Tag: elections

Chicago-Area Democrat Alderwoman Arrested For Casting Ballot on Behalf of Her Deceased Mother

A Chicago-area Alderwoman was arrested for casting a ballot for her deceased mother.

Waukegan Ald. Sylvia Sims Bolton was arrested and charged with a felony after she voted on behalf of her deceased mother.

Prosecutors say Bolton, 67, filled out a mail-in ballot for her mother, Mary Sims, who passed away on January 12.

The clerk’s office issued Sims a mail-in ballot on February 5, three weeks after she passed away.

The mail-in ballot was filled out and returned on February 26.

“Our system of checks and balances worked as intended,” County Clerk Anthony Vega told the Chicago Tribune.

“Our staff followed established protocols. They identified the irregularities, and our office coordinated with our law enforcement partners. This is exceedingly rare, but if someone games the system, we will hold them accountable,” he added.

The Chicago Tribune reported:

Waukegan Ald. Sylvia Sims Bolton, 1st Ward, is facing a felony charge after, authorities say, she falsified election material in the March primary contest by casting a ballot on behalf of her dead mother.

Bolton, 67, was charged with felony mutilation of election material and disregarding the election code, a misdemeanor, on May 19, and appeared Wednesday in Lake County Court in Waukegan.

Though the irregularity was discovered on Feb. 26 by the Lake County Clerk’s Office, the investigation by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office did not start until March 27 — 10 days after the March 17 primary election — when the clerk’s office confirmed it.

After the clerk’s office issued a vote-by-mail ballot to Mary Sims on Feb. 5, the office cancelled Sims’ voter registration after learning of her death on Feb. 12 from the Illinois Department of Public Health through the Illinois State Board of Elections voter registration system, according to a joint news release from the offices of the county clerk, sheriff and state’s attorney.

Sims died on Jan. 12 and is Bolton’s mother, according to Richard Bradshaw, a licensed funeral director with Bradshaw and Range Funeral Home in Waukegan.

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Formal Complaint Filed with Texas Secretary of State Challenging Federal Voting Law Compliance

Jeffrey Yuna of Harris County, former candidate for the 38th Congressional District, and Debra Boehm, a voter in Collin County have submitted a formal HAVA complaint with the Texas Secretary of State (SOS), the Hon. Jane Nelson, who is the State’s Chief Election Administrator.

The complaint, supported by Unite4Freedom evidence, seeks a hearing on the record under the longstanding Federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) (§ 402, 52 U.S.C. § 21112, and 1 Tex. Admin. Code § 81.171) to determine whether Texas is complying with HAVA § 303 in its administration of federal elections.

The complainants are not asking to overturn, contest, or alter any election result. Instead, they seek a record-based HAVA determination concerning Texas’s statewide voter registration list, voter history records, participation records, official-source reconciliation; preservation of source records; and future federal-election compliance.

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HAVA Requirements

HAVA § 303 requires Texas to implement and maintain a “single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter registration list” that “shall serve as the official voter registration list for the conduct of all elections for Federal office in the State.” This complaint alleges a HAVA Title III violation that has occurred, is occurring, and is about to occur again unless corrected before the next federal election.

This Complaint asks four binary questions about the official Texas record of a single federal election:

  1. Do the State’s four official counts of voter participation reconcile?
  2. Is there documented administrative records showing how they reconcile?
  3. Can the State identify the number that was certified and the source system that produced it?
  4. Can the State produce the record-chain proof of how the certified number was derived and how it relates to the “single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter registration list”?

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Calif.: Newsom signs bill limiting law enforcement access to ballots

Governor Gavin Newsom has signed legislation to tighten California’s election security, limiting authorities’ access to ballots, voter lists, rosters, or certified voting technology, ahead of the June 2nd state primary election.

The bill signed on Wednesday would prohibit anyone — particularly federal officers — from becoming involved in election administration, while allowing exceptions in cases of urgent public health or safety concerns.

Furthermore, the law states that if packages containing voted ballots are removed from the custody of election officials, civil penalties for ballot custody violations may still apply, with fines of up to $50,000.

“We have to clarify the rules of engagement. That’s why this legislation is important. There are fines associated with it, criminal fines, and jail time, three years,” Newsom (D-Calif.) said at Wednesday’s signing ceremony.

Senate Bill 73 — which will take effect immediately — follows Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s seizure of 650,000 ballots from last fall’s Proposition 50 Special Election. However, the probe was later stopped due to legal challenges from California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Sheriff Bianco (R-Calif.) — who is running for California governor this November — said he seized the ballots as part of an investigation into alleged voting discrepancies, though election officials later disputed those claims.

