Democrat Charged for What He Allegedly Had Inside Trash Bag Brought to Post Office
“Mike Johnson’s Election Denial Should Raise Alarms for 2024” screams a headline of the New York Intelligencer.
OK. I’m duly alarmed about the characteristics of the new Speaker of the House. And yet somehow three words from the late comedian Joan Rivers come to mind — “Oh, grow up!”
Meanwhile, the attorney general of New Jersey is saying a Democratic candidate for mayor of the city of Plainfield is being charged with voter fraud for bringing a trash bag full of almost 1,000 falsified voter registration forms to a post office.
Dr. Henrilynn Ibezim is charged with second-degree election fraud, third-degree criminal attempt to commit false registration or transfer, third-degree tampering with public records, fourth-degree falsifying or tampering with records, third-degree forgery, and third-degree hindering apprehension or prosecution.
That’s quite a bit of trash. And it stinks.
Something commendable is the charges against Ibezim are being filed by a state attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, who is a Democrat. Platkin’s office is also going after a specific voter, too.
A former candidate for mayor of Plainfield has been charged after allegedly bringing a trash bag filled with nearly 1,000 bogus voter registration applications to a post office in Elizabeth, to submit them to Union County’s Board of Elections. https://t.co/qi7LsuZLhG pic.twitter.com/VQoIB8gI5B
— Attorney General Matt Platkin (@NewJerseyOAG) October 25, 2023
Good for Platkin. And for what he had to say upon filing charges Wednesday — “Attempting to tamper with an election result through fraud impairs the ability of legitimate voters to choose their representatives, a cornerstone of American democracy.
“It also undermines the legitimacy of government and the public’s confidence in their elected officials and in elections generally,” Platin said, according to a news release from his office, which he stated will “vigorously pursue these crimes to protect New Jersey’s electorate from being defrauded and to safeguard the integrity of our institutions.”
On X, Platkin’s office posted a phone number for tips regarding election fraud.
Democracy relies on the public’s trust that their votes count. If you have evidence of an election crime, REPORT IT. Our Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) investigates public corruption and election crimes, including voter fraud. Call 1-844-OPIA-TIPS. pic.twitter.com/jzJKjMw2gx
— Attorney General Matt Platkin (@NewJerseyOAG) October 25, 2023
Election tampering is not a minor crime and thankfully Platkin pointed that out. It not only corrupts selection of officeholders but causes voters to question whether or not their ballot counts.
How often have you heard someone say, “Why vote? It doesn’t make any difference anyway?”
And how better to suppress the turnout of the “wrong kind of voters” than make them think voting is a pointless exercise?
Regarding 68-year-old Ibezim, against whom charges were filed — “It is alleged that the defendant directed associates and campaign volunteers who gathered at his home to complete blank voter registration applications based off one or more forms with voter information on them, which Ibezim provided to the group,” the news release said.
“The investigation revealed that the defendant subsequently arrived at the U.S. Post Office on North Broad Street in Elizabeth on May 18, 2021, carrying a large white garbage bag containing 954 voter registration applications, purportedly from Plainfield voters,” the release continued.
“But the investigation found many of the applications had the same handwriting on them.”
The investigation of Ibezim was conducted by the Corruption Bureau of the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA).
While Ibezim lost his mayoral election bid, he “allegedly resorted to fraud in an alleged attempt to unfairly prevail in this election,” according to OPIA Executive Director Thomas J. Eicher.
“This desperate attempt to artificially and illegally inflate support for his candidacy was designed to not only cheat his political opponents out of a victory, but also to cheat the people of Plainfield out of their right to choose their elected officials,” Eicher said.
Democrats seem quick to mock Republican concerns about election integrity, but there have been some historic election thefts by Democrats, as in the election of John Kennedy in 1960, and Lyndon Johnson for U.S. Senate in 1948.
And, of course, there are the fishy smells regarding Joe Biden’s election in 2020.
Issues surrounding Kennedy’s election in 1960 stemmed from last-minute vote counting in the Chicago-area’s notoriously corrupt Cook County, Illinois.
Johnson’s theft of the close Texas Senate race (which earned him the name “Landslide Johnson”) along with his stealing of his class election at Southwest Texas State Teachers College are documented in the in-depth biographical volumes of him by author Robert Caro.
Irregularities in Biden’s 2020 election (believed by many, including 147 members of Congress who refused to certify all states — Speaker Johnson among them) raise a question as the president seeks re-election in 2024.
The question is: Why are Democrats planning to field such an obviously failing candidate if they don’t plan to, shall we say, have some way to compromise the election’s integrity?
Maybe New Jersey Attorney General Platkin and associates will help the nation by keeping as sharp an eye on their state’s presidential voting as they did on the Plainfield mayor’s race.
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