Election Fraud Cases

Donnie Newsome

Knott County Judge-Executive Donnie Newsome was convicted of conspiracy to buy votes and vote buying in the May 1998 Knott County primary election. He was sentenced to 26 months in prison and fined $20,000.

Source: https://herit.ag/3zHp5oF

Willard Smith

Willard Smith was convicted of conspiracy to buy votes and vote buying in the May 1998 Knott County primary election. He was accused of paying impoverished, handicapped, illiterate, or otherwise impaired persons to vote for Knott County Judge-Executive Donnie Newsome by absentee ballot. Smith was sentenced to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Source: https://herit.ag/2XLMGqR, https://herit.ag/3BPBIzN

Tyrell Matthews Braud

Tyrell Matthews Braud pleaded guilty to federal charges of making false statements to a grand jury in connection with his 2002 fabrication of 11 voter registration applications.

Source: https://herit.ag/375VMjf

Elberta Brown, Leon Hunt, and Tobe Jackson

Elberta Brown, Leon Hunt, and Tobe Jackson pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted bribery in connection with their involvement in a vote-buying scheme surrounding a 2001 special election for Benton County Sheriff. All three engaged in vote-buying by offering $30 to individuals in an attempt to influence them to vote for Steven A. Thompson, a candidate in that election. Three of the individuals who received the money were undercover law enforcement officers. The investigations indicated that they tried to bribe upwards of 50 people on election day. All three faced a maximum sentence of six years in prison and a $3,000 fine.

Source: https://herit.ag/3BLm2xE

Joshua Workman

Joshua Workman, a Canadian citizen who was one of the youngest delegates to the 2000 Republican National Convention, was charged by the Department of Justice with casting ineligible votes during the 2000 and 2002 primary and general elections in Avery County. He made false statements claiming U.S. citizenship in order to vote. As part of a plea agreement, Workman pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge of providing false information to election officials and subsequently returned to Canada.

Source: https://herit.ag/2UTbYSA, bit.ly/2fmg7FW

Ronald Callaway

Ronald Callaway, also known as Jihad Q. Abdullah, and related to the infamous Atlantic City Callaway Political Organization, pleaded guilty to voting nine times in four elections. He was sentenced to one year in jail.

Source: https://herit.ag/3EAcmHv, https://herit.ag/3Aq8CGk

Terence John Finch

Terence John Finch pleaded guilty to unqualified voting. He voted in Oregon for several years while not a U.S. citizen. He was sentenced to probation, 80 hours' community service, and fined $1,000.

Source: https://herit.ag/3eZZf7i

Mark Cosentino

Mark Cosentino pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful voting. Cosentino registered to vote, and voted, in his childhood hometown despite not living there. He was sentenced to six months' probation.

Source: https://herit.ag/3x2sZ9W, https://herit.ag/3zIBQiU, https://herit.ag/39iPePA

Nathaniel Gosha and Lizzie Mae Perry

Nathaniel Gosha was convicted of 25 counts (nine felony counts of falsifying ballots and 16 counts of second-degree possession of a forged instrument) of voter fraud for offering to sell absentee votes in Russell County. Another Russell County resident, Lizzie Mae Perry, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of falsifying absentee ballots and two misdemeanor counts of disclosing votes. Gosha was sentenced to 180 days in jail, 4.5 years of probation, and $2,600 in court fines. Perry was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 18 months' probation.

Source: https://herit.ag/3BLlLe6

Larry Gray

Larry Gray was charged with illegally casting more than 25 absentee ballots in other people's names during the 2002 primary, but the sum total of his election fraud may have been much higher. The former sanitation director for the city applied for hundreds of ballots, successfully submitting 98 in the Democratic primary. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Gray was likely not the only one running this type of scheme. After pleading guilty, Gray received two years' probation.

Source: https://herit.ag/2TIUXKo, https://herit.ag/3l2K6WU, https://herit.ag/3x2sVHe

Edward Barquet and Michelle Corrall

Working as GOP voter registration employees during the 2000 general election, Edward Barquet and his girlfriend, Michelle Corrall, sought to capitalize on a $4 bounty for each Republican voter successfully registered. The pair submitted multiple fraudulent registrations, which included false information and forged signatures. Following their guilty pleas, a judge sentenced each of them to serve four months in jail and pay a $220 fine, followed by five years' probation.

Source: https://herit.ag/3x2sOvi

Lincoln Carmouche

Lincoln Carmouche was convicted of voter fraud in the Marksville mayoral race for bribing a voter. He was sentenced to two years in prison, which was suspended, and two years of supervised probation. He was also fined $2,050 and ordered to perform 64 hours of community service.

Source: https://herit.ag/3l3BRcT

Linda Deren

Linda Deren pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful voting.

Source: bit.ly/2uefNTk, bit.ly/2uMnMEr

Paul Frankel and James Gurga

Paul Frankel and his accomplice, James Gurga, used a "bait and switch" technique. They had a fake petition that called for lowering gas taxes which they kept on the top of their clipboards at Lloyd Center Mall in Portland. After people signed it, they would tell them that they had to "verify" their signature by signing all the pages underneath. What the signers didn't know is that they had fooled them into unwittingly signing real petitions. Frankel and Gurga pleaded guilty to fraud charges and election law violations.

Source: https://herit.ag/3rCNA3o, https://herit.ag/2Wi1igA, https://herit.ag/3ymcwz3, (Case #011137476)

Asa Steven Large

Asa Large registered and voted in Wasa and Hood River counties during three elections between 1997_99. He was charged and found guilty of double-voting, a Class C felony. He received 36 months' probation, 250 hours of community service and a $1,328 fine. He was also ordered to take a civics class and send a letter of apology to the editor of The Dalles Chronicle.

Source: https://herit.ag/2UMEi9m, https://herit.ag/3i3oasK