Four men were indicted by New Jersey’s Attorney General for mail-in ballot fraud.
The charges come from a May 12th, 2020 special election in the city of Paterson, which was conducted entirely by mail-in ballots.
Among the individuals charged are Councilman Michael Jackson and Councilman Alex Mendez.
“It is alleged that Jackson and Mendez violated state election laws as candidates by approaching one or more voters in Paterson in the districts where they were running and collecting their official mail-in ballots for delivery to the Passaic County Board of Elections. It is further alleged that these mail-in ballots were delivered to the Board of Elections without information identifying the bearer, in violation of state election laws,” local news reports.
“In addition, Jackson, 48, and Mendez, 45, allegedly procured and had in their possession official mail-in ballots which were neither their own ballots, nor ballots for which they were identified as an authorized bearer. Mendez also allegedly procured or submitted one or more voter registration applications, which he knew to be false, fictitious, or fraudulent, in that he knew the person for whom the application was procured was not eligible to vote in the election district identified on the application,” a summary adds.
Shelim Khalique, 51, and Abu Razyen, 21 were also charged with criminal conduct involving mail-in ballots during the election.
Khalique approached residents in Paterson’s 2nd Ward to collect and deliver mail-in ballots despite failing to properly verify them.
“In addition, Khalique and the bus company he owns, A-1 Elegant Tours, Inc., d/b/a Eastern Star Transportation, LLC, were charged today with contract fraud and other crimes in a separate investigation by OPIA, the New Jersey State Police, Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, and Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office,” the summary adds.
Rayzen allegedly procured and possessed several mail-in ballots “which were not his own and for which he was not identified as an authorized bearer.”
“Investigators obtained a USB drive containing a video of Razyen holding and flipping through a stack of more than three official mail-in ballot outer envelopes that did not have the bearer portion completed,” local reporting added.
The case was cited by Donald Trump’s campaign in its unsuccessful lawsuit to stop New Jersey’s vote-by-mail plan for the presidential election.
