We’ve heard a lot about election or voter fraud in the past year or so, more so probably than you have ever heard before. Undoubtedly, most of that has been by former President Donald J. Trump, as he and many others believe he was cheated out of his second term. The issue, in fact, has become such a controversial topic that most news outlets and media members absolutely refuse to talk about it all.
But that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be.
While irrefutable evidence of election fraud on a massive scale has yet to be found, much smaller cases do keep popping up, proving that the idea is not completely moot.
One of the latest involves a newly elected councilman and five more, who have recently been charged with election fraud and/or bribery.
According to the Los Angeles Times, 34-year-old Isaac Galvan, a Compton City, California councilman and a democrat, was arrested on Friday for leading the criminal plan to rig his own election. A criminal complaint filed with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office brought the plan to light. Per the complaint, Galvan and one of his opponents, Jace Dawson, conspired to “direct voters from outside the council district to cast ballots for Galvan in a June runoff.”
And the plan worked.
According to race results, Galvan beat his opponent and runner-up, Andre Spicer, by a mere one vote, 855-854.
But that’s not what the vote should have been, as his “victory” has now been proved to be false. According to the Times’ report, at least three “improper ballots” have been found that were counted during the runoff election and gave the win to Galvan.
Per the district attorney’s Bureau of Investigation, Galvan and Dawson were arrested on Friday, each charged with conspiracy to commit election fraud. Kimberly Chaouch, Toni Morris, Barry Reed, and Reginald Streeter weren’t arrested but were still charged with two counts each of conspiracy to commit election fraud, as they were found to have voted for Galvan in the election despite living outside of the district.
In addition, Galvan was charged with bribery. As the complaint says, when Galvan found out that an employee of the registrar’s office and election observer knew about the plan, he allegedly bribed them “with concert tickets” to keep quiet.
Now, clearly, this is not some master plan that proves that Trump should have won or even that the Senate should still be in Republican control. After all, there was only a mere six people involved.
However, it proves that not all claims of voter fraud are fake or just some conspiracy. They do happen, and, as this one did, they can change the outcome of an election. As the authorities said, these “insignificant” three votes made all the difference for Galvan’s race.
Compton City is just lucky his crimes were discovered before he and his cronies continued to corrupt the system.
As LA County’s DA George Gascon says, “Elections are the cornerstone of our democratic nation. We must do everything in our power to protect the integrity of the electorate process and to ensure that elections are free and fair.”
Unfortunately, it would seem that not everyone agrees with this sentiment. Instead, those like Galvan seem to care more about putting themselves or their party first, no matter what freedoms or national standards and laws are trampled on.
As for the 2020 election and all others that have recently taken place, LA County’s top election official Dean Logan says that this investigation and the subsequent charges prove that if fraud did happen, it will be rooted out and punished. He says this, if anything, should restore some measure of faith that the people of LA County and even America can have in our systems.
And to some degree, he’s right. As long as new fraud cases keep getting found and consequences for them meted out, we know that any wrongs are at least trying to be righted.
However, the fact that they happened in the first place isn’t exactly comforting, especially considering we now have an incapable and weak-minded man in the Oval Office.
