Bruce Bartman, a Republican, has been arrested for allegedly using his dead mother’s ballot to vote for President Donald Trump in last month’s United States election.
He was charged with unlawful voting and perjury for allegedly pretending to be his dead mother while casting his ballot in the November election in Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors said the 70-year-old registered two dead people – his mother and mother-in-law – as Republican voters in the buildup to the election.
He was said to have used the state’s online portal that allows residents to register to vote using either their driver’s license number or social security number.
In a statement, Jack Stollsteimer, Delaware county district attorney, said the indictment “is the only known case of a “dead person” voting in our county, conspiracy theories notwithstanding.
“Further, the prompt prosecution of this case shows that law enforcement will continue to uphold our election laws whenever presented with actual evidence of fraud and that we will continue to investigate every allegation that that comes our way,” he added.
Democrat Joe Biden won the presidential election, but Trump has refused to concede after he and the Republican Party alleged foul play.
They had argued among other things, that many ballots belonging to dead persons were counted in favour of Biden.
However, officials said the voter fraud detected in the election is not enough to overturn Biden’s victory.