Around New England

Couple Pleads Guilty To Voting in Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 2016

December 18, 2019

A couple pleaded guilty to voter fraud this week after voting in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the 2016 presidential election.

John Fleming Jr. and his wife Grace Fleming voted in Hampton, New Hampshire via absentee ballots in addition to voting in-person in Belchertown, Massachusetts on November 8, 2016, according to CBS Boston.

The two received 60-day suspended jail sentences as well as a $1,240 fine each. They are also banned from voting in future New Hampshire elections.

Grace Fleming told New Hampshire Public Radio that her double-voting was an “honest mistake.” She claimed she sent the absentee ballot in by accident, despite the guilty plea.

In 2017, the state of New Hampshire hired an investigator to look for cases of voting law violations. As The Associated Press reports, one other person was already found guilty of the same crime and at least three others will be tried for allegedly doing violating voter laws in the 2016 and 2018 elections.

As National Public Radio reported earlier this year, Dixville Notch, New Hampshire also reportedly had cases of voting malpractice. Out of fewer than a dozen votes cast in the small northern New Hampshire hamlet, the majority of the votes were fraudulent.

President Donald Trump has stated on multiple occasions that he believes he would have won New Hampshire in the 2016 presidential election if not for voter fraud, according to The Concord Monitor. Trump lost the state by fewer than 3,000 votes.