New Hampshire Democrats appointed a fake voter as ‘elections inspector’ last month, conservative investigator Project Veritas (PV) discovered – but liberals remain more concerned Trump supposedly told supporters to ‘vote twice.’
West Lebanon, NH resident Vincent Marzello admitted to Project Veritas earlier this month that he “voted twice” in the 2016 election, in a video posted by the outlet on Thursday, returning to the polls in a wig and pretending to be a woman called “Helen Elizabeth Ashley.” Not only was Marzello not initially prosecuted – despite getting caught by cops in the act of picking up “Helen’s” phony voter ID – but “she” was even named an elections inspector by the state’s Democratic Party in July, PV reported.
ICYMI: NH man ARRESTED after being caught on @Project_Veritas tape admitting to VOTING TWICE in 2016.
Vincent Marzello created fake persona "Helen Ashley"
His fake persona was appointed ELECTIONS INSPECTOR by Chair of Dem Party of NH in July pic.twitter.com/FaDG9TDMfu
A day after the release of the damning footage – which included PV founder James O’Keefe interrogating state attorneys general on why they hadn’t prosecuted Marzello – the state apparently remembered to press charges against the alleged fraudster. He’s been charged with a class B felony carrying a sentence of up to seven years, according to local media, and could be fined up to $5,000 in a related “wrongful voting” civil action.
While Deputy Attorney General Jane Young is seen in the video attempting to justify her office’s inaction on the case and has repeatedly denied the state made a conscious decision not to arrest Marzello, she confirmed to local media that the PV investigation was “likely” the reason charges were finally filed. Young blamed the coronavirus pandemic for the procedural foot-dragging.
New Hampshire Democrats suspended “Ashley” from “her” position last week upon learning about the fraud charges, according to party chair Raymond Buckley, who insisted the first (and presumably only) contact they’d had with “Ashley” was through “her” online registration as a ballot inspector. While the suspension letter mentions the “pending investigation,” it’s not clear whether it was addressed to the fictitious woman or to Marzello himself. It’s also not clear how “Ashley” was supposed to work as a poll inspector, unless Marzello planned to slap on the wig he used in the photo submitted with his application.
Democratic Party supporters have largely ignored the fraud case, instead continuing to excoriate President Donald Trump over supposedly telling his North Carolina supporters to “vote twice” to test the integrity of the state’s mail-in election system. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told MSNBC on Friday that the president is “incentivizing people to commit crimes,” while former Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders highlighted Trump's words as proof he didn't “believe in democracy.”
Trump didn’t exactly tell his supporters to vote twice when he spoke to reporters in North Carolina on Wednesday, though he did suggest they should “test” the system. The president has made no secret of his distrust in mail-in elections and was specifically addressing voters who’d received “unsolicited ballots,” i.e. mail-in ballots they didn’t apply for. He urged them to send the ballots in early and then go check in person that their vote had been tabulated. In theory, it shouldn’t be possible to vote twice in this manner – the voter’s choice should already be recorded, and they should be turned away at the polling place – and even if votes are tabulated “late” and a voter has already double-voted in person, the mail-in vote would presumably be scrapped.
Trump suggests his supporters should commit electoral fraud by trying to vote twice pic.twitter.com/vRq0QuZJ57
Was the advice an appeal to voters’ fear of being disenfranchised? Certainly. “You can’t let them take your vote away,” he warned, adding “These people are playing dirty politics.” While the North Carolina State Board of Elections took the opportunity to remind voters it’s not only illegal to cast a ballot twice in the same election but to “solicit” someone to vote twice, it’s not entirely clear that is what Trump did, however.
Meanwhile in North Carolina, Immigration and Customs Enforcement charged 19 illegal immigrants earlier this week for voting in the 2016 election – foreign nationals hailing from countries including Guatemala, Cuba, Nigeria, Yemen, Israel, and Canada.
As with the New Hampshire case, the actual felony charges didn’t receive even a fraction of the media coverage as the “felonies” the president was supposedly encouraging his supporters to commit.
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