Justice Department Charges 16 in Election Cases, Most Accused of Voting as Noncitizens
ANALYSIS · October 13, 2026
Slug: justice-department-announces-charges-involving-16-individuals
Package note: This analyzes a Department of Justice press release dated October 12, 2026. It announces federal criminal charges against 16 named individuals for various election-related offenses. The release does not convict anyone, impose sentences, or change voting laws; it states accusations only and notes that all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Primary sources
- Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, “Justice Department Announces Charges Involving 16 Individuals for Election Crimes” (Oct. 12, 2026): https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-charges-involving-16-individuals-election-crimes
The Justice Department announced charges against 16 individuals for election crimes including illegal voting by noncitizens, fraudulent voter registration, voting on behalf of the deceased, voting multiple times, and unlawful procurement of citizenship. Cases span 11 federal districts and involve conduct in the 2022 and 2024 elections. Fourteen defendants are accused of voting while not U.S. citizens (one of them, now a naturalized citizen, is accused of registering before she became one); the other two, Patrick Perea and Forrest Scott Woody, are charged with fraudulent voting and voting twice, and the release does not describe either as a noncitizen.
Core Tension
The press release frames the charges as a broad crackdown on “illegal voting, fraudulent voter registration, and related election crimes across the country” involving 16 individuals. In practice, 14 of the 16 are charged with voting while not being U.S. citizens, most of them lawful permanent residents. The release says four of them (Garcia, Patterson, Zuberi and Moss) claimed or affirmed U.S. citizenship on registration forms; for the others it does not say how they registered. Of the remaining two, one case involves an alleged attempt to cast a deceased spouse’s ballot and one involves alleged double voting across two states. The document lists specific accusations but contains no aggregate numbers on total fraudulent ballots, no findings on election outcomes, and no new policy or enforcement mechanism.
What the press release does
| Section / element | Verified text / effect |
|---|---|
| Overall announcement | Announces charges against 16 people across 11 federal districts for illegal voting, fraudulent registration and related election crimes. |
| Types of conduct | Lists noncitizen voting in federal elections, false citizenship claims to register or vote, voting on behalf of the dead, voting more than once in an election, false statements on citizenship applications, and unlawfully obtaining citizenship. |
| New Mexico case | Patrick Perea, 62, indicted on one count of fraudulent voting for attempting to cast his deceased wife’s absentee ballot in the November 2024 general election. |
| Eastern District of Pennsylvania | Four people charged by information with voting by an alien in the 2024 election: Hacina Saadi, 48, described as an illegal alien from France, and lawful permanent residents Jamil Ahmad, 50, Nighat Jamil, 47, and Paulo Silva, 54. |
| Southern District of Alabama | Lawful permanent residents Silvia Delgado Phelps, 78 (allegedly voted in multiple elections in Baldwin County), and Staciann Pollion Davis, 42 (allegedly voted in November 2024 in Clarke County), charged by complaint. |
| Northern District of Alabama | Forrest Scott Woody, 68, of Hendersonville, N.C., indicted for voting more than once: allegedly voted in Henderson County, N.C., and again in Calhoun County, Ala., in the 2024 general election. |
| Western District of Missouri | Andre’s Garcia, 64, lawful permanent resident, charged with two counts (Nov. 2022 and Nov. 2024); the release says he claimed citizenship when registering in 2004 and 2013 and allegedly voted in at least 15 elections. |
| Idaho case | Stanley Walton, 82, lawful permanent resident, charged with unlawfully voting in the 2022 general election. |
| New Jersey case | Lizabeth Almonte Rosa, 24, naturalized citizen, charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and unlawfully procuring citizenship; “was not a citizen when she was registered to vote.” |
| Ohio (Southern and Northern Districts) | Lawful permanent residents Cary Ann Patterson, 59 (2005 registration card marked “Yes” to citizenship; allegedly at least 10 elections), Arshed Zuberi, 69, and Eliza M. Moss, 63 (signatures next to a citizenship declaration on registration forms; Zuberi allegedly voted in at least six elections). Moss allegedly told investigators someone helping with her registration said she could vote. |
| Hawaii case | Dawid Nalepa, 45, charged by information with voting as an alien in November 2024; the release says he entered around 2020 on the Visa Waiver Program and overstayed before applying for permanent residence. |
| Kentucky case | Sandra Madeline Watson, 59, lawful permanent resident, charged with voting in a federal election while allegedly knowing she was not a citizen. |
| Legal disclaimer | Charges “merely contain accusations”; all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. |
Claims check
| Claim | Assessment | Receipt |
|---|---|---|
| Charges involving 16 individuals for election crimes | Stated in the DOJ release | 16 named defendants across 11 district sections |
| Cases include voting by aliens in federal elections, false claims of citizenship, voting on behalf of the deceased, voting multiple times, and unlawful procurement of citizenship | Stated in the DOJ release | Opening paragraph; case descriptions match these categories (all allegations) |
| One defendant is an “illegal alien” | Stated in the DOJ release | Hacina Saadi, 48, of France (Eastern District of Pennsylvania) |
| Announcement proves widespread fraud that altered election outcomes | Not verified in this pass | Release contains no data on scale, no mention of outcome effects, and states only that these are accusations. |
Update, Oct 14
According to a Department of Homeland Security statement dated October 13, 2026, Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested Paulo Jorge Silva, the Philadelphia defendant listed above as Paulo Silva, 54, on October 5. DHS says he is a lawful permanent resident from Portugal who was lawfully admitted to the United States through New York in April 1978, and that voting records show he voted in Philadelphia in the November 5, 2024, election. He was turned over to the U.S. Marshals Service. He has been charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent. Source: DHS, “HSI Arrests Alien Charged with Illegally Voting in Pennsylvania” (Oct. 13, 2026): https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/10/13/hsi-arrests-alien-charged-illegally-voting-pennsylvania
How coverage splits
Not reviewed for this analysis.
Context / what to watch
- Court proceedings: Each case will require proof beyond a reasonable doubt; outcomes are not yet known.
- Sentencing: If convictions occur, federal penalties for these offenses are not detailed in the release.
- Additional cases: The release does not state whether this is part of a larger ongoing effort or the total number of election-crime investigations.
Publish-ready ANALYSIS · Kelvic drafter (machine draft, fact-checked against the DOJ release of Oct. 12, 2026 and edited by KVOp) · 2026-10-13; updated 2026-10-14 · for /analysis/justice-department-announces-charges-involving-16-individuals