Election Fraud Cases

Miguel Hernandez

Miguel Hernandez visited an elderly woman shortly before the 2017 Dallas City Council election, collected her blank absentee ballot, filled it out, and forged her signature before mailing it back. Hernandez was the first person arrested as part of a larger voter fraud investigation in the Dallas area, stemming from claims by elderly voters that someone was forging their signatures and the return of nearly 700 mail-in ballots all signed by the same witness using a fake name. Hernandez faced a felony illegal voting charge, but pleaded to a lesser misdemeanor offense of "method of returning marked ballot." He was sentenced to 180 days in jail and given credit for time served.

Source: https://herit.ag/370axUW, https://herit.ag/3f1ZChS

Russ Casey

Russ Casey, a Texas Justice of the Peace, submitted false signatures in order to ensure his place on the Republican primary ballot during his 2018 reelection campaign. Casey withdrew and resigned following the revelation that he had falsified multiple petition signatures and falsely attested to having witnessed the signatures. Casey pleaded guilty to a charge of tampering with a government record, and received a suspended two-year prison sentence and five years of probation.

Source: https://herit.ag/371lVjt

Cassandra Amber Marie Ritter

Cassandra Ritter, a felon convicted on heroin distribution charges, cast a ballot despite being an ineligible voter due to her prior conviction. Ritter pleaded guilty and received a suspended two-year prison sentence and two years of supervised probation.

Source: https://herit.ag/3i71YxX

Richard Douglas Dohmen

Richard Douglas Dohmen, of James City County, committed voter fraud when he attempted to cast ballots for both himself and his dead wife in a 2018 state election. Dohmen was charged with forging public records and making false statements on required forms, and pleaded guilty to making false statements on required forms. He was sentenced to 1 year in the penitentiary, 3 years of unsupervised probation, and was ordered to pay a $458 fine.

Source: Case Number: CR19028447-00, https://herit.ag/3x2tbWI

Shaun Brown

Shaun Brown, a candidate for the Virginia 2nd Congressional District, was removed from the ballot in the lead-up to the 2018 election after a judge ruled that signatures on the petition to get her on the ballot had been forged. Brown, who ran and lost as a Democrat in 2016, was running as an Independent. Democrats in Virginia filed the suit against Brown, claiming that Republican incumbent Representative Scott Taylor's campaign hoped to get Brown on the ballot to bolster Taylor's own re-election chances. All of the petition signatures submitted by Taylor's staff were thrown out due to errors and forgeries. Brown appealed, but the Virginia Supreme Court upheld her removal from the ballot. An investigation into the alleged forgeries by Taylor campaign staff is ongoing. In the midst of the election drama, Brown was convicted on unrelated charges that she defrauded a federal program intended to serve summer meals to children.

Source: https://herit.ag/3l3HxUq, https://herit.ag/3xbrxC6, https://herit.ag/3zGQyXI

Peggy West

Peggy West, a former Milwaukee county supervisor, submitted false signatures on a petition to place her on the ballot for the spring 2018 election. According to the complaint filed against her, West forged the signatures of multiple residents within her district, and used a third party to collect other signatures despite the legal requirement that she collect them herself. She later falsely attested to have done so. West pleaded guilty to a charge of election fraud, and was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $2,500 fine.

Source: https://herit.ag/3rCeZm8, https://herit.ag/3zLzik7

Jeffrey Hartman

Jeffrey Hartman, a resident of Westminster, Maryland, illegally registered to vote in both Maryland and Morgan County, West Virginia, and cast ballots in both states nine times since 2006. Hartman pleaded guilty in West Virginia to illegal voting and was given a suspended 30-day jail sentence, was put on probation for one year, and ordered to pay a $100 fine and court costs.

