Edwin E. Garcia, a former lawmaker and Hartford Police Sergeant, pleaded no contest to three felony counts of absentee ballot fraud, tampering with a witness, and accepting an illegal campaign contribution. Garcia and his campaign workers systematically registered hundreds of young voters and furnished many with absentee ballots that they neither qualified for nor understood. […]
Jackson Jones, Don McCranie and Doyce Mullis, Dodge County sheriff, commissioner, and former commissioner, respectively, were convicted of conspiracy to buy votes. The harshest sentence went to McCranie, who received a 30-month prison term, three years of probation, 150 hours of community service, and $5,000 in fines. Sheriff Jones was sentenced to 27 months in […]
Liz Diaz, a former 4th District town committee member in Hartford, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit election fraud and to witness tampering after she registered ineligible voters to receive absentee ballots and intimidated a witness to lie about her reason for requesting an absentee ballot in a court hearing regarding the 1996 Democratic town […]
Virgen Figueroa, a former town committee member from Hartford, pleaded guilty to absentee ballot fraud and forgery. In a plot with several other individuals to elect Democrat candidates for town committee in the 1996 election, Figueroa registered ineligible voters to receive absentee ballots and helped them to mark their ballots. She was sentenced to two […]
Michael Vadella, the brother of former Carbondale Mayor Joseph Vadella, pleaded guilty in county court to conspiracy, forgery, tampering with public records, and election law violations. He also pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Michael Vadella conspired with his brother, James, to alter election results in a primary election in […]
Former Carbondale Mayor Joseph Vadella pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit voter fraud and election code violations related to a Pennsylvania district justice race. He was sentenced to serve between three and nine months in jail, to run concurrently with a four-month prison sentence for a related conviction in federal court of preventing a witness […]
James Vadella, brother of former Carbondale Mayor Joseph Vadella, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, as well as charges of forgery, conspiracy to tamper with public records, tampering with public records, and violations of the election code. Vadella conspired with his brother, Michael, to alter election results in a […]
Gillian Yingling and 18 others, of Rio Arriba County, including several local officials, were arrested on election-fraud charges, including ineligible absentee voting and false statements on absentee ballots. Yingling pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor voter fraud charge, receiving 364 days’ supervised probation.
Humberto Hernandez was convicted of being an accessory to covering up fraud and removed from office after it was discovered that hundreds of fraudulent absentee ballots were cast in his favor. He was sentenced to a one-year prison term.
Former Congressman Austin Murphy was convicted on one charge of absentee ballot fraud. Murphy forged ballots for senior citizens living in a nursing home, claiming merely to be assisting them in exercising their voting rights. He was sentenced to six months of probation and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service.