A man in Walker county is sentenced for 25 years in prison on election fraud charges.
According to the District Attorney, the man who was identified as 62-year-old William Chase was sentenced to prison after being convicted of voter fraud.
The conviction of Chase arose from the facts of the case where he was accused of filling out another county resident’s absentee ballot in last year’s runoff election after it was sent to a PO box at an old address by mistake.
Upon discovery of the lost ballot when the husband of the original ballot owner got his and she did not, the latter immediately reported the incident to the authorities and called the Walker County Elections Office to inquire about it.
The report prompted the Elections Office to investigate the lost ballot and found out that it had already been accepted, but not yet counted. The DA also revealed that the ballot appeared to have the original owner’s signature.
After that, the resident went to the Elections Office and told the authorities that it was not her signature, prompting the Elections Office to cancel the forged ballot and have a new ballot sent to the resident’s current address.
The incident sparked controversy which prompted the office to request for the Secretary of State Office to investigate the forged ballot to which they had learned that Chase was the current owner of the PO box. They also found out that he had already submitted a ballot for the election.
Furthermore, amid the investigation, the authorities revealed that they matched fingerprints on the forged ballot with Chase’s, the DA’s office claimed.
In a recent report released by ABC news, the DA revealed that Chase was “convicted of forgery in the first degree, illegal acts regarding election documents, unlawful acts regarding elector’s vote, and repeat voting in the same election.”
The office also alleged that Chase is no stranger to fraud and forgery after several felony convictions ruled against him which include “bankruptcy fraud, theft by shoplifting, forgery in the first degree, stealing public documents, and financial identity fraud,” the report added.
As a result, Chase was sentenced to 25 years, with the first 15 years to be served in the Georgia Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole.
Chase was not the first person to be arrested for voting twice.
In Maine, two women were charged with voting twice last year.
The suspects were identified as then-19 year old Alyssa Dau who was charged after forging her roommate’s absentee ballot and 34-year old Manikomal M. Kehler, who was a student at the University of Maine, voted by absentee ballot on Oct. 30 in her hometown of Milford.
