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Dead voter allegation fuels concerns about voting safeguards as blue state official turns herself in
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Illinois GOP Chairman Bob Grogan is calling on a Democratic Waukegan city official to resign after prosecutors said she submitted her dead mother’s vote-by-mail ballot, a case conservatives say exposes broader concerns about mail-in voting and voter-roll safeguards even though the ballot was caught before it was counted.
A Waukegan, Illinois alderman, Sylvia Sims Bolton, turned herself on Wednesday after prosecutors said she submitted her dead mother’s vote-by-mail ballot during a March primary election, which has resulted in two charges, including one Class 4 Felony.
According to the Office of the State’s Attorney in Lake County, Illinois, a vote-by-mail ballot for Mary Sims, Bolton’s late-mother, was issued in the first tranche of ballots to go out from the Lake County Clerk’s Office in February. Just days later, however, the same office processed the cancellation of Mary Sim’s voter registration after receiving a notification of her passing from the Illinois Department of Public Health via the state’s Board of Elections voter registration system.
After the ballot was dropped by Bolton at an official ballot drop box, it went through the county’s established security and verification protocols, which flagged that the voter’s death record was processed prior to the ballot being submitted and ultimately spurred the sheriff’s office investigation leading to the charges against Bolton.
PA WOMAN CHARGED WITH TRYING TO REGISTER DEAD PEOPLE, INCLUDING OWN FATHER, TO VOTE
A picture of the Illinois state flag is seen next to Illinois alderman, Sylvia Sims Bolton’s mugshot. (Getty Images/Lake County State’s Attorney Office)
«A dead person voting, that you’re actually aware that they’re dead, is the easiest voter fraud to find. It’s like somebody leaning over the cash register and grabbing the cash out of the till,» Grogan told Fox News Digital. «But the complicated stuff, the behind-the-scenes stuff, that’s something that is harder to find … This is a one-off incident and if fraudsters do it right, it could be many, many more votes like this.»
Election integrity advocate Jason Snead, who runs the Honest Elections Project, added that the Bolton case «plainly shows that voter fraud occurs.»
«Mail ballots are especially vulnerable, which is why they should be secured, should never be mailed without a specific request from the voter, and should always be verified before they are tabulated. This case also shows how essential it is to maintain clean voter rolls,» Snead said. «Had the list maintenance process been slower, it is possible this illegal vote would have been counted before the fraud was discovered. Unfortunately, too many states—particularly blue states—actively resist commonsense safeguards, which begs the question: how many other illegal votes have slipped through the system?»
A press release from the Lake County State’s Attorney Office indicated that «all ballot envelopes» get reviewed through automated systems designed to flag irregularities that may require additional review.
Readability issues due to barcode problems, ballots being submitted for the wrong election, ballots that were previously rejected, and ballots associated with a canceled voter registration record, are all examples of irregularities that might be flagged. Other, less obvious irregularities, include whether a ballot is overweight or underweight.
TRUMP CALLS FOR DOJ PROBE INTO MARYLAND MAIL-IN BALLOT ERROR, SUSPECTING ‘CORRUPT’ GOV WES MOORE TIES
Poll workers process ballots at an elections warehouse outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 8, 2022. (Ed JonesAFP via Getty Images))
The investigation into Bolton, who represents Waukegan’s Ward 1, began in March, and she turned herself in Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for Rinehart’s office. She has been charged with one count of Mutilation of Election Material, a Class 4 felony, for allegedly knowingly falsifying election material, and one count of Disregarding Election Code, a Class A misdemeanor.
If convicted on the felony count, Bolton could face one to three years in prison, though Illinois law also allows probation or conditional discharge for Class 4 felonies. The election-material charge also carries a five-year ban on public employment after completion of the sentence. A Class A misdemeanor conviction carries less than one year in jail and a possible fine.
According to the State’s Attorney’s office, the investigation by law enforcement officials «did not uncover any facts linking these allegations to her city duties,» adding that she «is not charged with official misconduct.»
A vote-by-mail ballot drop box is shown alongside Waukegan alderperson Sylvia Sims Bolton, who was charged after authorities alleged she submitted a ballot in her deceased mother’s name during Illinois’ 2026 primary election. (Getty Images and City of Waukegan)
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Officials in the State’s Attorney’s office also noted that they were not aware of any previous investigations related to individuals trying to use the vote-by-mail system to cast a ballot on behalf of deceased individuals.
