While Democrats in Washington deny the need for election integrity measures and continually try to undermine them with bills such as H.R. 1, H.R. 4, and the misnamed "Freedom to Vote Act," the past week has been a busy one across the country for allegations of voter fraud and election misconduct.
In Michigan, three individuals were charged with voter fraud after the state's voter integrity measures flagged their respective actions:
Michigan residents Trenae Myesha Rainey, Carless Clark and Nancy Juanita Williams have been charged with attempting to commit voter fraud following state investigations that resulted in accusations that the women improperly filed out ballot applications and ballots during the November 2020 general election, according to a state news release. . .
Investigators charged Rainey, 28, with voter fraud after the Bureau of Elections was notified by Cernterline City Clerk Dennis E. Champine, who noticed signatures from applications from an assisted living facility did not match signatures in the Qualified Voter File. . .
Carless Clark, 59, is the subject of an investigation into an alleged case of double voting. Clark admitted to signing her grandson’s absentee ballot because she was concerned he would not have time to vote on Election Day, the attorney general’s office said. . .
Williams, who served as a guardian for several legally incapacitated persons, is accused of fraudulently submitting 26 absentee ballot applications to nine city and township clerks, seeking to have absentee ballots for those individuals mailed directly to her.
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a staffer for a Philadelphia City Councilmember was charged after allegedly participating in a voter fraud scheme from 2015 to 2019:
On Tuesday, Jennifer Arbittier Williams, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, filed federal charges against 67-year-old South Philadelphia resident Marie Beren, alleging that she participated in a voter fraud scheme from 2015 through 2019 in three voting divisions in South Philadelphia.
Williams charged Beren, a staffer for Philadelphia City Councilmember Mark Squilla, with four counts of voter fraud and related offenses, including conspiracy.
According to prosecutors, the conspiracy involved Beren and an individual currently identified in the complaint only as Consultant #1, who is described as a former elected official who “held himself out as an effective and successful political operative capable of ensuring his clients’ electoral success.” (The consultant is reportedly Ozzie Myers, the former Philly pol with a very storied and problematic history.)
That consultant “exercised influence and control in Philadelphia’s 39th Ward by distributing cash payments and supporting family, friends and allies for elective office in the 39th Ward, and installing Ward Leaders, Judges of Elections, and Democratic State Committee,” the complaint alleges.
In Georgia, election workers were fired for shredding voter registration forms leading up to November's local elections. Unsurprisingly, the shredded voter registration forms came from Fulton County, which has a long history of election problems:
The workers, at the Fulton County Board of Elections, were dismissed on Friday after other employees saw them destroying registration forms awaiting processing before local elections in November, the county elections director, Richard Barron, said.
Both the county district attorney and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state’s chief elections official, were asked to conduct inquiries into the matter, the chairman of the Fulton County Commission, Robb Pitts, said in a statement.
But it was Mr. Raffensperger who first revealed the allegations of shredded registration forms, issuing a blistering news release demanding that the Justice Department investigate “incompetence and malfeasance” in the agency. “After 20 years of documented failure in Fulton County elections, Georgians are tired of waiting to see what the next embarrassing revelation will be,” he said.
These instances of alleged voter fraud and election misconduct highlight the importance of common sense voter integrity measures. Without them, there would be no way to expose the problems like those in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.