Los Angeles County authorities announced Tuesday a 41-count criminal complaint against two men, including one running for mayor, for allegedly submitting thousands of fraudulent voter registration applications.
Carlos Antonio DeBourbon Montenegro and Marcus Raul Arvelo allegedly submitted over 8,000 registration applications on behalf of homeless people over a 4-month period, the New York Post reported. Montenegro also faces perjury charges for forging voter information on his own paperwork to get on the ballot.
The men reportedly registered the voters then allegedly used Montenegro’s home address and 3 post office boxes to collect their mail-in ballots and paperwork, according to the Post.
Hawthorne men accused in voter fraud plot to attain 8,000 mail ballots for "nonexistent or deceased" persons https://t.co/H7zFO6spUo
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) November 18, 2020
Montenegro failed to meet the required number of signatures to make the ballot, according to the Daily Breeze. A warrant was filed Nov. 12, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.[contentad widget=”427100″]
The two men were reportedly charged with one count of conspiracy to commit voter fraud, eight counts of voter fraud, four counts of procuring and offering a false forged instrument and four misdemeanors for interfering with a prompt transfer of a completed affidavit, according to the Post. But Montenegro faces additional charges.
Dean Logan, LA County’s top election official, told The Los Angeles Times that the response to the incident shows how seriously these cases are taken.
“I think that this is an example of how the system is supposed to work, that if you see something and something is suspect, you report it and we investigate it,” Logan said. “In this case, it was stopped before any harm to the election could happen.”
Montenegro faces up to 15 years and eight months in prison if convicted, while Arvelo could receive up to 7 years, the Post reported.