Sixty-three-year-old Enrique Salazar Ortiz reportedly voted in numerous elections over the past 24 years using the name Jesse H. Vargas Jr. – a former San Antonio resident who moved to California decades ago, the San Antonio Express News reports.
“He’s been voting since at least 1994,” Bexar County elections administrator Jacque Callanen said.
Federal agents raided Ortiz’s suburban San Antonio home in August 2017 after his application to renew a passport with Vargas’ name was flagged for potential fraud. Investigators realized two men who did not look alike were using the same name and date of birth. Ortiz told agents he purchased documents with Vargas’ name for $20 and has used it ever since. He obtained a passport with the information in 2006, which he used to travel, and admitted to voting in the last presidential election, records show.
“When asked if he had ever voted, at first Mr. Salazar Ortiz was hesitant to answer, but when confronted with voting records, he indicated that he voted in the most recent election,” according to his plea deal cited by the News.
Ortiz would not divulge how many times he committed voter fraud, but a relative of the real Vargas said the 57-year-old moved out of Bexar County as a teen, the Associated Press reports.
Ortiz pleaded guilty to making a false statement in a passport application, voter fraud, and aggravated identity theft during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Fred Biery on Thursday, when he admitted he was born in Veracruz, Mexico and is not a legal citizen.
Biery asked Ortiz directly whether he knew he was breaking the law by casting a ballot.
“Unfortunately, yes, I knew,” he said.
The judge set Ortiz’s sentencing for Jan. 24.
Ortiz, who is married to a U.S. citizen and has a daughter, faces up to a decade in prison, with a minimum of two years for the aggravated identity theft charge, the News reports.
Ortiz pleaded guilty to his crimes the same week San Francisco announced noncitizens can now vote in local school board elections, including those who are in the country illegally. Other places including Takoma Park and Hyattsville City in Maryland, as well as Amherst and Cambridge, Massachusetts allow noncitizens to vote, as well, the Los Angeles Times reports.
As of Tuesday, only 42 noncitizens of San Francisco had signed up to vote, in part because their information could be turned over to U.S. immigration officials. A 2017 Pew Research report estimates 35,000 people live in...Read More HERE
1 comment:
One down, about seven million to go. But we don't have a voter fraud problem. Ask any leftist.
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