Donald Trump's campaign CEO is registered to vote at an abandoned rental house he never lived in

(Image credit: Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)

last updated 26 August 2016

When Donald Trump suggested that the 2016 election might be "rigged," he probably wasn't thinking about his new campaign CEO, Stephen Bannon, who, The Guardian reports, is registered to vote in the key swing state of Florida using the address of a vacant house he never lived in. Bannon has an active voter registration in Miami-Dade County, with the address for a condemned house that was abandoned a few months ago by one of his ex-wives, Diane Clohesy, according to neighbors who say they have never seen Bannon at the house. (Clohesy herself also appears to be registered illegally in neighboring Broward County.)

Bannon owns a house in Orange County, California, which is reputedly his primary residence, and co-owns a Los Angeles condo, though he also claims to live in the "Breitbart embassy" in Washington, D.C., a $2.4 million townhouse owned by an Egyptian businessman named Mostafa El-Gindy, The Guardian says. Florida requires people to be legal residents of the county and state where they are registered to vote, with the Florida secretary of state's office defining legal residency as the place "where a person mentally intends to make his or her permanent residence." In Florida, willfully submitting false information on your voter registration is a third-degree felony.

"Bannon is executive chairman of the rightwing website Breitbart News, which has for years aggressively claimed that voter fraud is rife among minorities and in Democratic-leaning areas," The Guardian notes. Neither Bannon nor Clohesy responded to The Guardian's request for comment, though Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller said "Mr. Bannon moved to another location in Florida," without elaborating. This at least wouldn't appear to be a case of double-voting, though: Bannon gave up his California registration in 2014. You can read more at The Guardian, or about Bannon's alleged physical abuse and threats against another ex-wife at Politico and the New York Post.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.