Source: https://herit.ag/37508HC

Wetumpka City Council District 2

A judge overturned the preliminary election results and declared Lewis Washington as the winner in a contested Wetumpka City Council District 2 election. On election night, it appeared that Washington's opponent, Percy Gill, who was the incumbent, had won by three votes. Washington challenged the result, and following a trial in which live witnesses and forensics experts testified, the judge threw out eight absentee ballots that had been cast for Gill either because the signatures had been forged or they had not been notarized or signed in front of the requisite number of witnesses, and declared Washington to be the winner.

Source: https://herit.ag/3f4Fv2v, https://herit.ag/377vIV7

Brandon Dean

Brandon Dean, who was elected mayor of Brighton, Alabama in 2016, was ordered to vacate the office after a judge determined that 46 fraudulent abentee votes had been cast for him in the 2016 election. Of these ballots, 21 were not signed by the voter, 22 had been sent to Dean's address instead of the voters' homes, 2 absentee ballots were submitted by voters who were actually present at city hall on Election Day, and one did not live in Brighton city limits. Deducting the fraudulent votes dropped Dean's vote total below the threshold needed to avoid a mandatory runoff, which the city of Brighton must now hold.

Source: https://herit.ag/2WlR6DL, https://herit.ag/3x2hFL2

Ashley Drain Hampton

Ashley Drain Hampton falsified her address in order to appear on the ballot for the Manteca Unified school board elections in 2014. Hampton won her race, but resigned several months after charges were filed. In April 2017, a jury found Hampton guilty of charges that included not only multiple counts of election fraud, but also charges of perjury and defrauding the government in an effort to get more public assistance money than she was entitled to receive. In September of 2018, a judge sentenced Hampton to 15 months in jail, five years of probation, and ordered her to complete 200 hours of community service.

Source: https://herit.ag/3vKgOj8, https://herit.ag/3bcrVrz, https://herit.ag/3BWXVMC

Sam Fant

Sam Fant, a former Manteca Unified School District Trustee, pleaded no contest to a felony voter registration fraud charge. During the 2014 election, Fant provided false addresses to two Manteca school board candidates, Ashley Drain and Alexander Bronson, so they could run despite not meeting residency requirements. Both candidates won, but were ultimately forced to resign and were criminally convicted on election fraud charges. Fant, meanwhile, was sentenced to serve 120 days in county jail and was given five years of probation.

Source: bit.ly/2jMIz9B, bit.ly/2hSSo5w

Alexander Bronson

Alexander Bronson, former Trustee for Manteca Unified School District, California, pleaded guilty to charges of voter fraud. He listed a false address in order to qualify for candidacy in the November 2014 Manteca Unified School District Board of Education election. He resigned from office and is awaiting sentencing.

Source: https://herit.ag/3zLTLoV , https://herit.ag/3jDMv8T

Sarilu Sosa-Sanchez

Sarilu Sosa-Sanchez voted twice in the 2013 election, once in her own name and once in the name of her late mother. Sosa-Sanchez pleaded guilty to a felony forgery charge after admitting she forged her late mother's signature on a ballot. Sh also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor double voting charge. Sosa-Sanchez was sentenced to 60 hours of community service, was ordered to pay restitution and court fees, and will help the clerk and recorder's office educate other residents about the consequences of voter fraud.

Source: https://herit.ag/3nR7Tuo, https://herit.ag/2ZjLpIh, https://herit.ag/3kpHOAr

Angelo Felix Abad

Angelo Felix Abad forged at least one signature while circulating petitions to place a minimum wage increase on the 2016 ballot. He ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of felony forgery. He now faces a maximum possible sentence of up to six years' imprisonment, and was sentenced on April 7, 2017.

Source: https://herit.ag/3j9Za2v, bit.ly/2tMg8v4

Maureen Marie Moss

While working for Black Diamond Outreach, a Denver-based community outreach organization, Maureen Marie Moss forged 34 signatures on petitions she was circulating to get U.S. Senate candidate Jon Keyser on the ballot for the June 2016 primary. Moss ultimately pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to four years' probation on each count. She was also ordered to complete 250 hours of community service.

Source: https://herit.ag/371lOV5, https://herit.ag/3BIegol, https://herit.ag/3f1DZyg