Former Elections Judge Pleads Guilty to Accepting Bribes to Fix Primary Results
A former elections judge in Philadelphia pleaded guilty to accepting cash and “other things of value” in return for tampering with the results of city primary elections over several years, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
Domenick J. Demuro pleaded guilty to “conspiring to deprive persons of civil rights, and using interstate facilities in aid of bribery,” the department said in a written statement.
Prosecutors said Demuro cast fraudulent ballots and certified false voting results during the 2014, 2015 and 2016 primary elections in the city of Philadelphia.
Federal officials said that during the former judge’s guilty plea hearing he admitted to accepting bribes to add ballots to increase the total number of votes for individual candidates “on the voting machines in his jurisdiction and for certifying tallies of all the ballots, including the fraudulent ballots.”
“Demuro fraudulently stuffed the ballot box by literally standing in a voting booth and voting over and over, as fast as he could, while he thought the coast was clear. This is utterly reprehensible conduct,” said U.S. Attorney William McSwain of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
“The charges announced today do not erase what he did, but they do ensure that he is held to account for those actions,” McSwain added.
Demuro said that a political consultant, who was not named by federal officials Thursday, “gave him directions and paid him money” to boost candidates for federal, state and local elections.
Demuro is scheduled to be sentenced on June 30. He could face up to 15 years in prison.
