A Pennsylvania man has been charged with two counts of perjury and one count of unlawful voting after he allegedly voted in his dead mother’s name, according to multiple reports.
“In his political frustration, he chose to do something stupid,” 70-year-old Bruce Bartman’s lawyer Samuel Stretton said according to The Philidelphia Inquirer. “And for that he is very sorry.”
Elizabeth Bartman and Elizabeth Weihman reportedly registered to vote as Republicans in the weeks leading up to the 2020 election, but both women were already dead. Bartman has admitted to illegally voting in his deceased mother’s name, but only registering his mother-in-law to vote, reported the Inquirer.
“For all the conspiracy theorists out there, this case today does not represent widespread voter fraud,” District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said according to the Inquirer. “This case was evidence that one person committed voter fraud by casting an improper and illegal ballot.” (RELATED: Here Is What You Missed From Pennsylvania’s State Senate Hearing On The Election)
Using his dead mother’s driver’s license, Bartman reportedly registered her to vote online and requested an absentee ballot. Bartman also registered his dead mother-in-law to vote by using her social security number, according to Law and Crime.
Is this our first documented case of an actual ballot cast in the name of a verified dead person in the Philly region during the 2020 election? Note: The man was caught and charged by authorities. He also cast the fraudulent ballot for Trump. pic.twitter.com/zwCLKbfiUQ
— Jeremy Roebuck (@jeremyrroebuck) December 21, 2020
“In the hundreds of calls we received and the hundreds of visits we made, we only found one instance of malfeasance, and that was Mr. Bartman,” First Assistant District Attorney Tanner Rouse said according to the Inquirer. “And he will be prosecuted.”
Bartman was summoned to court Friday and released on an unsecured bail of $100,000.