Is Voter Fraud Real? - What is Election Fraud?

People pretend that voter fraud does not exist. However, voter fraud does exist, and there have been over 1071 proven instances of voter fraud with 938 criminal convictions. As a forensic accountant we are sometimes called in to = analyze data and help convict the perpetrators. Here are some cases that appear on the Heritage Foundation’s website that document the fraud.

Four criminal convictions

 2017 in Florida;  Gladys Coego, Criminally convicted of altering the vote count

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.

2016 in Pennsylvania, Myron Cowher and Dmitry Kupershmidt ; criminally convicted of altering the vote count

 Myron Cowher and Dmitry Kupershmidt were found guilty of attempting to rig a May 2014 election in the private community of Wild Acres Lakes. According to Wild Acres Property Manager Robert Depaolis, Cowher approached him and asked him to provide Cowher with ballots that were due to be mailed to property owners in the community who seldom voted, for the express purpose of filling out those ballots and guaranteeing victory for Cowher's preferred Board of Directors candidates. Depaolis went to the state police, who surveilled a meeting where Depaolis handed over the ballots, catching Cowher in the act of filling out the mail-in ballots. He was arrested and subsequently convicted on 217 counts, including forgery, identity theft, and criminal conspiracy. His accomplice, Kupershmidt, was found guilty on 190 counts. Cohwer received a sentence of between 18 months and four years in a state correctional facility, and was ordered to pay a $10,850 fine. Kuperschmidt's sentencing has been delayed due to a change in attorneys

2013, in Mississippi, Kimberly Readus; was criminally convicted altering the vote

In 2013, Kimberly Readus, an Executive Committee member of the Canton City Elections, was convicted of stealing a ballot box. She was fined $950, sentenced to 30 days of jail time suspended, and placed on probation.

In 2013, Oregon, Deanna Swenson, was criminally convicted of altering the vote count

Deanna Swenson, a Clackamas County elections official, pleaded guilty to official misconduct and unlawfully altering a ballot. Swenson tampered with ballots by filling in blank spots left by the actual voters. Swenson was ordered to serve 90 days in jail and pay $13,000 in fines.

Different Types of Election Fraud

There many ways for criminals the steel votes and change the results of elections. They include

fraud at polls, voting in the name of other legitimate voters and voters who have died or moved away.

1. False registration: voting under fraudulent voters registration that either use a phony name or real or fake address or claim residents in a particular jurisdiction where the registered voter does not actually live and is not entitled to vote.
2. Duplicate voting: registering in multiple locations and voting in the same election or in more than one jurisdiction or state.
3. Fraudulent use of absentee ballots: requesting absentee ballots and voting without the knowledge of the actual voter.
4. Buying votes: paying voters to cast either an in person or absentee ballot for a particular candidate.
5. Illegal assistance at the polls: forcing or intimidating voters.
6. Ineligible voting: illegal registration and voting by individuals who are not US citizens
7. Altering vote count: Changing the actual vote count either in a precinct or at the central location where votes are counted.
8. Ballot petition fraud: forging the signature of registered voters on the ballot petition that may be filed with an election official in some states for candidate or issue to be listed on the ballot

Let’s take a look at some of the cases in Pennsylvania to get a good understanding of how voter fraud works

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/docs/pacei-voterfraudcases.pdf