Election Fraud Cases

Lizaida Camis

Lizaida Camis, of Hoboken, acted illegally by attempting to bribe voters with $50 to send in mail-in ballots to support candidate (and longtime Hoboken political player) Frank “Pupie” Raia for a seat on the Hoboken City Council and a rent-control referendum during the 2013 Hoboken municipal election. Camis was charged with and pleaded guilty to one count of use of the mails to promote a voter bribery scheme. She was sentenced to six months’ probation and fined $100.

Source: bit.ly/3gusDEn , bit.ly/3v4OdDr

Bert Goldfinger

Bert Goldfinger voted twice in the 2013 general election - by absentee ballot in Columbia County, and in person in New York City. At the time, Goldfinger was a dentist in New York who maintained a summer home in Columbia County. Goldfinger initially faced two felony charges for knowingly filing a false instrument and illegal voting, but as part of a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. Goldfinger was ordered to pay a fine and surcharge of $225 and complete 20 hours of community service.

Source: https://herit.ag/3i9ua3k

Ronald Henry

Ronald Henry, a 2015 candidate for trustee in Luther, Oklahoma, brought several absentee ballots to be notarized by Mayor Cecilia Taft. It is illegal for a ballot to be notarized without the person signing being present. Ronald Henry entered an Alford plea to the charges and received a five-year deferred sentence.

Source: https://herit.ag/2UV40rZ, https://herit.ag/2WqERpI

Betty Best

Betty Best, of Monroe County, conspired with Brian "Wormy" Hodge to buy votes for Randy White's campaign for Sheriff. White narrowly won the race, but was subsequently removed from the post. The pair paid between $20 and $40 per vote. Both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to buy votes, mainly absentee ballots. Best was sentenced to three years of probation.

Source: https://herit.ag/2Ww4gOV, https://herit.ag/3tTpFy1

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

Cynthia Gonzalez

Cynthia Gonzalez, of Nueces County, marked and mailed ballots that were not her own in the 2016 Nueces County Democratic Primary. Gonzalez pleaded guilty to three charges of election code violations and was sentenced to serve five days in the San Patricio County Jail.

Source: https://herit.ag/3rCeZ5C, https://herit.ag/3y4jpVk, https://herit.ag/3zKbEUP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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