FBI Visits Former N.M Senate Candidate Who Successfully Attempted to Prove Voter Fraud

11/4/2014

Updated: 11/03/2014 10:22 PM | Created: 11/03/2014 4:07 PM
By: Blair Miller, KOB.com and Ryan Luby, KOB Eyewitness News 4

The Bernalillo County Clerk's office mailed absentee ballots to three dead voters, according to an Albuquerque man named Carlos Villanueva, who brought the ballots into the Secretary of State's Office Monday morning.

Villanueva said he suspected similar voter fraud was happening, so he tested the system himself.

He chose three random people from local obituaries, and wanted to see if it would be easy to request ballots under their names, even though the people were already dead.

Using nothing more than their names and birthdates, he was able to get the Bernalillo Co. Clerk's Office to mail the ballots to his own home address, not even the addresses belonging to the people who died.

He said no one at the clerk's office asked him for the dead people's addresses or verification, and alleges that the clerk's office actually changed the addresses on each of the three people's voter ID cards to reflect his home address.

"I set out to say, if it's the last thing I do, to make sure there is democracy in future elections," Villanueva said. "People like me that are honest and come forth...it concerns the taxpayers that I'm going to do the right thing first."

Technically, Villanueva could potentially face federal charges despite what he says he has uncovered because he did fraudulently request absentee ballots for people other than himself.

He has made allegations of voter fraud before, when he ran for a state Senate seat in 2012.

The Secretary of State's Office examined the ballots and determined at least two of the people to whom the ballots were designated were already deceased. According to the Secretary of State's Office, the FBI was immediately notified and seized the ballots around 11:30 a.m.

"We checked the names, and confirmed that at least two of them had a death record in the social security database," said Bureau of Elections Director Bobbi Shearer.

The problem is that sort of data was and is still not available to the Bernalillo Co. Clerk's Office. Folks in the office there say the secretary of state last sent them an updated list of dead voters for September and not October, the month in which those two voters died.

The Secretary of State's Office says it is worried the problem could be more pervasive than this one instance.

"It's very concerning," Shearer said. "The secretary is very concerned about this and yes, we're going to take a look at the absentee register and see if we see any other evidence of this kind of activity."

Bernalillo Co. Clerk Maggie Toulous Oliver released a statement to KOB Monday evening regarding the incident:

"As of this moment neither the Secretary of State's office, nor the FBI, has contacted my office or provided any information whatsoever regarding this extremely serious situation.

However, based upon the information in the media, which clearly indicates that Carlos Villanueva has broken both state and federal laws, I can only address the processes and procedures our office uses for verifying deceased voters and confirming absentee ballot requests.

To be clear, my office will continue our consistent and aggressive policy of working closely with proper authorities to ensure full prosecution of any fraudulent activities. Requesting an absentee ballot for a deceased person is a clear violation of state and federal law.

With the FBI already involved, I further call for both state and federal officials to act quickly and our office will be a full-fledged participant in any investigation that arises from this situation."

As of this past Friday, there had been 64,000 requests for absentee ballots.

"As soon as we confirmed the facts provided to us, I immediately notified [Secretary of State] Dianna Duran, who then directed me to notify the FBI," Shearer added in a news release.

If you have any concerns or irregularities concerning the election, notify the Secretary of State's Office at 1-800-477-3632.

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