A Canadian citizen illegally living in the United States for decades registered to vote and participated in federal elections, the Department of Justice announced.
Denis Bouchard, 69, falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen to vote in federal elections in 2022 and 2024, the DOJ explained. While he has resided in the country since the 1960s, Bouchard never became a U.S. citizen. He has been charged with two counts of making false citizenship claims and two counts of casting fraudulent votes, violating 18 U.S.C. § 1015(f) and 52 U.S.C. § 20511(2)(B). If convicted, Bouchard faces up to five years imprisonment for each of his counts.
“Every single time a noncitizen casts an illegal vote in North Carolina, it steals and nullifies the vote of an actual citizen,” said U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle. “If the records are correct, this Canadian citizen appears to have voted in New Hanover and Pender County elections over the past 20 years. We intend to prove his illegal conduct in court and put an end to it.”
In July, New Hampshire authorities charged a non-U.S. citizen with voting in three separate elections, a direct violation of both state and federal election laws. According to prosecutors, Naseef Bryan illegally voted in the Manchester City Election on November 7, 2023, the New Hampshire Presidential Primary on January 23, 2024, and the General Election on November 5, 2024. Bryan was not a U.S. citizen during any of those activities, the charges allege.
Similarly, Akeel Abdul Jamiel, a 45-year-old man in New York, voted in the November 2020 election in Saratoga County despite not being a U.S. citizen. The charge against Jamiel involves a maximum of one year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.
