Wait, weren’t mail-in ballots supposed to be safe and secure? Or so Democrats claimed. Now, new charges have been brought against two New Jersey Democrats related in state election fraud offenses.
This involves voter registration and mail-in ballots from 2020 and 2021 races in two different cities. One of the cases has been ongoing for more than three years.
Paterson City Council President Alex Mendez faces additional charges in a 2020 election fraud case, while Dr. Henrilynn Ibezim, who was a candidate for Plainfield mayor in 2021, is being charged with directing his associates to fill out blank voter registration applications and bringing nearly 1,000 of them to a post office.
NEW: Multiple New Jersey Democrats have been charged with election fraud crimes involving mail in ballots.
Paterson City Council President Alex Mendez was indicted for alleged crimes committed during the 2020 election.
Mendez allegedly supervised an operation that stole mail… pic.twitter.com/ly99M0zHQo
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 1, 2023
Prior to a May 2020 election in which Mendez was running for a city council seat, prosecutors allege he collected several mail-in ballots from various households over several days in violation of state law. Though New Jersey permits a “bearer” to return completed ballots from voters, candidates themselves are not allowed to do the collecting within their district they are running in.
It is alleged that Mendez’s campaign staff gathered ballots that had not yet been sealed and checked them over at his campaign headquarters to see if they were votes for him. Any votes that weren’t cast for Mendez were then destroyed and replaced by ones with his name on it – allegedly stolen from the mailboxes of voters.
After an indictment against Mendez February 2021, he and others reportedly said they would try to contact witnesses who were planning to testify against him and provide them with new statements that would help his defense.
Dr. Henrilynn Ibezim has also been charged by State Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s office with “election fraud and other crimes after allegedly bringing a trash bag stuffed with” 954 fake “voter registration applications” addressed to the Union County Commissioner of Registration into a post office where he mailed them off himself.
The charges brought up against both Paterson City Council President Alex Mendez and Dr. Henrilynn Ibezim bring up questions about whether or not these actions will hold implications on the Democratic party as a whole – especially as these allegations come during such turbulent political times when many have already lost faith in the party altogether.