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Dead voter allegation fuels concerns about voting safeguards as blue state official turns herself in

Dead voter allegation fuels concerns about voting safeguards as blue state official turns herself in

Illinois GOP Chairman Bob Grogan is calling on a Democratic Waukegan city official to resign after prosecutors said she submitted her dead mother’s vote-by-mail ballot, a case conservatives say exposes broader concerns about mail-in voting and voter-roll safeguards even though the ballot was caught before it was counted. A Waukegan, Illinois alderman, Sylvia Sims Bolton, turned herself in on Wednesday after prosecutors said she submitted her dead mother’s vote-by-mail ballot during a March primary election, which has resulted in two charges, including one Class 4 Felony. According to the Office of the State’s Attorney in Lake County, Illinois, a vote-by-mail ballot for Mary Sims, Bolton’s late mother, was issued in the first tranche of ballots to go out from the Lake County Clerk’s Office in February. Just days later, however, the same office processed the cancellation of Mary Sims’ voter registration after receiving notification of her passing from the Illinois Department of Public Health via the state’s Board of Elections voter registration system.  After the ballot was dropped by Bolton at an official ballot drop box, it went through the county’s established security and verification protocols, which flagged that the voter’s death record was processed prior to the ballot being submitted and ultimately spurred the sheriff’s office investigation leading to the charges against Bolton. PA WOMAN CHARGED WITH TRYING TO REGISTER DEAD PEOPLE, INCLUDING OWN FATHER, TO VOTE “A dead person voting, that you’re actually aware that they’re dead, is the easiest voter fraud to find. It’s like somebody leaning over the cash register and grabbing the cash out of the till,” Grogan told Fox News Digital. “But the complicated stuff, the behind-the-scenes stuff, that’s something that is harder to find … This is a one-off incident and if fraudsters do it right, it could be many, many more votes like this.” Election integrity advocate Jason Snead, who runs the Honest Elections Project, added that the Bolton case “plainly shows that voter fraud occurs.” “Mail ballots are especially vulnerable, which is why they should be secured, should never be mailed without a specific request from the voter, and should always be verified before they are tabulated. This case also shows how essential it is to maintain clean voter rolls,” Snead said. “Had the list maintenance process been slower, it is possible this illegal vote would have been counted before the fraud was discovered. Unfortunately, too many states — particularly blue states — actively resist commonsense safeguards, which begs the question: how many other illegal votes have slipped through the system?” A press release from the Lake County State’s Attorney Office indicated that “all ballot envelopes” get reviewed through automated systems designed to flag irregularities that may require additional review. Readability issues due to barcode problems, ballots being submitted for the wrong election, ballots that were previously rejected, and ballots associated with a canceled voter registration record, are all examples of irregularities that might be flagged. Other, less obvious irregularities, include whether a ballot is overweight or underweight. TRUMP CALLS FOR DOJ PROBE INTO MARYLAND MAIL-IN BALLOT ERROR, SUSPECTING ‘CORRUPT’ GOV WES MOORE TIES The investigation into Bolton, who represents Waukegan’s Ward 1, began in March, and she turned herself in on Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for Rinehart’s office. She has been charged with one count of Mutilation of Election Material, a Class 4 felony, for allegedly knowingly falsifying election material, and one count of Disregarding Election Code, a Class A misdemeanor. If convicted on the felony count, Bolton could face one to three years in prison, though Illinois law also allows probation or conditional discharge for Class 4 felonies. The election-material charge also carries a five-year ban on public employment after completion of the sentence. A Class A misdemeanor conviction carries less than one year in jail and a possible fine. According to the State’s Attorney’s office, the investigation by law enforcement officials “did not uncover any facts linking these allegations to her city duties,” adding that she “is not charged with official misconduct.” Officials in the State’s Attorney’s office also noted that they were not aware of any previous investigations related to individuals trying to use the vote-by-mail system to cast a ballot on behalf of deceased individuals. Fox News Digital reached out to Bolton and her attorney, who declined to comment. “This case shows the importance of having a well-funded, independent Clerk’s office that also has state-of-the-art technology,” State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Clerk Vega and his team followed national best practices in order to detect and report this crime. We must say loudly to people that if you improperly vote for others, you will be caught, investigated, and prosecuted.”