Fox News Digital reached out to Bolton and her attorney but Fox News Digital did not receive a response in time for publication.
«This case shows the importance of having a well-funded, independent Clerk’s office that also has state-of-the-art technology,» State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said in a statement to Fox News Digital. «Clerk Vega and his team followed national best practices in order to detect and report this crime. We must say loudly to people that if you improperly vote for others, you will be caught, investigated, and prosecuted.»
illinois, investigations, voting, elections state and local, voter fraud concerns
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Unearthed records reveal Dem mayor sought tax hike to fund DEI role ahead of key House race
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Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, once proposed raising taxes to make room for a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) officer.
A «DEI coordinator» was among eight new hires in the city’s 2023 proposed budget and would have set aside $25,500 for the position. To cover the costs of that opening and those of a police chief, a fire chief, a business administrator, a solicitor and a director of public works, the budget included a 3% property tax increase, estimated to generate $957,000 for the city.
The positions were estimated to cost $380,500. That budget was not adopted.
Cognetti’s proposed plan highlights her beliefs about diversity in government and the directness with which government should pursue representation among certain demographics as she looks to flip one of the country’s most competitive districts and unseat incumbent Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa.
RED STATE SENATOR DROPS HAMMER ON DEM MAYOR OVER NEW ‘WOKE’ DEI ORDINANCE WHILE VIOLENT CRIME SURGES
Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti speaks at a Safer America rally. (Aimee Dilger/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
In the past, Cognetti has highlighted her purposeful pursuit of diversity in government.
«We’re not doing this for the publicity. We’re doing this quietly so that these conversations just become the norm,» Cognetti said in a podcast appearance.
When asked about the DEI proposals and the 2023 budget, the Cognetti campaign pointed out that Bresnahan’s company has received government assistance for being «women-owned,» support it says is in line with DEI policies.
«Rob Bresnahan’s own company identifies itself as disadvantaged and women-owned in order to get a leg up on securing federal contracts,» a Cognetti spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital, referring to Kuharchik Construction Inc.
The company, which Bresnahan began leading as CEO in 2013, has received $162,000 in federal contracts since 2008, according to records.
MAMDANI COMPARISONS FOLLOW COLORADO DEMOCRAT INTO PIVOTAL HOUSE RACE AFTER PRIMARY WIN
Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., arrives for a House Republican Conference caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol March 11, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
It has not received federal payments since 2017.
The campaign also said that many of Cognetti’s other acts as mayor directly helped bring the city’s costs down.
«Mayor Cognetti ran as an independent against a corrupt Democratic machine and reformed city hall. She saved taxpayers’ money by balancing the budget after years of mismanagement, turned down a government car and gas card, refused a pay raise and improved the city’s credit rating from junk bond status to an A- investment rating,» the Cognetti campaign continued.
«Now, Paige is running to take on corrupt politicians in Washington like Rob Bresnahan, who has stock traded off of his votes and his access to insider information in Congress.»
Bresnahan is not under investigation for insider trading, a violation of House rules.
Despite her emphasis on cutting government spending, Cognetti’s framing of the 2023 budget and its DEI role reflects her belief that diversity should be an area where the government places more of its resources.
She explained her thinking in a 2023 podcast.
«I will say that we’ve had some setbacks. Last year, we put a DEI coordinator in our budget. My city council cut that position with zero fanfare. There was no public comment. And this is where I think that the positive advocacy is missing,» Cognetti said of her budget proposal.
«You know, you want to raise taxes 3%. ‘Well, it should be only 2%.’ OK, well, let’s have that conversation.»
In Cognetti’s view, her work on DEI has not clashed with Scranton’s interests, and she affirms that hiring the best candidates has naturally led to greater diversity in government roles.
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Traffic passes a sign on the highway in Scranton, Pa., April 15, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)
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«We’re not doing it by cherry-picking, but by merit, and, lo and behold, City Hall looks different,» Cognetti said.
«When you walk into City Hall today, there are far more people of color and far more women working there, I think, than you would have seen four years ago. And, again, it’s not because we have had some grand strategy beyond really just hiring the best people for the jobs and trying to make sure that our jobs are posted in places that people are looking, right?»
politics, state and local, house of representatives
INTERNACIONAL
Dura batalla legal de los medios de comunicación contra OpenAI por el uso sin pagar de contenidos bajo derecho de autor
The New York Times, el Daily News y otros medios de comunicación reclaman a un juez federal que imponga sanciones a OpenAI, intensificando una disputa sobre inteligencia artificial y derechos de autor que podría moldear el futuro de la industria periodística.
