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Pair Charged with Alleged Major Voter Fraud in 41-Count Criminal Complaint

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Two Los Angeles County men have charged with allegedly filing 8,000 fraudulent voter registration applications.

Carlos Antonio De Bourbon Montenegro and Marcos Raul Arevalo are facing charges for 8 counts of voter fraud among many other charges, totaling 41 counts, City News Service reported.

The charges do not include casting any actual ballots.

Montenegro, who also uses the name Mark Anthony Gonsalves, allegedly submitted thousands of applications with the names of fake or deceased people from July to October 2020.

It is unclear how the homeless were involved, according to the Associated Press.

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Montenegro is also accused of providing fake names, addresses and signatures on nominations to help him run for mayor of Hawthorne.

The defendants allegedly attempted to get mail-in ballots sent to them for the fake voters, but the registrar quickly flagged the applications, and no ballots were sent out.

If the pair is found guilty, Montenegro may face up to 15 years in prison, and Arevalo may face up to seven years.

For those hoping this will improve President Donald Trump’s chances at winning a second term in the White House, this instance of voter fraud is not significant.

These charges of voter fraud pertain to a local election, and have no known correlation to the current efforts by Trump’s campaign to challenge the results in many battleground states.

Even if there was a correlation to the presidential election, it would not impact Biden’s path to victory in California, which he is projected to win by a wide margin.

But even though voter fraud is a rare occurrence, there are major consequences for those who are found guilty of it.

Should California revisit its voter registration system?
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The best solution to prevent such fraud from happening in the future is for California to improve its voter registration and election process overall.

Even one false application is too many, and there needs to be a better system in place to verify that those registering to vote are citizens who are currently alive and real.

While American elections at all levels of government are fairly secure, there is also room for improvement.

Large urban areas like Los Angeles County should continue efforts to make sure that election integrity is a top priority in future years, especially with the expansion of mail-in voting.

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Cameron Arcand is a former writer for The Western Journal.
Cameron Arcand is a political commentator based in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2017 as a school project, he founded YoungNotStupid.com, which has grown exponentially since its founding. He has interviewed several notable conservative figures, including Dave Rubin, Peggy Grande and Madison Cawthorn.

In September 2020, Cameron joined The Western Journal as a Commentary Writer, where he has written articles on topics ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic, the "Recall Gavin Newsom" effort and the 2020 election aftermath. The "Young Not Stupid" column launched at The Western Journal in January 2021, making Cameron one of the youngest columnists for a national news outlet in the United States. He has appeared on One America News and Fox 5 DC. He has been a Young America's Foundation member since 2019.
Location
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