WATCH: America’s first ‘formerly undocumented’ congressman delivers ultimatum at besieged ICE facility

WATCH: America’s first ‘formerly undocumented’ congressman delivers ultimatum at besieged ICE facility

The New York City lawmaker who describes himself as the first “formerly undocumented immigrant” member of Congress was defiant this week when he arrived at Newark’s Delaney Hall detention center waving a court order and demanding entry. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a Washington Heights Democrat, was one of three Manhattan lawmakers who converged on the center Wednesday to demand the Trump administration shut it down and, in the interim, treat those held inside more humanely. “Shut it down,” Espaillat boomed, after spending some time inside Delaney Hall purportedly visiting inmates. When he arrived, Espaillat and his aides approached the entrance gate, and the lawmaker pulled out a document and waved it, telling guards who he was and that a judge had given him clearance to enter. DEM CONGRESS MEMBERS STORM NEW JERSEY ICE PRISON TO CONDUCT ‘OVERSIGHT VISIT’: ‘PEOPLE DESERVE DIGNITY’ “I have a court order here that allows me to come in. I will go in because the Constitution protects me,” Espaillat hollered to the people at the gate. Espaillat said he is also one of 12 plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to force DHS to allow lawmakers into any detention center, including privately operated facilities such as Delaney Hall, at any time without notice. The order Espaillat waved appeared to have District of Columbia federal court letterhead and included a line stating the case appeared before two Obama appointees, Cornelia Pillard and Robert Wilkins, and one Trump appointee, Neomi Rao, who replaced Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the appellate bench. The lead plaintiff listed was Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo. “I’m going to be introducing legislation that would allow Governor Mikie Sherrill and any governor or any state to be able to come and inspect a federal detention center like this. So I plan to do that very soon,” Espaillat said. He said any public official should be allowed into Delaney Hall to inspect conditions and claimed the majority of those being held are “working people” before briefly switching to Spanish. “They are not criminals they… have been ripped from their families and thrown in here,” he said. ICE FACILITY DEMOCRATS ‘STORMED’ HOLDS CHILD RAPISTS, MURDERERS: OFFICIALS Soon after he departed, Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Daniel Goldman arrived together, and spent close to two hours inside. Nadler began speaking out against conditions at the center before he even reached the microphone, alleging the “food is very sparse” and that inmates eat only at 4 a.m., noon and 4 p.m. “And very often, they eat maggots in the food,” he said, making an allegation denied by those on the other side. He also claimed medical services were limited and that inmates were waiting a long time for treatment, an allegation protesters also shouted at ICE agents later in the day. However, ambulances from a local Newark hospital regularly arrived throughout the day Wednesday and Thursday, appearing to contradict claims that detainees were not receiving treatment. “We know that they’re not getting any kind of justice because we know that the president is — these cases go before immigration judges. And we know the president is firing all immigration judges who grant asylum,” Nadler claimed. DHS SAYS FOUR HOUSE DEMOCRATS ‘CHOSE TO STAND WITH CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS’ AFTER VISITING ICE DETAINEE He then yielded to Goldman, who spoke along similar lines but, unlike Nadler, was repeatedly heckled by some in the crowd. A protester could be heard calling out something about the Israel-Gaza conflict — as both Goldman and Nadler are Jewish — while another man whom a protester verbally accused of being a “Proud Boy” began heckling Goldman about federal statutes that govern the ability to enforce immigration law. “I want to thank the advocates who are here every day fighting for the freedom of those who are unjustly and illegally being held in there. My colleague, Mr. Nadler, spoke a bit about the conditions. And they, I think, are easiest to be summed up as: this is criminal jail and none of these people are criminals,” Goldman said. DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN CLAIMS TRUMP’S ICE IS ‘PRIMARILY GOING AFTER INNOCENT PEOPLE, INCLUDING US CITIZENS’ He said he met with a man who had been in the U.S. for 23 years and has American-citizen children — but was detained by DHS when he showed up for a “green card interview.” “I don’t care what your view is on immigration policy or how you think that the policy should be. The bottom line is if you are human, if you’re American, you cannot support what is going on here,” he said. Goldman, an attorney who famously represented then-Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., during the Trump impeachment investigation, said the inmates have “almost no [legal] representation.” He suggested he repeatedly asked inmates if they had criminal records and routinely was told no. In turn, he used that recollection to slam the White House and a top Trump confidant who has been active in advising on immigration-related policy. “When Donald Trump and Stephen Miller say that this ICE deportation dragnet is going after the worst of the worst, they are lying,” he said. DHS SAYS ‘ARRESTS ARE STILL ON THE TABLE’ AFTER NEW JERSEY HOUSE DEMS CAUGHT ON CAMERA ‘STORMING’ ICE FACILITY Goldman accused Trump and Miller of intentionally creating dire conditions, such as those alleged inside Delaney Hall, that would lead inmates to opt for “voluntary departure” and self-deportation. As Goldman continued speaking, a man standing next to him began calling out and interrupting him, asking him to condemn protester violence. Goldman appeared unfazed but occasionally turned to admonish the man before he was confronted by another member of the congressmen’s security detail. The visit by the Manhattan lawmakers was less raucous, however, than another public official’s visit the previous day, when Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., was pepper-sprayed by ICE after allegedly interceding between the two factions on the street in an apparent attempt to calm tensions. Things did not cool off after the congressmen left, however, as pepper spray was again deployed Wednesday and Thursday