We’ve been learning all manner of things this year about ways that people have attempted to tamper with the voting process, despite most of the mainstream media’s insistence that actual voter fraud rarely if ever happens. Some people have engaged in what’s known as ballot harvesting. Others have teamed up with unscrupulous postal workers to either throw away or replace absentee ballots. But in the city of Carrollton, Texas, one candidate hoping to become the next mayor decided to cut out the middle man and take a far more direct approach to increase his chances on November 3rd. Liberal challenger Zul Mirza Mohamed has been arrested after submitting hundreds of requests for ballots in the names of nursing home patients and having them mailed directly to his Post Office box that was set up under a fictitious name. It was a brilliant scheme… until somebody noticed. (CBS Dallas – Ft. Worth)
A mayoral candidate in Carrollton has been arrested and charged with voter fraud.
Denton County Sheriffs have Zul Mirza Mohamed in custody and have charged him with 109 felonies related to voter fraud.
The investigation began September 23 when Sheriff’s were notified by the Denton County Elections Office of possible fraudulent activity related to absentee ballot applications.
Officials say absentee ballots had been requested to be sent to a PO Box in Lewisville, that was supposed to belong to a nursing home facility.
Determining the party affiliations, or at least leanings in this race isn’t easy as they don’t seem to be publicly listed. You have to do some digging to find that incumbent Mayor Kevin Falconer “traditionally voted with the Republicans.” Mohamed is running to replace him, though with 109 felony counts against him and his new address currently being the city jail, his campaign options may be limited.
As voter fraud schemes go, this probably wasn’t the dumbest one we’ve seen, though it obviously wasn’t foolproof. Mohamed obtained lists of residents at local nursing homes as his primary targets. He then went and set up a post office box using a fake college identification under a different name. He next sent in requests for a huge number of absentee ballots, providing the real names of the nursing home residents, but listing the PO box as belonging to the nursing home.
At first, the scheme seemed to be working. The ballots were being sent to the Post Office box regularly. But it was apparently happening too regularly and somebody noticed, reporting the suspicious activity to the County Elections Office. Officials there notified the police who began an investigation.
To give credit where due, Mohamed had taken enough steps to make the investigators actually have to work to crack the case. Since the box was under a fraudulent name, they had to stake out the Post Office until someone arrived to pick up the mail. The someone in question turned out to be Mohamed, but they had to follow him home to find out his identity. Then they needed to get a warrant to search the home and arrest him. At his house, they found many ballots, some of them open, and the fake ID used to rent the PO box.
Okay, so the plan wasn’t entirely perfect. When investigators went to the nursing homes to ask about the ballots, most of the residents informed them that they hadn’t requested one. But the fact is that law enforcement never would have thought to ask them about it had the plot not been uncovered, If Mohamed had taken a less bludgeoning approach, perhaps spreading the applications around over a number of different Post Office branches, it’s conceivable that nobody would have noticed. And it might have wound up being enough of a difference to swing the election.
In closing, for those of you who continue to say that voter fraud never happens or is vanishingly rare, allow me to ask you the same question that always crops up along with these stories. Authorities caught Zul Mirza Mohamed and it looks like he’ll be serving serious time for his crimes. That’s great. But how many people didn’t get caught? How many fraudsters were just a little bit smarter and a little bit more careful than Mohamed and managed to get away with it? Food for thought as we wait for the end of this seemingly endless election cycle.
