Henrilynn Ibezim, a former Democratic mayoral candidate in New Jersey, pleaded guilty to forging nearly 1,000 voter registration applications during the 2021 Democratic primary, New Jersey’s Office of the Attorney General announced Thursday.
During the 2021 Democratic primary for Plainfield, New Jersey’s mayoral seat, Ibezim allegedly brought a garbage bag filled with around 1,000 falsified voter registration applications to a post office in Elizabeth, New Jersey, with the intention of mailing them to Union County’s registration commissioner.
Of the 1,000 applications, most were completed with the handwriting of only three or four people, according to the attorney general. None of the slips were marked as completed by somebody other than the voter whom they were supposed to represent.
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Ibezim also attempted to coach a witness who helped him fill out the applications on how to respond to law enforcement questions, telling the witness not to “admit anything,” the attorney general’s office previously said.
Despite his efforts, Ibezim, who was running on the Unity Party ticket, received only 103 votes in the primary and lost to Plainfield’s current mayor, Adrian O. Mapp.
Ibezim pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree forgery Monday as part of a plea agreement with the attorney general’s office. He had originally been charged with eight counts of various criminal offenses, including election fraud and witness tampering, but those charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement.
Prosecutors will recommend that Ibezim serve probation as punishment, according to the statement. He is due for sentencing in June.
“My office is determined to ensure elections are fair and that their outcomes are determined by the will of the voters,” Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said in a statement.
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“It is crucial to our system of government that those who engage in illegal and bad-faith conduct during elections be held accountable. Failing to do so opens the door to a loss of public confidence in the democratic process,” she concluded.