Bianco had referred to the freezing of the investigation as “politically motivated.”

Meanwhile the measure also directs the attorney general to provide guidance to local election workers on responding to requests from law enforcement.

“SB73 puts in protections to ensure that ballots will be secured and that voters have confidence in our election system that their voices will be heard at the ballot box,” said California State Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Calif.), one of the primary authors of the law.

The signing of the bill came the same day Assembly Democrats advanced 23 separate bills related to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Assembly floor.

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Louisiana House Approves New Congressional Map that Eliminates Racially Gerrymandered District

The Louisiana House on Thursday approved a new Congressional map that eliminates a racially gerrymandered district, sending the bill to the Senate.

Louisiana delayed its House primaries late last month after a blockbuster Supreme Court ruling on a key Voting Rights Act provision.

The Supreme Court recently declared Louisiana’s previous Congressional map an unconstitutional gerrymander.

The high court issued the ruling 6-3.

Liberal justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson dissented.

The case, State of Louisiana v. Phillip Callais (and the related Press Robinson v. Phillip Callais), stems from Louisiana’s woke lawmakers caving to left-wing judges and creating a second “majority-minority” congressional district.

The Louisiana House voted 66-35 to approve the new map.

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Arizona Attorney General Tells Maricopa Supervisors To Ignore Recorder’s Elections Authority

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes advised the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to ignore Recorder Justin Heap’s claim of exclusive authority on drop box establishment. 

Mayes sent a letter to the board and Heap on Friday claiming Heap’s counsel had made “unfounded threats of criminal liability” for telling the board that they would face felony charges for managing ballot drop boxes. 

Mayes cited the state’s current and past two Elections Procedures Manuals (EPMs) to back her assessment. The EPMs recognized that boards of supervisors or their designees approve all ballot drop-off locations and drop-boxes. 

“Justin Heap is wrong about drop boxes,” said Mayes. “He should immediately work with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in good faith to ensure a well run [sic] election.” 

Notice from Heap’s counsel closely preceded a vote taken by the board earlier this week to designate 12 drop box locations throughout the county for the upcoming primary election in July. These drop boxes are scheduled to become active at the end of June. 

Heap claimed the board never consulted him about the proposed drop box locations. 

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NC court rules state violated law by allowing nonresidents to vote in federal elections

The Republican National Committee celebrated a recent court ruling Wednesday that determined the North Carolina state board of elections violated the state constitution by allowing non-residents to vote in federal elections.

The Wake County Superior Court sided with the RNC in the ruling Tuesday after the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled last year that people who have never lived in the state cannot vote in state elections. 

The state stopped nonresidents from voting in state elections in the wake of the state Supreme Court ruling, but did not change its policies when it came to federal elections.

“This is a clear win for fair and lawful elections,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement. “The court upheld the North Carolina Constitution and made clear that only North Carolina residents can vote in the state. The RNC will keep fighting to ensure only eligible citizens can vote.”

The court’s ruling does not impact voters who qualify under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which applies to U.S. citizens who previously lived in a state and are currently serving overseas.

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Corporations Can Vote in Some Delaware Elections, Judge Says

Corporations, partnerships, trusts, limited liability companies, and other “artificial entities” have the right to vote in Delaware elections under some circumstances, a judge said in a novel ruling Tuesday.

Judge Craig A. Karsnitz rejected an ACLU challenge to a charter permitting voting in local elections by the entities that own most of the property in the Town of Fenwick Island, one of several municipalities in the state with similar provisions. Karsnitz dismissed the lawsuit from Delaware’s Superior Court, citing “the principle of one person/entity/one vote.”

“Visions of faceless large corporations or even HAL controlling a small town are frightening and the stuff of science fiction,” but “trusts, partnerships, limited liability companies, and corporations are expressly recognized as ‘persons’ in the Delaware Code,” the judge said.

The dispute over municipal voting in a tiny coastal community represents an unusual flashpoint in the decades-long fight over the free speech rights of corporations and the dark money flooding the American electoral system. The US Supreme Court held in 2010’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that political spending counts as constitutionally protected speech.

Ever since that ruling effectively ended corporate campaign finance regulation, the prospect of outright voting by business entities has served as fodder for both critics and comedians.

Delaware, home to more corporations than people, is a fitting place for reality to outpace satire. The state constitutional provisions expressly enshrining corporate personhood reflect Delaware’s budgetary reliance on the billions in fees it raises annually from the more than 2 million business entities chartered there.

