A California man was charged Tuesday with submitting more than 8,000 fraudulent voter registration applications on behalf of homeless people in an alleged bizarre scheme to be elected mayor of Hawthorne, California, the Los Angeles District Attorney said.
Carlos Antonio De Bourbon Montenegro, also known as Mark Anthony Gonsalves, was charged in a 41-count indictment alleging a slew of felony and misdemeanor violations.
Also charged in the complaint is Marcos Raul Arevalo, 34, who faces 17 criminal counts.
Prosecutors say Mr. Montenegro, 53, committed perjury by falsifying names, addresses and signatures on nomination papers for his run for mayor of Hawthorne.
Mr. Montenegro, Mr. Arevalo and other unknown co-conspirators used three post office boxes in Hawthorne as mailing addresses for over 8,000 voter registration applications for “fictitious, non-existent or deceased persons,” submitted along with nomination papers to the Los Angeles County Register-Recorder’s Office and the California Secretary of State, according to court documents.
Some of the names on the applications belonged to homeless people, prosecutors said.
Mr. Montenegro is also accused of submitting write-in candidate nomination papers containing 32 signatures for “fictitious, non-existent or deceased persons.”
The pair are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit voter fraud, eight counts of voter fraud, four counts of procuring and offering a false or forged instrument and four misdemeanor counts of interference with a prompt transfer of a completed affidavit.
Mr. Montenegro faces an additional 10 counts of voter fraud, seven counts of procuring and offering a false or forged instruments, two counts of perjury and five misdemeanor counts of interference with a prompt
If convicted, Mr. Montenegro faces nearly 16 years in state prison, while Mr. Arevalo faces a maximum of seven years in prison.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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