Federal prosecutors have charged two Ukrainian nationals with illegally casting ballots in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. According to the Justice Department, 53-year-old Svitlana Demydenko and her 22-year-old daughter, Yelyzaveta Demydenko, voted in Palm Beach, Florida, on October 31, 2024. The pair appeared Tuesday in federal court in West Palm Beach.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem publicly celebrated the charges, crediting the Department of Government Efficiency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for their role in the investigation. “Under President Donald Trump, if you come to our country and break our laws, you will face the consequences,” Noem wrote on social media.
The DOJ stated that the women lawfully entered the United States in April 2021 on non-immigrant visas issued during the Biden administration. In August 2024, they registered to vote in Florida using a system that requires individuals to certify U.S. citizenship — a requirement neither woman met.
Their case follows a string of similar incidents involving foreign nationals voting in U.S. elections. Just one day prior, federal prosecutors announced charges against Akeel Abdul Jamiel, a 45-year-old Iraqi national accused of unlawfully voting in the 2020 presidential election in Saratoga County, New York.
The recent charges come weeks after the House passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act on April 10. The legislation would require states to verify citizenship before registering voters for federal elections and mandate the removal of all non-citizens from existing voter rolls.
Authorities in Michigan also revealed last fall that a Chinese national had unlawfully registered and cast a ballot in the 2024 general election. Separately, two illegal migrants — Angelica Maria Francisco of Guatemala and Carlos Abreu of the Dominican Republic — pleaded guilty to assuming the identities of American citizens in order to vote in U.S. elections.
