District Attorney: Man Caught Voting as His Dead Mother 3 Times
A Norwalk, California, man has been charged with voting on behalf of his deceased mother in three different elections, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.
Caesar Peter Abutin is accused of casting votes as his mother as well as himself in three elections between October 2012 and November 2014, a news release from the district attorney’s office states.
Abutin’s mother, who was not identified, died in July 2006 at the age of 67, according to the release.
Abutin, 55, was charged in July with one felony count each of fraud in connection with votes cast and fraudulent voting.
The allegations came after an investigation by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder and the district attorney’s office.
Abutin pleaded not guilty Tuesday and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 28.
If convicted, Abutin faces up to three years in state prison.
According to The Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Cases database, 13 Americans have been convicted of impersonation fraud at the polls.
As the November 2020 election approaches, concerns over voter fraud has turned into a hot-button issue — particularly when it comes to mail-in voting.
Whereas absentee ballots can be requested by voters, a ballot is automatically mailed to every eligible voter in a vote-by-mail system, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The Heritage Foundation’s database counts 208 cases of fraudulent use of absentee ballots across the country since 1988.
“The Democrats want to make it a political issue. It’s not a political issue; it’s really about a correct vote,” President Donald Trump said in a Tuesday news conference.
“You have to get voting — voting right. You can’t have millions and millions of ballots sent all over the place — sent to people that are dead; sent to dogs, cats; sent to everyone.”
A survey of registered voters reported Tuesday by USA Today found about 37 percent of registered voters polled plan to vote by mail in the November election.
The decision appears to line up with party preferences. About 48 percent of respondents who said they planned to vote for former Vice President Joe Biden, who became the Democrats’ official nominee on Tuesday, said they would vote by mail.
Only 23 percent of those who said they plan to vote for President Donald Trump said they would use the mail-in option.
According to USA Today, the survey by the Democracy Fund and UCLA Nationscape Project included 5,545 registered voters and was taken Aug. 6 through Aug. 12.
It had a margin of error of 2.1 percent.
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