New Jersey City Officials Charged With Election Fraud – Nearly 20% Of Mail-In Ballots Had Problems, Not Counted

Who would’ve thunk it, politicians can be corrupt, and mail-in ballots can be problematic. This is just a preview of the upcoming election.

“New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal filed criminal charges against four individuals—including two city council officials—last week for allegedly engaging in voter fraud with mail-in ballots.

Grewal announced the charges at a press conference last week, saying that “if you try to tamper with an election in New Jersey, we will find you and we will hold you accountable. We will not allow a small number of criminals to undermine the public’s confidence in our democratic process.”

The investigation began after hundreds of mail-in ballots were found bundled together in a mailbox in Paterson.

According to a press release from the state, the following four individuals were charged in the case:

Michael Jackson, 48, of Paterson—1st Ward Councilman and Council Vice President, was charged with Fraud in Casting Mail-In Vote (3rd Degree), Unauthorized Possession of Ballots (3rd Degree), Tampering with Public Records (3rd Degree), and Falsifying or Tampering with Records (4th Degree).

Alex Mendez, 45, of Paterson—3rd Ward Councilman-Elect, was charged with Election Fraud (2nd Degree), Fraud in Casting Mail-In Vote (3rd Degree), Unauthorized Possession of Ballots (3rd Degree), False Registration or Transfer (Third-Degree), Tampering with Public Records (3rd Degree), and Falsifying or Tampering with Records (4th Degree).

Shelim Khalique, 51, of Wayne, N.J., was charged with Fraud in Casting Mail-In Vote (3rd Degree), Unauthorized Possession of Ballots (3rd Degree), Tampering with Public Records (3rd Degree), and Falsifying or Tampering with Records (4th Degree).

Abu Razyen, 21, of Prospect Park, N.J., was charged with Fraud in Casting Mail-In Vote (3rd Degree) and Unauthorized Possession of Ballots (3rd Degree).

NBC New York reported that 16,747 vote-by-mail ballots were received but only 13,557 votes were counted. Around 800 votes were not counted because they “were found improperly bundled in mailboxes” and the remaining 2,390 disqualifications were due to signature discrepancies.

“We did not receive vote by mail ballots and thus we did not vote,” one resident told NBC New York. “This is corruption. This is fraud.”

An attorney for Jackson said in a statement to CNN that his client will be fighting the charges.

“He will be contesting all of these charges,” Theodore Kyles Jr. said in a statement. “And I can tell you that Councilman Jackson is a fine public servant with many, many years of distinguished service to the community, even before he was elected to the city council.”

Paul Brickfield, an attorney for Mendez, also told CNN that his client will be fighting the charges.

“He’s going to be pleading not guilty to the charges,” Brickfield said. “He looks forward to being vindicated. He looks forward to being sworn in on July 1 as the duly elected councilperson for District 3.”

There have been numerous examples of voter fraud found throughout the U.S. this year, with a couple of notable cases coming out of Philadelphia and West Virginia.

Jeff Rainforth is the photographer & news editor for Airman Kolfage’s We Build the Wall, Inc.
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About Jeff Rainforth 580 Articles
Jeff covers border news in the US and has traveled around the world documenting the border walls and counter-terrorism efforts of other countries. He runs the Rainforth Report on Substack. In 2022 Jeff embarked on a border crisis tour, documenting cartel trafficking of drugs and humans. The year before he was contracted to film on the border with Ben Bergquam of America's Voice News and also for Women Fighting for America. Jeff was the videographer for the March for Trump bus tour which crossed the country twice and ended on January 6th, 2021 in DC at the Capitol. He filmed the events that took place at the Capitol Building. Jeff was the videographer and news editor for We Build the Wall, the organization founded by triple-amputee vet hero Brian Kolfage. He was the sole photographer allowed to be on site to document the construction of the first ever privately built border wall. Jeff has worked on Kolfage's projects since 2015. Steve Bannon sent Jeff to embed with the Hong Kong protesters, covering their fight for freedom against the Chinese Communist Party, and regularly films inside of riots in Democrat-run cities in the United States. Bannon also sent Jeff to film for a documentary on border walls in mainland China as COVID was about to emerge from the country. Bannon and Kolfage then sent Jeff to film walls and counter-terrorism efforts in Thailand, Malaysia, Israel by the Gaza Strip, Hungary & Serbia, France, Spain, and north Africa. As of 2022 Jeff is an editor at Populist Press and other news sites. Jeff did a special 2nd Amendment project for Navy SEAL Rob O'Neill who killed Bin Laden, and he was the national rally organizer to free Marine Sgt. Tahmooressi from the Mexican prison. He is chairman emeritus of Ross Perot’s Reform Party of California, and a former candidate for governor. He wrote for former war correspondent & Breitbart contributor, Pat Dollard, and headed up his 30-person research team. Mr. Rainforth also wrote for the Wayne Dupree Show. Jeff is a two-time nominee for the prestigious Blog Bash Award for best activism for organizing the national movement to form a select committee on Benghazi, and for his role as the national rally organizer to free Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi from Mexican imprisonment. Jeff appears in Sgt. Tahmooressi's mother's book, "When Light Prevails."

1 Comment

  1. We don’t know if they were republican or democrates who did this and it really don’t matter. What does matter in the long run is we now no that with mail in votes , fraud does happen. Require photo ID and walk in voting.

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