped by state attorney

Aug 07, 2023

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A man charged with fraudulently casting ballots in 2020 won’t face trial because the office of local State Attorney Phil Archer mistakenly dropped the case.

WESH 2 Investigates first brought you the story last year of Christopher Moye being charged with voting illegally in 2020. He seemed surprised to hear that when a Seminole County sheriff's detective called to tell him before his arrest.

He said he was under the impression that a law was passed for convicted felons to vote. Moye was referring to Amendment 4, passed in 2018, that restored the voting rights of most former felons.

But sex offenders and murderers are excluded. And Moye is a registered sex offender. So, why did the office of State Attorney Phil Archer drop its case against Moye filing a "no prosecution" last October?

Because Moye was listed as "deceased" by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Sexual Offender & Predator System and the Department of Motor Vehicles.

But Moye is not dead. In fact, it was his father who died last year on Aug. 19, 2022, according to Assistant Public Defender Jef Dowdy. So, why did two state agencies list the defendant as deceased?

A spokesperson for State Attorney Archer says, "It is our understanding that those state agencies (FDLE/FLHSMV) utilize information provided by the Department of Health that a person is deceased."

The sheriff’s office was notified Sept. 1, 2022, that Moye was dead so that it could update the FDLE sex offender database. An email from the sheriff's office in Orange County, where Moye was living, states, "It appears that the Department of Health incorrectly reported Mr. Moye as deceased."

Because the state dropped the case, and FDLE didn't discover the mistake until Feb. 24 of this year, according to Dana Kelly, FDLE spokeswoman. Moye's right to a speedy trial expired in January, and he cannot be re-charged with illegal voting.

“I don't want to see this happening in the future, where someone is not held accountable,” Chris Anderson, Seminole County elections supervisor, said.

Anderson says he hopes the office of State Attorney Archer verifies reports of deceased defendants in the future before dropping their cases.

“I don't know where the mistake happened in the process, but we need to fix it! And you know we have to make sure these folks don't vote if they are not eligible, and if they are eligible, we need to make sure that they do vote,” Anderson said.

The state attorney spokesperson says, "In light of this discovery, our office will also pursue obtaining a certified death certificate as confirmation when disposing of a criminal case due to the death of the offender."

We went to Moye's Orlando home and left a message on his phone with no response.

WESH 2 Investigates reached out to the state health department to learn more about how this mistake happened. We'll update our story once we hear back.

Neither the State Attorney nor Public Defender's offices will comment further on Moye's elections case because he is still facing a charge of failing to report a change of address, which is required of registered sex offenders in Florida.