By Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Something seemed suspicious about a number of people who registered to vote in Alexandria City, so the Alexandria Office of the General Registrar reported the hunch to police. An investigation found some of the names registered to vote weren’t associated with real people.
Former Alexandria resident Vafalay Massaquoi was arraigned Friday on two counts of felony voter registration fraud and two felony counts of forging a public record. The Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Alexandria Bryan Porter said in a statement the 30-year-old made up some names and registered those fake people to vote last spring while he was employed by a local advocacy group that registered new voters.
“Given the recent public attention to claims of election fraud, I think it is important to note that there is no allegation that any illegal vote was actually cast in this case. Furthermore, since the fraudulent applications involved fictitious people, had the fraud not been uncovered the risk of actual fraudulent votes being cast was low,” Porter wrote.
Massaquoi was arrested in Philly and extradited to Alexandria Thursday. He’s being held in the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center.
If convicted, he could spend a maximum of forty years in prison.
He’s scheduled to appear in court again Dec. 16.
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(Photo: Alexandria Government)
