Two potential instances of voter fraud have been discovered in California. A Democrat city councilman has been charged with conspiracy to commit election fraud and attempted bribery, and in a separate incident, 300 gubernatorial recall ballots were found in the vehicle of a "passed out felon."
Compton Councilman Isaac Galavan and five others face election fraud charges related to a mail-in city council runoff election, which Galavan won by only one vote. One of the defendants includes Jace Dawson, former candidate for Compton Council, "who allegedly conspired with Galavan in his plan to win the runoff."
Fox News reported that Galavan "allegedly tried to bribe a registrar's office employee using concert tickets," but the employee and an election observer reported the matter to the appropriate authorities.
The other four suspects are accused of voting illegally by using Dawson's home address to register to vote, despite that none of them lived there. Fox News wrote, "[a]t least three improper ballots were discovered, affecting the outcome of the runoff," and highlighted that it was not the first instance of individuals being charged for attempting to "influence the outcome of mail-in voting in Los Angeles County." Further the article states, "last November, nearly 8,000 ballots were mailed to 'fictitious, nonexistent or deceased' people for a mayoral election in Hawthorne."
The Los Angeles County District Attorney emphasized:
We must do everything in our power to protect the integrity of the electorate process and to ensure that elections are free and fair. The people of Los Angeles County expect and deserve a government that is free of political corruption at every level.
Not too far away in the city of Torrance, police discovered hundreds of recall election ballots in a car belonging to a felon, who was allegedly passed out and in possession of drugs, a loaded firearm, multiple California drivers licenses, and credit cards in other people's names.
Police arrested the man "on suspicion of a number of offenses, including...forgery violations." The police department's Special Investigations Unit is working with the U.S. Postal Service and the L.A. County District Attorney's Public Integrity Unit to investigate the matter.
Just talked to @TorrancePD on its Facebook post detailing arrest of suspect with 300 CA ballots: PD not releasing any info on suspect due to ongoing investigation to determine if this was a case of voter/election fraud -- or someone stealing mail w the intent of identity theft. pic.twitter.com/hEC3KeN8cO
— Carla Marinucci (@cmarinucci) August 24, 2021
The KTLA 5 news report states, "investigators are trying to figure out how the election ballots ended up in the suspect’s vehicle and what their intent was in having them." The ballots were found on the day that absentee ballots were sent to registered California voters for Gavin Newsom's gubernatorial recall election.
According to the article, police assured that anyone whose ballot was found in the theft would receive a new ballot prior to the election.