(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Three non-U.S. citizens were arrested on charges of identity theft and voter fraud, Alabama Secretary State Wes Allen, a Republican, announced Thursday, April 13.
Alabama law enforcement arrested Teresa Martin Pascual, Maria Juan Pascual and Luis Balderman on March 15 after they allegedly used stolen identities to register online to vote. The perpetrators were not U.S. citizens and thus ineligible to vote, a statement from the Alabama Secretary of State alleged.
Alabama Secretary of State Assists Law Enforcement with the Arrest of Three Individuals for Identity Theft and Voter Fraud #alpoliticshttps://t.co/B0m1mnhw4N pic.twitter.com/23lrozHA2i
— Secretary of State (@alasecofstate) April 11, 2023
“I am incredibly appreciative of the efforts of the law enforcement agencies who worked together to indict and apprehend these three individuals,” Secretary Allen said. “My office will always assist law enforcement in every way possible to seek convictions of individuals who attempt to illegally vote in our elections. We will not tolerate a single illegal voter attempting to participate in our elections.”
“I think the message here is don’t steal someone else’s identity and then register to vote and then vote in our elections,” he continued. “The essence of identity theft is of course stealing someone’s identity and lying about who they really are. And that’s, I believe exactly what happened in this case.”
Franklin County Board of Registrars Betty Vincent warned that this type of voter fraud is happening across the state. “People do this all the time, and I’m sure that it may be happening in other places,” she said. “We do talk to other registrars in the state and we haven’t had anybody mention this to us.”
Alabama residents are required to be U.S. citizens to vote in local elections. The nationalities of the three individuals and whether they voted in state or federal elections remain unknown.
The arrest was coordinated with the U.S. Department of State, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the Franklin County District Attorney’s Office, the Franklyn County Sheriff’s Office and the Russell Police Department.
Franklin County District Attorney Jeff Barksdale touted a 13-count grand jury indictment against Pascual, which carry a potential sentence of 20 years, NBC-affiliate 48 WAFF reported on April 12.
Allen cited the state’s election security laws to prevent future voter fraud from happening. “No curbside voting, making sure that everybody has a photo identification,” he said. “Photo ID at the polls and through our absentee election process is strong and we’re going to make sure we maintain photo identification.”
Election integrity advocates took to Twitter to applaud the news of the arrest.
“Not happening here,” Twitter user Debra Norwood said. “As a former Registrar if each individual county in every state would clean up their voter’s lists during the year we wouldn’t have issues.”
Not happening here 👏
As a former Registrar if each individual county in every state would clean up their voter’s list during the year we wouldn’t have issues. Period.
3 arrested for identity theft, voter fraud in Alabamahttps://t.co/JtUE1nRuEc— Debra Norwood (@DebraAmos16) April 14, 2023
Twitter user @PGMTHE1ST shared the news with her 3,000 followers on Twitter.
Three in Alabama arrested for identity theft and voter fraud #NewsBreak https://t.co/b1Jq3Uaxr9
— Paristhe1st XX MOTHER🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@pgmthe1st) April 11, 2023
