Tennessee prosecutors charged 10 people with voter fraud last week after they allegedly registered and voted despite being legally ineligible to do so.
The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office secured grand jury indictments against the 10 Clarksville, Tennessee, residents with past felony convictions who are ineligible to vote in the state. These people registered and voted anyway, according to prosecutors.
As explained in my book “The Myth of Voter Suppression,” federal law requires states to “conduct a general program that makes a reasonable effort to remove” from the official voter rolls “the names of ineligible voters.” This could include convicted felons who lost their voting rights as well as those who died or changed residences.
Here is an adapted excerpt from the book that looks at six notable and, in some cases, comical examples of voter registration scandals that dispel the Left’s myth that vote fraud doesn’t exist.
1. 25,000 Ineligible Voters in California
In 2018, the California state government admitted—after it was sued—that it mistakenly registered about 25,000 ineligible voters.
An example of this came after a Canadian, who was a permanent U.S. resident, contacted the Los Angeles Times to say he was improperly registered under the state’s automatic voter registration system.
Then-Secretary of State Alex Padilla said “persistent errors” like these would “undermine public confidence.”
2. Big Apple Sting
In 2013, the New York City Department of Investigations called for the New York City Board of Elections to clean up its voter rolls after a sting operation of sorts.
The 63 city investigators went to the polls signing in with the names of dead people or people who had moved out of the city, or signing in as convicted felons no longer eligible to vote.
Of those, 61 were cleared to vote. However, no illegal votes were cast.
3. Running in Maryland While Voting in Florida?
In Maryland, Wendy Rosen won the Democratic 1st Congressional District primary by defeating John LaFerla by 57 votes to win the right to challenge Republican Congressman Andy Harris in 2012.
However, she was forced to drop out two months before the November election when some Democrats pointed out that she had voted in both Florida and Maryland in 2006 and 2010. She had duplicate registrations and double voted. She was fined $5,000 and sentenced to 500 hours of community service.
4. ACORN Scandal
In a 2008 case, Seattle workers with the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, or ACORN, submitted 1,762 fraudulent voter registration forms.
ACORN leader Clifton Mitchell was convicted of false registration and served about three months in jail. Four other ACORN colleagues got jail time as well. Washington state also fined ACORN $25,000 to cover the cost of the investigation.
Then-Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed said, “This is the worst case of voter registration fraud in the history of the state of Washington.”
5. Lone Star Voting Troubles
In 2021, police reported catching Zul Mirza Mohamed—a candidate for mayor of Carrollton, Texas—in the act of stuffing envelopes with Dallas County absentee ballot applications.
But his activities allegedly ran even deeper. Investigators determined the candidate forged at least 84 voter registration forms. The Texas Attorney General’s Office charged him with 84 counts of mail ballot fraud.
6. Living in a UPS Store?
In 2021, former Republican Congressman Steve Watkins of Kansas cut a deal to avoid going to trial over voter fraud, saying that he would remain law abiding and pay a $250 fine.
Watkins was charged in 2020 for listing a UPS Store as his voting address and then voting in the wrong Topeka City Council race.
Prosecutors also charged him with interfering with law enforcement and for lying to Shawnee County detectives.
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