An election to the Compton, California city council has been overturned due to the discovery of election fraud in a close race in which the winning candidate has been charged with voter fraud and bribery.
Compton City Council member Isaac Galvan, who appeared to win his seat by the slimmest possible margin of one vote, was arrested last year, along with five other people, and charged with conspiracy to commit election fraud.
He will be replaced by his challenger, Andre Spicer, after a judge ruled Friday that four of the votes in the election were invalid because they were cast by people who did not live in the district.
The Los Angeles Times reported Monday:
Two-term Councilman Isaac Galvan must be replaced by his challenger, Andre Spicer, after a judge determined that four of the votes cast in the election were submitted by people who did not live in the council district that the two men were vying to represent, according to a 10-page ruling issued Friday by Superior Court Judge Michelle Williams Court.
After a contentious primary, Galvan and Spicer advanced to a runoff in June 2021, which Galvan won, 855 to 854. With the four illegal ballots disqualified, Court ruled that Spicer was the rightful winner of the election by a tally of 854 to 851.
…
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 elections 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.
Voter fraud is rare, but it does happen, and it can overturn election results in close races.
Spicer told NBC Los Angeles that he was relieved at the outcome, and that rumors of voter fraud had persisted in Compton for years before this case.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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