Voter Fraud Report

John "Jack" Burkman, and his partner, Jacob Wohl, (both Republican operatives) were involved in a robocall phone scheme in which thousands of calls were made in the name of a non-existent group called Project 1599 to voters in Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois urging voters not to vote by mail during the summer of 2020. The robocalls, which were designed to suppress the vote in predominantly black communities, falsely stated that voting by mail could lead to voter information being harvested by law enforcement, debt collectors, and other government agencies to enforce outstanding warrants and collect outstanding debts. They were sued, along with their lobbying firm (J.M. Burkman & Associates), by the New York Attorney General, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, and several individual victims, and subsequently entered into a consent decree in which they agreed to pay the up to $1.25 million to the victims and to the State of New York. The Federal Communications Commission also issued a $5,134,500 penalty against Wohl, Burkman, and their lobbying firm related to the robocall scheme. Wohl and Burkman also pleaded guilty to criminal charges in Ohio (see entry in Ohio) and are currently facing charges in Michigan for their robocall scheme.