Election Fraud Cases

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

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

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

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

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

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

Steven Curtis

Steven Curtis, the former head of the Colorado Republican Party, was charged with a misdemeanor election mail-in ballot offense, as well as one count of forgery of a public record. It was revealed through handwriting analysis that Curtis forged his ex-wife's name on her ballot and mailed it in. He was found guilty and sentenced to four years probation and 300 hours of community service.

Source: https://herit.ag/2UV4aj5, https://herit.ag/3ArntjL

Toni Lee Newbill

Toni Lee Newbill pleaded guilty to voting twice using her deceased father's name to do so, once in the 2013 general election and again in the Republican primary of 2016. Newbill was sentenced to 18 months of unsupervised probation and 30 hours of community service, and was ordered to pay a $500 fine and additional court fees.

Source: dpo.st/2owWxOA, bit.ly/2q8FKBj, bit.ly/2pjbYHd

Alba Esperanza Fernandez

Alba Fernandez successfully registered to vote using the name Bunny Kohn, a false name. Fernandez voted under the false alias three times by absentee ballot in 2016. She also voted three times under her legal name, once in-person and twice by absentee ballot. She pleaded no contest to three counts of casting more than one ballot in an election and one count of submitting false voter registration information, which are all felony charges. Fernandez was sentenced to 4 years of probation and fined $518.

Source: bit.ly/32HyUI9 , bit.ly/3etHUTM , bit.ly/3ExHpm7

Deszi Marquis Hayes

Deszi Marquis Hayes, an inmate at the Indian River County Jail, voted by mail from jail during the 2016 election. Hayes was serving a nine-month sentence following a felony traffic conviction, and Florida state law does not permit convicted felons to vote. Nevertheless, Hayes was able to request and cast a ballot because the process to remove him from the voter rolls had not yet been completed.

Source: https://herit.ag/2UWDyOT, https://herit.ag/374fYlS

Gladys Coego

Gladys Coego, a temporary worker in the Miami-Dade County elections department during the November 2016 election, pleaded guilty to filling out the mail-in ballots of other voters in favor of Republican mayoral candidate Raquel Regalado. While she admitted to altering the ballots of at least two individuals, detectives believe that Coego likely fraudulently marked numerous other absentee ballots. She was sentenced to two years of house arrest.

Source: https://herit.ag/3zBqY6e, https://herit.ag/3x7DMQ8

Anthony Grant

Former Eatonville Mayor Anthony Grant was convicted of a felony voting fraud charge, a felony election violation, and misdemeanor absentee voting violations. During the 2015 election while he was running for election, he coerced absentee voters to cast ballots for him. In at least one case, Grant personally solicited an absentee vote from a non-resident of Eatonville. Grant, who had previously served as mayor, lost the in-person vote, but still won the election with more than twice the number of absentee ballots than were cast for incumbent Bruce Mount. Following his indictment, Grant was suspended by Florida Governor Rick Scott. He was sentenced to 400 hours of community service and four years' probation.

Source: https://herit.ag/3nub8px, https://herit.ag/3mfSQJt

Mia Antoinette Nowells

Mia Antoinette Nowells, a campaign worker for former Eatonville Mayor Anthony Grant, was found guilty of coercing Layota Jackson to vote for Grant in the 2015 election. Nowells was charged with intimidating voters and tampering with absentee ballots. She was sentenced to two years' probation and 200 hours of community service.

Source: https://herit.ag/3f2Sx0u, https://herit.ag/3rDnnSu, bit.ly/2sAF7PP