The Northern Virginia doctor knows at least that much about his situation. He knows he is no longer considered a citizen of the United States — the place where he was born, went to school and has practiced medicine for more than 30 years — and that he also belongs to no other place.
A letter from a State Department official informed him that he should not have been granted citizenship at the time of his birth because his father was a diplomat with the Embassy of Iran. The letter directed Sobhani to a website where he could apply for lawful permanent residence.
The factual elements of crimes usually have an associated mental state, called mens rea (Latin for ‘guilty mind’) in law. For example, intentionally taking something that isn’t yours is theft, but accidentally taking something that isn’t yours (perhaps because the thing looks just like your thing) is not theft. Unintentional acts can still be crimes; recklessly killing someone is manslaughter in most jurisdictions.
The mens rea given in the Federal voter fraud statute is “knowingly and willfully”, which is obviously not the case here.