Follow-Up: DOJ Charges 18 More Noncitizens in North Carolina Over Illegal Voting in the 2024 Election, Bringing the Statewide Total to 30 This Year

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on October 29 that 18 more noncitizens in North Carolina have been indicted for illegally voting in the 2024 general election - nine in the Eastern District, five in the Middle District and four in the Western District - including one illegal alien. Together with 12 people previously indicted in the Eastern District, the statewide total indicted this year has reached 30.

The new indictments are the latest development in the series. The Eastern District had unveiled 10 indictments in mid-October, plus two from earlier in the year; with nine more added in this round, the Eastern District total is now 21. The department said all nine new Eastern District defendants allegedly falsely claimed to be U.S. citizens to register and vote in the 2024 general election.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said noncitizens cannot vote in federal elections, and that the department has now charged 30 people in North Carolina alone who illegally registered and voted, in order to prevent illegal voting and preserve the integrity of the ballot box.

U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle for the Eastern District said the right to vote is the seed from which all other rights and liberties sprout, and that every unlawful ballot silences a lawful voter. U.S. Attorneys Dan Bishop for the Middle District and Russ Ferguson for the Western District also pledged to prosecute election-law violators. Ferguson noted that in North Carolina's 2025 municipal elections, 14 races were decided by two votes, 15 by one vote and seven were tied.

Among the new Eastern District cases, Gregory Eugene Wade, 64, a native of Bermuda and a lawful permanent resident, registered in 2000 and allegedly voted in 12 general elections from 2000 through 2024. Elizabeth Margaret Crudup, 52, a native of Kenya, allegedly voted in nine general elections from 2008 through 2024 and in nine primary elections. The other Eastern District defendants come from Guatemala, Italy, Singapore, Jamaica, Colombia, the United Kingdom and Greece, most of them lawful permanent residents.

The five Middle District defendants come from the Netherlands, Mexico, Cuba, Barbados and Argentina; the four Western District defendants come from Nigeria, the Dominican Republic, France and St. Kitts and Nevis. The FBI's Charlotte Field Office and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Carolinas are investigating, and the three U.S. Attorney's Offices are prosecuting in their respective districts.

Falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to vote carries a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and voting by an alien carries a maximum of one year and a $100,000 fine, the department said; any sentence will be determined by a federal district judge under the Sentencing Guidelines. An indictment is merely an accusation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 图：位于 Raleigh 的北卡罗来纳州议会大厦柱廊与美国国旗。Hrant Garabedian 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh, with the flag of the United States. Photo by Hrant Garabedian, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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