Philly election worker pleads guilty to fraud
Thurman George, 59, pleaded guilty to committing fraud by an election officer, a third-degree felony, during a special election last year in the city's Kensington section for a state House seat.
A Democratic election-board member was sentenced Wednesday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court to five years' probation for committing fraud during a special election last year in the city's Kensington section for a state House seat.
Thurman George, 59, of the 3900 block of North 10th Street, pleaded guilty Wednesday to fraud by an election officer, a third-degree felony, before Judge Scott DiClaudio.
George, a machine inspector, also was disqualified from voting for four years. He originally had been charged with five felonies and three misdemeanors.
George was one of four election-board members charged in October by state prosecutors with intimidating voters, casting bogus ballots, and falsely certifying results during a March 21 special election in the 197th House District. The four workers oversaw ballot machines at the Esperanza Health Center at Kensington and Allegheny Avenues.
Cases against two of the defendants already have been resolved.
Calvin Mattox, a minority inspector at the health center, known officially as Poll 43-7, pleaded guilty last month to not meeting the qualifications officers for living outside the legislative district. He was sentenced to one year of probation and cannot vote until April 2020.
Delores Shaw, the judge of election at Poll 43-7, received accelerated rehabilitative disposition for compromising the local election board.
Charges remained pending against Wallace Hill, a bilingual translator.
State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a statement: "My job is to uphold Pennsylvania law to ensure free and fair elections. We are drawing a clear line – during a time when the integrity of our country's elections are being questioned – the sanctity of 'one person, one vote' must and will be upheld here in Pennsylvania."
Shapiro said in October that there was no evidence that the outcome of the election was affected. The seat was won by Emilio Vazquez, a Democratic ward leader.
The Attorney General's Office created a voter's rights guide ahead of next week's primary and a guide for campaign staff and poll watchers on how to follow Pennsylvania law.
The voter's guide is available in English and Spanish and can be downloaded at https://bit.ly/2jIU66O.