A pair of Louisiana Democrats were each sentenced to one year in prison for violating federal election laws with a vote-buying program during the 2016 election.
Jerry Trabona and Kristian “Kris” Hart were police chief and city council members, respectively, of Amite City, about 50 miles northeast of Baton Rouge.
“A former Amite City, Louisiana, police chief, and a former Amite City Council member were sentenced yesterday to one year in prison for violating federal election laws as part of a conspiracy to pay or offer to pay voters for voting in a federal election. . the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
“In addition to the prison sentence, the former police chief was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.”
Hart and Trabona were found guilty of identifying likely voters, transporting them to the polls, and then paying them to cast their ballot for their chosen candidates.
Further eroding confidence in our election, investigators found that Trabona required vote buyers to sign a contract that said they would not “make any offer of any kind to any voter or other person for a prize or financial advantage in exchange.” by one vote,” according to a vote fraud report by the Heritage Foundation.
A separate report on voter fraud from the Heritage Foundation said Hart paid voters $20 each to vote the way he requested.
The convictions stem from a 2018 FBI investigation into vote buying in Tangipahoa Parish, according to The Advocate of Baton Rouge.
Heritage maintains a database of thousands of voter fraud cases nationwide, with proven cases of voter fraud and convictions for them.
The database is not presented as a comprehensive compilation but instead represents cases where a “public official, usually a prosecutor, has deemed the fraud serious enough to act upon.”
The advocate said these convictions come on the heels of a separate investigation that led to a guilty plea by another former Amite city councilor, Democrat Emmanuel Zanders, in July to misdemeanor electoral fraud.
Former Chief of Police in Amite City, Jerry Trabona, and Kristian Hart, a former Amite City councilmember, were each sentenced to one year in prison for violating federal election laws. Trabona was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. https://t.co/SsVWc2mUs5 pic.twitter.com/EPe4nL9y2d
— JangledKeys (@JangledK) November 30, 2022
The Justice Department also announced Tuesday guilty pleas for two additional Tangipahoa Parish residents accused of buying votes in the 2016 election period. Sidney Smith, 68, of Amite City, and Calvin Batiste, 64, of Independence, each face up to five years in prison for conspiring to buy votes.
The Justice Department press release claims Smith paid voters with money provided by Trabona and Hart.
Louisiana isn’t the only place for voter fraud convictions. Earlier this week, a Walker County, Georgia, man received a harsh sentence for mailing another resident’s absentee ballot that accidentally ended up in his mailbox.
Following his voter fraud conviction, William Chase, 62, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for forging a ballot paper in the January 2021 runoff in Georgia.
