DOJ charges 18 more with illegally voting in North Carolina's 2024 election

Kyle Ingram, The News & Observer (Raleigh) on Oct 29, 2026

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RALEIGH, N.C. — Federal prosecutors on Thursday announced indictments against 18 North Carolina residents on charges of illegally voting as noncitizens in the 2024 election.

The news comes just five days before Election Day and two weeks after the U.S. Department of Justice indicted 10 other individuals on illegal voting charges.

“If you vote illegally, we are looking, we will find out, and we will prosecute you,” U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle said in a statement.

The indictments largely target lawful permanent residents of the United States, some of whom have lived in the country for decades. Only one of the defendants announced Thursday is described as an “illegal alien.”

Most of the defendants are charged with falsely claiming citizenship to vote, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The indictments are part of a larger effort of the Trump administration to prosecute noncitizens registering to vote and voting. At the end of last month, Homeland Security Investigations senior official Matthew Millhollin announced that the effort has led to 1,600 voter fraud cases and 160 arrests nationwide, the Associated Press reported.

Numerous studies, nationally and in North Carolina, have found voter fraud to be exceedingly rare.

The indictments announced Thursday span all three of North Carolina’s federal prosecutorial districts and involve defendants originally from a wide variety of countries, including Italy, Kenya, Mexico and France.

Earlier this month, the first 10 defendants charged with illegal voting appeared in court, where at least eight were released from custody until their next court date.

The defendants have not yet entered pleas in their cases, but one of them, Robert Corbett, a Wake County resident, told reporters outside the courthouse that he’d only recently learned he was not a citizen and therefore ineligible to vote.

“I was born in Canada. I did not find out that I was adopted until I was 51 years old, and my understanding was that my mother was American,” he said. “... I would never break the law.”

Boyle said at a news conference after the hearings that he believed the defendants knew they were ineligible to vote.

“They signed their name on the (registration) form saying they were citizens,” he said. “We believe they knew that was not true. I don’t care if they say they were confused, they can tell that to a jury.”