Venustiano Hernandez-Hernandez, an illegal immigrant, registered to vote under the name Severo Benavidez in 1984 and voted in the 1996 and 2008 general elections, the 2002 primary election, and special elections in 2003 and 2009. After being deported in 1974, he obtained a false birth certificate, which he used to collect Social Security disability benefits […]
Stephanie Elias, of Columbus, was charged with four counts of second-degree forgery and four counts of absentee ballot fraud stemming from illegal activity while working for a 2012 candidate for municipal office in Phenix City. Elias pleaded guilty to all eight counts and was sentenced to 22 months of probation, and fined $2,500. A spokeswoman […]
Olivia Lee Reynolds was convicted of 24 counts of voter fraud. While working on the 2013 campaign for her boyfriend, Dothan City Commissioner Amos Newsome, Reynolds filled out voters’ ballots for them and told others for whom to vote. Her fraud had definite consequences: Commissioner Newsome won reelection by a mere 14 votes, losing the […]
A Houston County jury found Lesa Coleman guilty of seven felony counts of absentee ballot fraud related to the 2013 election for a city commission seat. Coleman received a three year split sentence. She will serve 180 days in jail followed by three years of probation.
Janice Lee Hart pleaded guilty to eight misdemeanor counts of attempted absentee ballot fraud in connection with misconduct while working on the 2013 campaign for District 2 City Commissioner Amos Newsome. Prosecutors charged that Hart was not present when absentee ballots were signed even though she was listed as a witness on the ballots. In […]
Daniel W. Reynolds pleaded guilty to three counts of absentee ballot fraud and was sentenced to two years’ probation. Reynolds, the chief campaign volunteer for Commissioner Amos Newsome, participated in falsifying absentee ballots in the Dothan District 2 election between Newsome and his rival Lamesa Danzey in the summer of 2013.
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 […]
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 […]
Elbert Melton, the former mayor of Gordon, illegally notarized two ballots, without witnesses present, during the 2016 election in which he was running for mayor. Melton won that race by only 16 votes. Melton was convicted on two counts of absentee ballot fraud, was removed from office, and was sentenced to serve one year in […]