Karsnitz, writing in a 19-page opinion Tuesday, rejected an array of constitutional arguments advanced by the ACLU, including the claim that entity voting dilutes the political power of living people.

The lawsuit “does not allege discrimination based on race or political partisanship,” show “that entity property owners vote sufficiently as a bloc to usually defeat the preferred candidates of natural persons,” or assert “that Fenwick’s charter distinguishes between natural persons and entity property owners with the discriminatory intent to fence out natural persons,” the judge said.

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Report: Dems Caught in an ‘Anger Trap’ over Trump that Could Cost Them More Elections

Some Democrats are concerned that after a decade of fighting President Donald Trump they are now held captive by anti-Trump resentment with little chance of escape.

That’s the conclusion of a report published in the Hill Saturday, which pointed out that the long-awaited post-2024 election autopsy of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) reinforced that point.

Democrats leaned too heavily on negative partisanship, the nearly 200-page autopsy concluded, and focused too much on attacks on Donald J. Trump in messages to Americans who would ultimately cast the votes.

That autopsy was not without its controversy as members of Congress and some pundits are calling for DNC chair Ken Martin, who ordered it, to resign, Breitbart News reported Friday.

Some lawmakers and observers, including Democrat mega donor John Morgan, told Fox News that the party — and candidate Kamala Harris — failed because they ignored issues. And, he said, they backed policies like open borders and transgender sports that alienated voters — something the autopsy completely ignored.

Ironically, the autopsy itself appeared to have fallen into what the Hill called the Trump “anger trap,” or what Republicans commonly refer to as Trump Derangement Syndrome, or TDS.

As Breitbart reported, the autopsy also stated that Democrats failed to make a strong case against the former president in the 2024 campaign.

But “anti-Trump sentiment” can only go so far in achieving success at the polls, the Hill concluded, saying that what was missing is a vision that could win voters over, or a case as to what Democrats would do with power if they achieved it.

The outlet reported the anger only continues, writing:

This week at the 2026 IDEAS Conference hosted by the Center for American Progress, anger was also displayed by a series of Democratic speakers, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is a front-runner in the 2028 presidential race.

He and others spoke mostly about fighting the president and his party, a message that Democrats caution will fire up the base but may not be enough to win over independents, and thus, elections.

“Trump is the best base mobilizer for Democrats right now,” Democrat strategist Joel Payne told the Hill. “But I think there is a broad understanding that the clock is ticking on how much longer Democrats can rely on polarization because of Trump to galvanize our voters.”

Democrat strategist Dan Turrentine also sounded an alarm. In a Substack post this week titled “Can D’s Control Their Fury?” the analyst said Democrats were “becoming blinded by” seething anger.

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“Preserve All Records”: DOJ Puts Democrat-Run Maryland On Notice In Election Integrity Probe

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced on X last night that she has ordered Maryland’s State Board of Elections to preserve their records concerning the utter debacle of mail-in ballots during the state’s primary election season.

“It’s the wrong time to send voters the wrong ballots. This @TheJusticeDept’s @CivilRights will not let Maryland’s mail-in ballot mistakes go unnoticed!” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.

This update comes just one week after SBE was forced to admit that its third-party, out-of-state vendor mailed half a million or more ballots to the wrong primary voters. 

President Trump himself called for a federal investigation into this breach of trust with Maryland voters…

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Canadian citizen charged after allegedly voting in multiple U.S. elections

A Canadian citizen living in the United States has been charged after allegedly voting illegally in multiple American federal and state elections over a span of nearly two decades.

According to U.S. federal prosecutors, 40-year-old Sunny Manhertz, a Canadian permanent resident living in Massachusetts, is accused of falsely claiming U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote and cast ballots in several elections dating back to 2008, reported Fox News.

Court documents allege Manhertz filled out a Massachusetts voter registration form in 2016 and checked “yes” when asked whether he was a U.S. citizen, despite allegedly never obtaining citizenship status.

Prosecutors say he subsequently voted in multiple local, state and federal elections, including the 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024 U.S. elections.

Federal investigators also allege Manhertz continued presenting himself as a qualified voter by signing nomination papers for political candidates as recently as 2026. Prosecutors say cellphone location records placed him near his assigned polling station during the 2024 election. 

He now faces charges related to unlawful voting by a non-citizen and allegedly casting fraudulent ballots. If convicted, he could face up to six years in prison and fines ranging from $100,000 to $250,000.

Earlier this year, another Canadian national, Denis Bouchard, pleaded guilty in North Carolina after prosecutors said he falsely claimed U.S. citizenship in order to vote in the 2022 and 2024 elections.

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