Skid Row forgeries, illegal votes and a mayoral candidate: Election fraud cases pile up nationwide
The Trump administration continues to crack down on voter fraud cases, including a noncitizen who allegedly voted in a mayoral race he was fraudulently registered for and a noncitizen arrested for allegedly lying about her citizenship to vote in federal elections.
These allegations span a slate of federal election-related cases highlighted by the Justice Department in recent days, adding to a series of prosecutions targeting noncitizen voting, fraudulent voter registrations and other alleged election-related crimes.
The DOJ's latest announcements involve California, Kansas, Louisiana, Texas and Massachusetts, while federal prosecutors have brought a number of other cases across the country in recent weeks amid the Trump administration's broader efforts to bolster election security ahead of the midterms.
The White House pointed to the new cases that continue to pile up as evidence supporting the administration's crackdown.
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"Despite extreme Democrats and the media claiming it never happens, the evidence of noncitizens registering and voting in our elections continues to pile up," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. "Any noncitizens found registering and voting in our elections will be arrested and held accountable. Only Americans should be electing American leaders."
The more than a dozen defendants charged in cases announced this week face allegations ranging from illegal voting and false claims of U.S. citizenship to fraudulent voter registration and identity fraud. U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche warned that individuals "gaming the election system, voting illegally or committing voter fraud" will face prosecution, while federal prosecutors in Texas said their seven cases "send a clear message" that laws barring noncitizens from voting will be enforced.
Among the defendants were Louisiana mayoral candidate Bridget Johnson, who prosecutors allege fraudulently registered Jamaican noncitizen Michael Wedderburn before he voted in the 2024 federal election and the same mayoral race in which Johnson was a candidate. Johnson allegedly electronically submitted a Louisiana voter registration application in Wedderburn's name on July 14, 2024, falsely stating that he was a U.S. citizen, according to court documents.
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Johnson was charged with fraudulent voter registration and voting by an alien, while Wedderburn was charged with voting by an alien. If convicted, Johnson faces up to five years in prison, while Wedderburn faces up to one year, along with potential financial penalties, according to federal prosecutors.
Other cases announced this week included allegations against three people in California accused in an alleged scheme that used stolen identities of registered voters to manufacture signatures on ballot initiative petitions.
California frequently uses ballot initiatives to put major policy questions directly before voters, with citizen-backed measures capable of changing state law or amending the state constitution. Recent initiatives have included Proposition 36, which increased penalties for certain drug and theft crimes, and measures dealing with the minimum wage and rent control.
Prosecutors allege James Brass and Courtney Price went to Los Angeles' Skid Row, where they handed people stolen identities belonging to registered California voters and paid them to copy those voters' personal information onto ballot petitions and forge their signatures.
Brass and a third defendant, Jateisha Herron, then allegedly falsely certified that they had personally witnessed the registered voters sign the petitions. Brass allegedly received about $41,600 from coordinators working with a petition-management company helping collect signatures, according to prosecutors.
The case is the second election-related federal prosecution announced this year involving alleged payments to people on Skid Row. In May, federal prosecutors charged a longtime ballot initiative signature collector with paying individuals, including homeless people living on Skid Row, to register to vote.
In Kansas, prosecutors charged 24-year-old Peruvian national and U.S. permanent resident Mariana Alexandra Dewey with falsely claiming U.S. citizenship, fraudulent election conduct and voting as an alien in a federal election after arresting her earlier this month.
In Massachusetts, federal prosecutors announced a case this week against Nigerian national Gladys Adaeze Okafor, who allegedly claimed to be a U.S. citizen while registering to vote before casting ballots in multiple federal elections.
A handful of cases were announced by federal prosecutors in Texas this week as well, including multiple cases where individuals registered to vote illegally when applying for a Texas driver's license. On the same day those defendants were indicted, a Mexican national was also sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for aggravated identity theft, false statements of citizenship, and illegal voting by an alien, according to federal officials.
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The cases add to the growing list of federal election-related cases brought in the past few weeks on top of other prosecutions earlier this year involving noncitizens accused of illegally registering or voting in U.S. elections. Less than two weeks ago, the Justice Department charged five people in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Wisconsin in cases involving alleged illegal voting or fraudulent registration tied to the 2022 or 2024 elections.
The DOJ separately charged an Indian national in Minnesota last week with falsely claiming U.S. citizenship in order to vote in the 2024 general election.
Despite the mounting prosecutions, the Trump administration also faced a setback this week in its efforts to boost election security.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) could not implement the president's stricter mail ballot requirements for the 2026 elections, leaving a lower court's nationwide injunction in place. The blocked rules would have required states to use specially designed mail ballot envelopes with unique voter barcodes, submit envelope designs to USPS for review and provide it with information about intended ballot recipients.
The ruling, however, did not block a separate part of Trump's March executive order directing the federal government to create citizenship lists for states to use in checking their voter rolls.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was appointed by Trump, agreed the rules should not take effect for this year's elections, writing that state and local officials did not have sufficient time to reasonably implement them.
Nonetheless, Kavanaugh said there was "at least a fair prospect" that the Postal Service ultimately has the statutory authority to impose the requirements. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.
Trump blasted the decision Tuesday as another "bad decision" from the Supreme Court and praised Alito and Thomas as "legends," while arguing the ruling would make cheating through mail ballots easier.