A federal jury in Sioux City, Iowa, convicted an Iowa woman Tuesday for a voter fraud scheme during the Iowa 2020 primary and general elections.
According to court documents, Kim Phuong Taylor, 49, of Sioux City, the wife of Jeremy Taylor, formerly a member of the Iowa House of Representatives and a candidate for the Republican nomination for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District in 2020, perpetrated a scheme to fraudulently generate votes for her husband in the primary election for Iowa’s 4th U.S. Congressional District in June 2020.
According to the DOJ, after Taylor’s husband lost in the primary, he ran for Woodbury County Supervisor in the 2020 general election, and Taylor again engaged in ballot fraud, causing absentee ballots to be fraudulently requested and cast.
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Taylor submitted or caused others to submit dozens of voter registrations, absentee ballot request forms, and absentee ballots containing false information.
Taylor completed and signed voter forms without voters’ permission and told others that they could sign on behalf of relatives who were not present.
“The right to vote is one of our most important constitutional rights. Ms. Taylor deprived citizens of their right to vote in order to benefit her husband’s campaign,” said Tim Duax, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, whose office prosecuted the case, to SiouxlandProud.com, a local news organization. “The guilty verdict is an example of how the justice system works to protect the voting rights of citizens and ensure fair and honest elections.”
The jury convicted Taylor of 26 counts of providing false information in registering and voting, three counts of fraudulent registration, and 23 counts of fraudulent voting. She faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count. A sentencing date will be set after a presentence report is prepared. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The AP reported that following six hours of deliberation, the jury found the defendants guilty on all counts. The Hill states that the maximum sentence for each count is five years in prison.
“Despite what’s in the media, voter fraud is extremely rare,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Evans, one of the prosecutors assigned to the case, to the AP. “To have someone vote dozens of times for several people, that is rare.”
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