In previous elections, a former Democratic congressman from Philadelphia pleaded guilty to fraudulently stuffing ballot boxes for Democratic candidates and reportedly bribing judges.
Michael J. ‘Ozzie’ Myers, a former Democratic U.S. Representative, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deprive voters of their civil rights, bribery, obstruction of justice, falsification of voting records, and conspiring to vote illegally in a federal election.
Myers, 79, confessed bribing a judge of elections in charge of the polling station to add votes for his preferred candidates, including clients seeking for judicial positions. Prosecutors said the bribes were in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Between 2014 and 2018, Myers planned plots to fraudulently pack vote boxes for Democratic candidates in Pennsylvania elections. The plots did not include the 2020 presidential election, which former President Trump claimed was rigged.
Myers’ court date has not yet been set, and he will not be held in custody while he waits.
In the Abscam sting probe, Myers was famously removed from Congress in 1980 after being caught on camera collecting bribes.
Federal prosecutors said his ‘criminal efforts were generally, but not exclusively, directed at securing election victories for local judicial candidates running for Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas or Municipal Court who had employed Myers as a ‘political consultant’ in a sentencing memo dated Friday.
As part of a voting fraud operation, Myers acknowledged to bribing elections judge Domenick Demuro. In May 2020, Demuro was indicted separately and pleaded guilty.
He was found guilty of taking bribes to cast fake ballots and certify bogus voting results in exchange for sums ranging from $300 to $5,000.
In a press release, U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams remarked, “Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy.” ‘When even one vote is cast illegally or the integrity of just one election officer is questioned, faith in the process is eroded.’
Prosecutors claimed that on election day, Myers collaborated with another elections judge to advise voters who candidates they should vote for, politicians that Myers had chosen, and that the now-retired judge cast fraudulent votes for people who did not show up at the polls.
Myers also acknowledged to plotting with Marie Beren, a former Judge of Elections in South Philadelphia, to commit election fraud.
Beren, who was prosecuted separately and pled guilty in October 2021, was in command of her division’s polling booths by appointing close allies to the Board of Elections.
Myers stated that he directed Beren to cast additional votes for politicians he supported, including judicial candidates whose campaigns hired Myers and other candidates for federal, state, and municipal elected offices who Myers liked for a number of reasons.
Myers would tell Beren the candidates he was supporting on the way to the polling place, so Beren would know which candidates should be receiving bogus ballots.
Beren would counsel actual in-person voters to support Myers’ candidates inside the polling place and while the polls were open, as well as cast fraudulent votes in support of Myers’ preferred politicians on behalf of those she knew would not or did not physically attend at the polls.
Myers chatted with Beren via cell phone on Election Day about the number of votes cast for his favored candidates while she was at the polling place. Beren would inform Myers of how many ‘legitimate votes’ had cast ballots at the polls.
Beren would add fewer bogus votes in behalf of Myers’ preferred candidates if actual voter turnout was high.
According to vote.org, the judge of elections collaborates with the majority and minority inspectors to supervise the polling location, keep track of the number of voters, and ensure that the returns are submitted to the county election office at the conclusion of the day.
After being found collecting bribes in the Abscam sting investigation, Myers was removed from Congress in 1980.
Myers was convicted of bribery and conspiracy in the Abscam sting for accepting money from FBI agents posing as Arab sheiks. He was imprisoned for more than a year.
Before being elected to Congress in 1976, Myers had served six years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
Myers’ admissions of election fraud this week did not pertain to the 2020 election, which former President Trump has continued to assert was rigged by citing a slew of complaints, many of which involved the pandemic’s expansion of mail voting.
Trump’s bogus accusations of a rigged election sparked the fatal Capitol insurgency on Jan. 6, have resulted in death threats against election officials, and have been deeply embedded inside the Republican Party, with two-thirds of Republicans saying Biden’s election was illegal.
At Trump’s request, Republican lawmakers in some states have exploited the phony claims as rationale for conducting costly and time-consuming political election reviews and enacting additional voting restrictions.
Trump’s assertion is undermined by the number of incidents identified so far by local election authorities and referred to prosecutors, local law enforcement, or state secretaries of state for additional investigation. Officials further claim that in the vast majority of cases, the extra ballots were never tallied because staff did their duty and pulled them for scrutiny before adding them to the tally.
According to experts, stealing a presidential election would necessitate a significant number of people prepared to face punishment, prison time, and penalties, as well as election officials from both parties willing to look the other way. And everyone would manage to keep quiet about the whole thing.