New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is bringing multiple criminal charges against two Democrats – Alex Mendez and Dr. Henrilynn Ibezim – over alleged election fraud in state elections between 2020 and 2021.
Mendez, President of Paterson City Council, is facing a set of fresh charges relating to mail-in-ballot election fraud after he already faced charges in June 2020 and February 2021.
Platkin alleges Mendez collected a large number of ballots from households in violation of New Jersey state law as candidates cannot themselves collect and return ballots for the district in which they are running. The attorney general’s office also claims Mendez’s campaign actively destroyed and replaced ballots if they did not support him, and that he completed ballots if left uncompleted, among a number of other things.
Mendez has been charged with conspiracy to commit election fraud, fraud in casting mail-in votes, unauthorized possession of ballots, tampering with public records, forgery, and falsifying records.
“We allege that Mendez and his associates unlawfully collected ballots and tampered with ballots to give him an unfair edge in the race for the 3rd Ward seat on the Paterson City Council” before “He… allegedly set about undermining our investigation into his and his campaign workers’ unlawful activities,” stated Thomas Eicher, the Executive Director of the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability.
Ibezim, who stood as a candidate in a Plainfield mayoral election in 2021, has been charged with allegedly directing associates to fill out blank registration applications and bringing nearly 1,000 to a post office. He also allegedly arrived at a post office on “May 18, 2021, carrying a large white garbage bag” believed to be holding registration applications.
Ibezim “allegedly resorted to fraud in an alleged attempt to unfairly prevail in this election. This desperate attempt to artificially and illegally inflate support for his candidacy was designed to not only cheat his political opponents out of a victory, but also to cheat the people of Plainfield out of their right to choose their elected officials,” stated Eicher upon announcing the charges.
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