5 Charged With Illegal Voting, Fraudulent Registration in 3 States

Five people were charged last week in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and New Jersey for crimes related to illegally voting in the 2022 or 2024 elections.

Prosecutors indicted three people in Pennsylvania’s Middle District. Two of the individuals are Thomas Holtzman, 68, and his wife, Marisol Guzman, 50, both from Carlisle.

Guzman is alleged to have illegally voted in the 2024 election as a noncitizen. Holtzman is a U.S. citizen alleged to have aided Guzman in casting the illegal vote, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a Sept. 4 statement.

The third individual indicted in Pennsylvania, Katya Rodriguez, 30, is an illegal immigrant from Mexico alleged to have voted during the 2024 election. A resident of Harrisburg, she is charged with providing a false statement of citizenship in order to vote and other related crimes.

Holtzman is facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted, Guzman one year, and Rodriguez 11 years. They also face fines and supervised release.

In New Jersey, prosecutors charged one person with illegal voting in a federal election. Mercedes Alexandra Cardoso of Union County is accused of falsely certifying and attesting to be a U.S. citizen on the voter registration form.

Cardoso allegedly cast a ballot in the June 2024 primary election, in which candidates were vying for the post of president and vice president. At the time, she was not a U.S. citizen and thus not eligible to vote in federal elections.

Cardoso previously came to the United States from Ecuador on a B-2 visa. She faces up to one year in prison if convicted.

The fifth person to be charged is Jesus Javier Jurado Garcia, 25, an illegal immigrant from Mexico living in Beloit, Wisconsin. He was charged in the Western District of Wisconsin for illegally voting in the November 2022 election. Garcia is facing a maximum prison term of one year.

“The crime of illegal voting undermines the integrity of our elections and harms citizens by stealing the power of our votes,” U.S. Attorney Brian Miller for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said in the statement.

“Illegal voting is not a victimless crime but a serious affront to the principles of our democratic republic.”

Commenting on the cases, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a Sept. 6 post on X that election integrity is a “top priority” for his agency.

The Epoch Times was unable to reach the accused’s legal representatives for comment.

In June, three noncitizens pleaded guilty to voting illegally in federal elections. The three defendants admitted to casting the votes despite knowing they were ineligible, the DOJ said in a June 22 statement.

On Aug. 18, the Census Bureau released a report examining noncitizen voting in the November 2020 general election.

Out of almost 160 million voters who cast ballots in the election, the bureau “determined with high confidence that over 128 million of these voter records represented citizens, and that over 24,000 of these voter records represented noncitizens at the time of the election,” the report said. More than 32 million voter records remained unanalyzed.

People born in Mexico made up the largest group of noncitizen voters, with 3,800 individuals. This was followed by Canada, Jamaica, the Philippines, and Germany.

California had the most noncitizen voters, with 4,300. Texas had 2,500 noncitizen voters; Florida, 1,800; New York, 1,700; and Arizona, 1,100, according to the report.

In July, the DOJ sent letters to state election officials, warning that they could face criminal liability if they knowingly allow noncitizens to cast ballots.

The DOJ sent the letters after requesting that states provide data on registered voters. Several states did not comply, prompting legal action from the Justice Department. 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration-backed election integrity bill, SAVE America Act, is still stuck in the Senate.

The bill was introduced in January this year and requires people to provide documentary proof of American citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. For voting, individuals must submit photo identification. The measure has been referred to the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration.