California Democrat Charged With Mail-In Ballot Fraud

A Democrat city council member in California has just been arrested for allegedly committing election fraud, while also facing a slew of other charges.

Shakir Khan, a member of the Lodi City Council, was arrested on Thursday for several election fraud charges — including pressuring residents to vote for him, falsifying voter registration documents and stashing 41 mail-in ballots in his residence.

Investigators discovered the 41 mail-in ballots while searching Khan’s home, and discovered that they were sealed and completely filled out.

According to investigators — who base their claims partially on body camera footage of police interviews — Khan registered 23 individuals to vote at his home address, while also using his own phone number to register 47 individuals to vote.

The crimes allegedly committed by Khan took place during the 2020 election, an election that was rife with claims of voter fraud stemming from unsecure mail-in voting. Khan was elected to the District 4 seat on the Lodi City Council in the 2020 election.

The Democrat councilmember is also facing several charges in a separate criminal case alongside his brother. The charges include illegal gambling, tax evasion, money laundering and unemployment fraud.

Khan is scheduled to appear in court on February 21 for another arraignment on that case.

Regarding his election fraud charges, Khan was released from jail on Friday — though he is now required to wear a tracking device and remain within California until the matter is settled.

It is currently unclear whether the Democrat councilmember has resigned from his position over the allegations, according to local news reports.

Meanwhile, it has been obvious for some time that mail-in ballots pose a significant risk for election fraud — a fact that many critics pointed out during the pandemic, when Democrats were strongly advocating for universal mail-in voting. Without the ability to verify the source of the ballot through an in-person voting process with a voter ID, there is plenty of opportunity for nefarious individuals to take advantage of the lack of security.

Data from the federal Election Assistance Commission shows that 28.3 million mail-in ballots are still missing across the U.S. from elections conducted between 2012 and 2018. As there is not a process in place to track these ballots, there is no method to investigate whether they were used fraudulently.