Kim Phuong Taylor has been convicted of 52 counts of voter fraud for allegedly helping her husband, Woodbury County Supervisor Jeremy Taylor, unlawfully get votes to win a June 2020 election.
The conviction was made on Tuesday as an Iowa federal jury found 49-year-old Taylor guilty on 26 charges of false information in registering and voting, 23 charges of fraudulent voting, and three charges of fraudulent registration.
Kim Phong Taylor Convicted
Taylor allegedly carried out a scheme to fraudulently generate votes for her husband at the time that he was challenging Rep. Steve King. After Jeremy finished a distant third in that particular race, Taylor again engaged in ballot fraud to help his successful re-election campaign as county supervisor.
In a news release, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said that Taylor submitted or caused others to submit dozens of voter registrations, absentee ballot request forms, and absentee ballots containing false information.
She also completed and signed voter forms without voters' permission and told others that they could sign on behalf of relatives who were not present, as per the Washington Post.
Law enforcement authorities arrested Taylor and indicted her in January. She is currently facing a maximum of five years in prison for each of the 52 counts against her. As a sentencing date has not yet been set, she will remain free until then.
Neither Jeremy nor Taylor's attorney, F. Montgomery Brown responded to requests for comments regarding the development in the case. In a statement, the suspect's husband said that the conviction was not what their family had hoped for. However, he said that they respect the court for hearing his wife's story.
He noted that his first priority right now is to deal with the results of the case as a private matter so that he could be there for his family. Prosecutors have not specified whether Taylor's husband was aware in advance of the fraud scheme that his wife perpetrated.
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Voter Fraud Scheme
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Timmons said that they were definitely confident in the evidence that they put forward in the case against Taylor. He added that they were delighted with the outcome of the verdict, according to the Sioux City Journal.
Despite the conviction, the investigation into the matter is still ongoing as Jeremy, while not being charged, has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator. The couple did not show any visible reaction during the reading of the verdict and quickly left the courtroom afterward.
Taylor has 14 days to file a request for a new trial and her attorney, Brown, will most likely renew his motion for a judgment of acquittal. Prosecutors argued that the fraud scheme was on a scale that is rarely seen. Most voter fraud cases involve one voter casting a single ballot in another person's name.
In defense of Taylor, Brown said that the case came down to a "bias virus" due to bad blood between Jeremy and Woodbury County Auditor and Election Commissioner Pat Gill. The latter is the only Democrat who holds a public office in Woodbury County. He was also the one who alerted authorities to the alleged fraud by Taylor, said the Iowa Public Radio.
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