HARRISONBURG, Virginia, August 11, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — A 21-year-old Democratic campaigner was sentenced in Virginia this week after being caught putting the names of dead people on voter registration forms during the 2016 election.
Andrew Spieles was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to 100 days in jail for knowingly submitting fake Virginia voter registration forms while working for an organization connected to the Democratic Party, Fox News reported.
A recent graduate of Virginia’s top-ranking James Madison University, Spieles pled guilty to preparing 18 false forms as a paid staffer for the Democratic Party-affiliated Harrisonburg Votes.
He was paid to register as many voters as possible, and he reported to the Democratic headquarters in Harrisonburg, Fox reported.
The fraud was unearthed last August when an employee at the town’s Registrar’s Office recognized the name of a local judge’s deceased father on a voter registration form, and a colleague alerted authorities.
The office then discovered multiple voter registration forms with other false data, such as incorrect middle names, birth dates and social insurance numbers.
Spieles admitted he prepared the fake forms “by obtaining the name, age, and address of individuals from ‘walk sheets’ provided to him by the Virginia Democratic Party,” according to a Justice Department news release.
He then made up a birth date “based on the ages listed in the walk sheet” as well as social security numbers.
Spieles stated no one else took part in his crime, and that he prepared the fraudulent forms to help a colleague reach a voter registration quota, reported EAG News.
Punishment for the misdemeanor fraud conviction is a maximum of one year behind bars and a $100,000 fine. Spieles agreed to a plea bargain with the district attorney of jail time between 100 to 120 days.
The judge waived the fine because Spieles could not afford it, according to EAG News, which reported there was no evidence the falsified registration forms led to fraudulent votes.
Spieles apologized to the Court and to the families of the three deceased individuals whose names he put on the registration forms, EAG News reported.
He would have been “hurt and angry” if his family had received a voter registration letter addressed to his grandfather, who had recently died, Spieles said.