PA Dems Charged for Election Fraud

Federal prosecutors have charged three Pennsylvania Democrats with altering voter registration details for numerous individuals and fraudulently submitting mail-in ballots under their names in an unsuccessful attempt to rig a mayoral election.

The accused, Md Nurul Hasan, Md Munsur Ali, and Md Rafikul Islam, allegedly conspired to secure Hasan’s victory as a write-in candidate in the 2021 mayoral race in Millbourne Borough, a small community near Philadelphia, as outlined in an indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The indictment claims that the trio managed to alter voter registration information for around 36 individuals in Delaware County, using these changes to cast fraudulent votes for Hasan. Despite their efforts, Hasan lost the election to fellow Democrat Mahabubul Tayub by a margin of 27 votes, according to official election results.

Robert Keller, the attorney representing Islam, stated that his client is portrayed as “the least culpable” among the defendants in the indictment, with allegations suggesting Islam played only a minor role in the scheme. Keller confirmed that Islam has agreed to surrender to the court voluntarily.

“He has no prior criminal record, is a U.S. citizen, and has led an honorable life. We will do everything in our power to safeguard his interests, assess the government’s case, and respond appropriately,” Keller said.

Following the 2020 presidential election, Republicans nationwide pushed for stricter election security measures. Democrats and mainstream media outlets criticized these efforts as overly harsh and largely unnecessary, arguing that voter fraud is rare and that manipulating election outcomes through fraud is highly unlikely. Former President Joe Biden notably criticized Georgia’s revised election-security law, comparing it to “21st-century Jim Crow.” 

The alleged scheme to rig the Millbourne mayoral race emerged after Hasan, the borough’s vice mayor, lost the May 2021 Democratic primary to now-Mayor Mahabubul Tayub by 18 votes. Millbourne is a predominantly Democratic municipality, with no Republican candidate running for mayor in 2021. The indictment notes that the primary winner was “extremely likely” to win the general election.

After his primary defeat, Hasan opted to run as a write-in candidate for mayor, with Ali and Islam, both borough council members at the time, agreeing to support him, according to the indictment. Islam lost his re-election bid later that year.

Millbourne has a population of approximately 1,200 people. At the time of the May primary, there were around 549 registered voters, but by the November election, the number had increased to about 578. The indictment alleges that many of the newly registered voters were individuals who did not reside in Millbourne but had their voter registration addresses changed to locations within the borough through unauthorized access to the county’s voter registration website.

Prosecutors claim that Hasan, Ali, and Islam conspired to obtain personal information for non-residents, use it to access the county’s voter registration system, and change their addresses to Millbourne locations. They then allegedly requested mail-in or absentee ballots for these individuals and cast fraudulent votes for Hasan.

In some instances, Hasan and Ali reportedly contacted friends and acquaintances outside Millbourne, obtaining their consent to register them as voters in the borough to support Hasan. The indictment states that Hasan and Ali assured these individuals they would face no consequences as long as they did not vote elsewhere in the November 2021 election.

In total, the trio is accused of fraudulently registering nearly three dozen non-residents as Millbourne voters. The indictment identifies 15 such voters, referred to as Person A, Person B, etc., who reside in nearby communities like Upper Derby, Drexel Hill, Havertown, and Philadelphia.

Hasan ultimately received 138 votes in the election, losing to Tayub, who secured 165 votes. According to Millbourne’s website, the borough boasts the highest concentration of South Asian residents in the United States.

Jim Allen, the county’s elections director, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the indictments should serve as a warning to anyone considering voter fraud, which he described as “exceedingly rare.” He emphasized that investigators remain committed to pursuing such cases, regardless of the time elapsed or the election’s outcome.