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Voter Fraud Leads to Reversed Result in California Local Government Election

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


An election in arguably the most liberal state in America has been overturned after evidence of voter fraud.

A 2021 election to the Compton, California city council has been overturned after the winning candidate has been charged with voter fraud and bribery.

Compton City Council member Isaac Galvin, who appeared to win his seat by one vote, was arrested last year, along with five other people, and charged with conspiracy to commit election fraud.

A judge ruled that Galvin will be replaced by his challenger, Andre Spicer, after four of the votes in the election were invalid because they were cast by people who did not live in the district.

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The Los Angeles Times reported:

The municipal contest drew attention in August when the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office charged Galvan with election rigging and bribery. Prosecutors alleged that Galvan conspired with primary opponent Jace Dawson to direct voters from outside the council district to cast ballots for Galvan in the June runoff against Spicer. Galvan was also accused of trying to bribe an election official with concert tickets, according to the criminal complaint. The official immediately reported the attempt, according to Dean Logan, the county’s top elections official.

Dawson, Kimberly Chaouch, Toni Sanae Morris, Barry Kirk Reed, and Reginald Orlando Streeter were charged with two counts each of conspiracy to commit election fraud last summer. When she ruled on Spicer’s election challenge Friday, Court found that Chaouch, Morris, Streeter, and a man named Jordan Farr Jefferson all voted in the runoff between Spicer and Galvan despite not living in the Compton City Council’s second district.

Chaouch, Morris, Streeter, and Jefferson all listed Dawson’s address in Compton as their home when registering to vote in the race, according to the 10-page ruling.

Less than a week after the race, Chaouch admitted on a recorded line that she actually lived in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles and that Dawson had her register to vote from his address.

“There’s a couple more that are using his personal address as well,” she said, according to the judge’s ruling. “Jace is the only person that lives there.”

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“Federal investigators served a search warrant at Galvan’s home in November 2020 as part of an investigation into marijuana licensing practices in Baldwin Park. The search came months after a former Baldwin Park police officer signed a sworn statement that he’d received complaints from three cannabis dispensary operators alleging questionable business practices, which included paying as much as $250,000 cash in a brown paper bag to city officials,” the LA Times reported.

“And just last week, an aide to the councilman was arrested in connection with what authorities said is a murder in Downey. David Blake Jr., the son of Compton rapper and producer DJ Quik, was taken into custody after 33-year-old Julio Cardoza was shot in the chest after a fight in the 13200 block of Carfax Avenue on Wednesday,” the report added.

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Spicer is expected to be sworn into office on Tuesday.

“I am excited, thrilled, and relieved that Judge Michelle Williams ruled in my favor,” Spicer said in a statement to ABC7. “We have work so hard and tirelessly to prove our case and represent for a community who needed it the most. Today is a new beginning for not only myself but 25,000 residents that have been pleading for change.”

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