Los periódicos alegan que el creador de ChatGPT está ocultando pruebas importantes para lo que podría ser un juicio histórico por infracción de derechos de autor sobre cómo OpenAI y su socio comercial, Microsoft, construyeron sus tecnologías de IA utilizando millones de artículos periodísticos. Lo que está en juego es si los chatbots de IA compiten de manera desleal como fuente de información, desviando tráfico web sin realizar el trabajo periodístico que implica recopilar las noticias.
Una presentación de este jueves en un tribunal federal de Manhattan sostiene que OpenAI “optó por la obstrucción” en lugar de entregar conjuntos de datos y registros de ChatGPT que podrían mostrar cómo el sistema de IA utilizó contenido periodístico protegido por derechos de autor. Los demandantes piden al juez sancionar a la empresa por “mala conducta en el proceso de descubrimiento” que podría distorsionar las pruebas, y afirman que la reciente declaración bajo juramento de un empleado de OpenAI contradice las afirmaciones anteriores de la compañía.
El abogado del New York Daily News, Steven Lieberman, manifestó que OpenAI ha estado “haciendo tergiversaciones” durante dos años sobre su capacidad para buscar contenido protegido por derechos de autor en sus conjuntos de datos y registros de IA.
“Esta moción pide al tribunal que castigue a OpenAI por ocultar y destruir pruebas que muestran cómo se entrenó ChatGPT con periodismo robado”, expresó Lieberman, quien representa al Daily News y a siete de sus periódicos hermanos.
OpenAI describió sus límites para compartir registros de ChatGPT como una medida para proteger la privacidad de los usuarios.
“A medida que el caso del Times se debilita y se han visto obligados a retirar reclamaciones contra nosotros, persisten en sus esfuerzos por invadir la privacidad de personas que no tienen nada que ver con este caso, incluso formulando estas acusaciones descaradamente falsas”, declaró Drew Pusateri, portavoz de OpenAI. “Seguiremos defendiendo la privacidad de nuestros usuarios y los arraigados principios del uso legítimo”.
The New York Times demandó a OpenAI y a Microsoft a finales de 2023, aproximadamente un año después de que el debut de ChatGPT desatara un auge comercial de la IA y empezara a cambiar la manera en que la gente busca información en internet.
La amenaza para las publicaciones de noticias se hizo aún más evidente cuando Google introdujo en 2024 resúmenes generados por IA en la parte superior de los resultados de búsqueda en línea, cortando los ingresos publicitarios que llegan cuando las personas hacen clic en un enlace hacia la fuente original de la información.
Desde entonces, al Times se han sumado otras organizaciones de noticias, incluidos periódicos propiedad de MediaNews Group como el Daily News y el Chicago Tribune, el editor de medios digitales Ziff Davis y el Center for Investigative Reporting, una organización sin fines de lucro.
OpenAI y otras empresas tecnológicas han argumentado que el proceso de entrenar sus sistemas de IA con libros digitalizados, artículos en línea y otros escritos encontrados en internet está protegido por la doctrina de “uso legítimo” de la ley de derechos de autor de EE.UU. Es una teoría que se está poniendo a prueba en decenas de demandas, a medida que artistas visuales, novelistas, sellos discográficos y otras industrias creativas llevan a las empresas de IA a los tribunales, con resultados dispares.
En el caso que implica el mayor acuerdo por derechos de autor hasta ahora, el rival de OpenAI, Anthropic, aceptó pagar a autores de libros US$ 1.500 millones por entrenar su chatbot Claude con sus obras pirateadas, una cantidad que representa una pequeña fracción de la valoración de mercado de Anthropic, de 965.000 millones de dólares, mientras se prepara para cotizar en bolsa.
Los argumentos de The New York Times son distintos de los de autores de libros. En su demanda original y en otra enmendada presentada el mes pasado, se centró en la competencia desleal de empresas que “buscan aprovecharse gratuitamente de la enorme inversión del Times en su periodismo utilizándolo para construir productos sustitutivos sin permiso ni pago”.
