{"id":130394,"date":"2026-03-05T14:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/130394\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T14:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:54:08","slug":"bethlehem-man-convicted-of-voter-fraud-in-2020-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/130394\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem man convicted of voter fraud in 2020 election"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Bethlehem man was found guilty Wednesday of election fraud for voting twice in the 2020 presidential election, according to authorities.<\/p>\n<p>Matthew Laiss, 32, used a mail-in ballot to vote in the election Bucks County, and also voted in-person in Florida, where he had moved to, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>Laiss, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcall.com\/2025\/09\/05\/bethlehem-man-faces-federal-charges-for-voting-twice-in-2020-election-u-s-attorneys-office-says\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who was charged in September,<\/a> was found guilty on charges of voting more than once in a federal election and one count of voter fraud.<\/p>\n<p>Laiss lived in Tinicum Township from October 2012 until August 2020, before moving to Frostproof, Florida. Before moving to Florida, he requested a mail-in ballot from the Bucks County Board of Elections. That ballot was sent to his former Bucks County home, where his parents lived, court documents state.<\/p>\n<p>He filled out that ballot days before the 2020 election, then voted in-person at a polling location in Florida. He registered there shortly after moving there, according to authorities.<\/p>\n<p>In a September 2024 interview with federal agents, Laiss admitted to voting twice, but said he did so because he wanted to make sure his vote counted, court documents state. He claimed it was a mistake.<\/p>\n<p>Laiss, who voted for President Donald Trump twice during that election, argued that Trump\u2019s pardon of allies who attempted to overturn his 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcall.com\/2025\/12\/09\/federal-judge-in-allentown-appears-open-to-pardon-argument-in-pa-voter-fraud-cause\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">loss should apply to him as well, according to court filings.<\/a> He argued that his case should be dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>His attorneys wrote that this pardon, which states individuals would get a full pardon for \u201cvoting\u2026. or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of Presidential electors,\u201d and that the pardon should apply to him.<\/p>\n<p>Federal prosecutors argued that his argument should be taken to the office of the pardon attorney, and that he could not petition the trial court to \u201ccircumvent\u201d he agency tasked with issuing pardons. The presiding federal judge agreed, and denied the motion.<\/p>\n<p>Laiss will be sentenced in June.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bethlehem man was found guilty Wednesday of election fraud for voting twice in the 2020 presidential election,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,153,46,182,139,434,28,432],"class_list":["post-130394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-bethlehem","tag-courts","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-northampton-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}