Feds charge 19 with illegally registering, voting in 2016

WILMINGTON, N.C. – Federal prosecutors in North Carolina say they’re charging 19 people with registering to vote or casting ballots illegally because they weren’t U.S. citizens.

Prosecutors said Friday that nine people who are citizens of Mexico, Nigeria, Japan and other countries are charged with felonies for falsely claiming U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. They were also indicted last month on misdemeanour crimes by a federal grand jury in Wilmington for voting in the 2016 federal elections.

Eight others from Haiti, Germany, Poland and other counties were accused only of voting illegally in 2016.

Two additional foreign nationals were charged with visa or passport fraud besides illegal voting, while a third was accused of aiding and abetting one of the voters accused of falsely claimed citizenship.

President Donald Trump has claimed, without proof, that he lost the popular vote in the 2016 election due to massive voter fraud.

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This article has been corrected to show that two, not three, people were charged with either with visa or passport fraud, in addition to illegal voting.