El Times ya ha gastado más de 28 millones de dólares en combatir a empresas de IA en los tribunales, según presentaciones ante reguladores financieros. Los costos incluyen otra demanda que el periódico presentó el año pasado contra la empresa de IA Perplexity. Entre las sanciones que los periódicos solicitaron este jueves figuran honorarios de abogados que cubrirían los esfuerzos para asegurar pruebas “retenidas indebidamente”.
Los costos crecientes llegan mientras un número cada vez mayor de organizaciones de medios ha firmado acuerdos de licencia con OpenAI y otras empresas de IA como Google y Meta, la empresa matriz de Facebook, que por lo general pagan al medio una tarifa para poder entrenar sistemas de IA con sus canales de noticias o archivos. The Associated Press fue la primera en anunciar un acuerdo de ese tipo con OpenAI en 2023.
Senate Republicans push SAVE America Act for voter citizenship proof
Senate Republicans push to pass the ‘Save America Act,’ requiring proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration. Despite President Trump’s urging, the GOP struggles to secure the necessary 60 votes due to Democratic opposition. Fox News correspondent Chad Pergram reports live from Capitol Hill on the ongoing debate, while Kayleigh McEnany highlights the bill’s significant public support. A critical DHS funding vote also looms.
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FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security will withhold billions in preparedness grant funding from states that refuse to adopt new election-security measures, including voter citizenship verification, post-election audits and expanded use of paper ballots.
The push comes as President Donald Trump and many Republicans slam states that do not want to let the federal government audit their voter rolls, while also criticizing the snail’s-pace, widely criticized vote tabulations in places like California.
FEMA, a sub-agency of DHS, is making more than $1 billion in taxpayer funding available to states that want to participate in its Homeland Security Grant Program, but with a catch.
OBAMA-APPOINTED JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP’S ELECTION ORDER AS SAVE AMERICA ACT FIGHT INTENSIFIES
To qualify for grants, states must submit plans to transition away from «unsecure electronic voting systems» that employ QR codes or barcodes instead of hand-marked paper ballots.
By doing so, the agency said, it provides a paper trail to quickly assess any alleged irregularities.
After each federal election, states seeking preparedness grants must conduct a manual audit of at least 5% of all ballots cast – with the agency arguing a manual, random review will confirm voting-machine tabulations’ synthesis with paper ballots and identify any «manipulation.»
States must also match the number of voters who participated in the election with the number of ballots cast and, within 120 days of any grant award, use the SAVE database — brought to the fore amid numerous illegal immigrant truckers getting in fatal crashes — to verify the citizenship of every listed voter in the state.
SAVE, the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system, has been criticized by some Democratic governors for being insufficiently upkept – an assertion DHS has denied.
LEGAL WAR ON TRUMP’S AGENDA GAINS FIREPOWER AS FEDERAL LAWYERS DEFECT TO DEMOCRATS
Voters inside a North Carolina polling place. (Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)
DHS told Fox News Digital that threats to election systems continue to evolve and that Secretary Markwayne Mullin has made critical infrastructure protection a top priority, with a spokesperson suggesting elections fall within that critical infrastructure and remain susceptible to foreign attacks.
«Under President Trump’s leadership, we are taking decisive action to protect election systems from threats like foreign interference, insider threats, and cyberattacks,» the DHS spokesperson said. «These new requirements for homeland security grant recipients will preserve election integrity and ensure that Americans can trust the results.»
The new rules come as the Trump administration suffered a major loss in court while seeking to force the issue of election security.
An Obama-appointed federal judge in Pittsburgh sided with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania after the Justice Department sued more than 25 states seeking voter records that included Social Security numbers.
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Voting booths are seen at Glass Elementary School’s polling station in Eagle Pass, Texas, on November 8, 2022 (MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images)
Judge Cathy Bissoon ruled the feds lack authority to demand «highly sensitive» state information – after Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, a Philadelphia Republican appointed by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, balked at a demand to turn over data last fall.
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Schmidt reportedly offered a redacted version of the state voter file without the sensitive data, telling the DOJ in his response that such «broad data» collection is a «concerning attempt to expand the federal government’s role in our country’s election process,» according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
DHS’ new tact may or may not be tested in a similar fashion.
homeland security, voter fraud concerns, federal relations, elections state and local, voting, elections, politics
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