WASHINGTON — The Justice Department announced on Monday, November 2, that it has charged 63 people in 15 states with election-related crimes, one day before the midterm elections, according to the department’s announcement as reported by multiple outlets.
The cases involve alleged illegal voting in federal elections, fraudulent voter registration and false claims of United States citizenship. The department said the conduct is connected to the 2022, 2024 and 2026 election cycles, with the largest group of allegations involving the presidential election of November 5, 2024. The department’s announcement is summarized in reporting on the release, including coverage of the Justice Department announcement.
Four of the 63 defendants were described by the department as unlawfully present in the country, including defendants in Georgia, Texas, Maryland and North Carolina. The citizenship status of the remaining defendants was not made clear in the announcement; some may have been in the country lawfully, for example as permanent residents, while still being ineligible to vote. In North Carolina, 18 people were charged, including a Guatemalan national in Robeson County accused of falsely claiming citizenship and voting as a noncitizen in the 2020 and 2024 elections. In Tennessee, two indictments were unsealed on Monday, and in New Jersey two defendants are accused of voting as noncitizens and then making false statements about it during the naturalization process.
"These foreign nationals allegedly took advantage of the trust of the American people and flouted the laws that govern our nation’s elections," Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the department’s news release. The department said it has now charged 195 noncitizens across 25 states with illegal voting and registration offenses in the nine weeks before the announcement, and 239 people with voting fraud-related offenses since the current administration began.
Separately, the department confirmed on Monday that it will send about 1,000 election monitors to counties in all 50 states, in what it described as its largest election-monitoring effort in recent cycles. The department says the monitors are federal employees who will observe and report possible violations of laws such as the Voting Rights Act, will not interfere with voting and will not carry firearms. Civil rights groups, including the NAACP, have sued to block parts of the plan, and a federal judge has pressed the department for clarity about who will serve as monitors.
The timing, one day before voting, drew attention because election cases announced close to an election can affect public confidence as well as the defendants themselves. The department said it would continue investigating and prosecuting voter fraud. As with every case in Monday’s announcement, the charges are allegations that prosecutors must prove in court; none of the 63 defendants has been convicted in these cases, and each is presumed innocent unless and until a court finds otherwise.
