![Rep. David Cole [YouTube:WAVI screenshot]; the Cedar Springs home where Cole lived (left) and the home where he leased a 5x5 area for $5 (right), [YouTube:WAFF screenshots]](https://am22.mediaite.com/lc/cnt/uploads/2023/10/Rep.-David-Cole-YouTubeWAVI-screenshot-the-Cedar-Springs-home-where-Cole-lived-left-and-the-home-where-he-leased-a-5x5-area-for-5-right-YouTubeWAFF-screenshots.jpg)
Rep. David Cole [YouTube:WAVI screenshot]; the Cedar Springs home where Cole lived (left) and the home where he leased a 5×5 area for $5 (right), [YouTube:WAFF screenshots]
A 52-year-old former Republican state legislator in Alabama this week admitted to committing voter fraud in last year’s primary election, renting a space the size of a closet in another person’s home for $5 and using that address to run for office in a district where he did not live. David Wayne Cole on Tuesday pleaded guilty to one count of voting at an unauthorized polling place in the November 2022 election, authorities announced.
Madison County Circuit Court Judge D. Alan Mann subsequently ordered Cole to serve a split sentence of 60 days in a state jail followed by three years of supervised release. He is also required to pay $52,885.79 in restitution to the Alabama State General Fund. Cole’s sentence was the result of a plea agreement reached with state prosecutors and accepted by Judge Mann.
According to a press release from the Office of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, Cole won his election and was seated in the legislative chamber as the representative for House District 10 in November 2022, but was forced to resign the seat following his arrest in August 2023.
Prosecutors said that Cole in the summer of 2021 decided to seek election to the House of Representatives. At the time, Cole lived in a residence located in Cedar Springs, Alabama, that was a part of House District 10. However, he anticipated that due to impending redistricting, his home would be drawn into another district outside of House District 10 prior to the election.
Cole’s prediction was correct and his Cedar Springs home was redrawn into another district in late 2021.
In response, prosecutors say that Cole in mid-October 2021 asked a third party if he could lease a place “to sleep in” just in case he was unable to find a residence within the confines of the newly redrawn House District 10.
“In November 2021, Cole signed a lease requiring him to pay $5 per month for a 5×5 area,” prosecutors wrote in the release. “He then certified his ‘new residence’ via an online voter registration update with the Alabama Secretary of State. The evidence in this case reflects that Cole never made any attempt to move into the home, nor did he ever eat or sleep in the leased space.”
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In fact, Cole only visited the address two times and had not even “stepped past the entry foyer” on either occasion, the plea agreement states.
While running in the May 2022 primary election for District 10, Cole voted in the election via absentee ballot using the address of the 5 x 5 area he was “renting.” He similarly voted in person in the June runoff election using the address of the home where he did not reside.
“In the weeks before the primary election, and in response to media questions about his residency, Cole provided an altered copy of his lease which specified that Cole was renting the ‘house’ rather than a ‘5 x 5 area,”” the release states. “Cole also provided another lease for an apartment he obtained on or about September 1, 2022. Cole completed another online voter registration update on October 17, 2022, in which he certified that he resided at that apartment, and then voted in the general election in November 2022 at a polling place in which he was not authorized to vote.”
Just weeks later, Cole claimed a county property tax break in which he certified that he had been residing in the Cedar Springs house — which is outside of District 10 — since Oct. 1, 2022.
Under Alabama state law, candidates for office are required to live within the district in which they are running for at least one year prior to the election.
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