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A United States-based Nigerian woman, Gladys Adaeze Okafor, has been arrested and charged with illegally voting in the 2022 midterm elections.
US Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts disclosed this in a statement issued on Wednesday.
According to the statement, the defendant, a resident of Lynn, Massachusetts, was arrested on Wednesday morning and was due to appear in federal court in Boston later same day.
The 56-year-old Okafor, who also allegedly voted in the 2024 presidential primary election, is charged with unlawfully voting as an alien.
According to the charging documents, Okafor is a citizen of Nigeria who was born in Aba, Nigeria.
She was said to have obtained lawful permanent resident status in December 2022 but is not a US citizen and has not applied for US citizenship.
In July 2022, she allegedly submitted a voter registration card, signing her name under a certification which provided “I AM A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES … Signed under penalty of perjury.”
The City of Lynn subsequently registered her to vote, and Okafor allegedly voted in the midterm elections that fall.
It is further alleged that she submitted a second voter registration form in October of 2023, checking the “US Citizen” box and signing under the US citizen certification.
She allegedly voted in the 2024 presidential primary election.
The US Attorney’s Office noted that the charge of unlawful voting as an alien provides for a sentence of up to one year in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of $100,000.
It added that the defendant may be subject to deportation upon completion of any sentence imposed.
