Noncitizen snared in California voter fraud bust reveals how he did it

One of the accused in the Department of Justice’s massive California voter fraud bust revealed Monday how shockingly lax the state’s voting system was.

Kamlesh Shah, a 67-year-old green card holder in Sacramento, was one of 28 noncitizens who allegedly voted illegally despite not being US citizens.

Shah, an Indian national, allegedly registered to vote on the day of the November 2024 general election and did vote that day.

“All 28 foreign nationals charged are lawful permanent residents (LPRs), or ‘green card’ holders. Although LPRs have legal immigration status in the United States, they are not US citizens and are not permitted to vote in US elections,” the Justice Department said.

Shah told KCRA he had gone to the community center on Election Day. He was asked if he was ever told that he was not eligible to vote.

“No, nobody told me,” he said. “See, that’s very confusing because when I went there, the office there — the election officer over there — didn’t say anything about it.”

“He just asked for my ID and my number,” he said. The California Post reached out to the Sacramento County’s election division for comment.

California Democrats on the state level have responded to the voter fraud bust with dismissal, calling it a “drop in the bucket.”

State Attorney General Rob Bonta said “voter fraud is illegal, voter fraud is wrong” and claimed the number of people arrested proves that fraud is rare at a press conference in San Francisco.

“Every count, recount, hand count, case audit shows that,” the attorney general said.

“It’s .0001% of all of the registered voters and it makes the point there is no widespread voter fraud and that there is, at times, isolated one-off examples of voter fraud,” Bonta added, referring to the 28 people facing charges related to the federal operation, dubbed “Operation Protect the Vote.”

Federal prosecutors made the arrests in a coordinated statewide action, also announcing in a press release that 28 noncitizens are facing charges for allegedly making false statements on naturalization paperwork or illegally registering to vote.

Those arrested in the voter raids included José Probitsado Amaro, 51, a citizen of the Philippines living in San Diego County’s National City, whom federal authorities said registered to vote by falsely claiming to be a US citizen.

City of Commerce resident Alexander Muñoz, 72, was also snared in a 6 a.m arrest witnessed by The California Post.

The Belizean national is accused of fraudulently registering to vote in September 2019, then voting in US elections in 2020, 2022 and 2024.

Prosecutors say there may be more voter fraud ongoing.

“No, this isn’t the total number of noncitizen voters in California. Police can’t catch every speeder, but that doesn’t mean speeding isn’t widespread. 28 is what we could charge in a week,” First Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said on X Monday.

Last week, the Justice Department officials ordered California officials to review a list of 20,000 “likely” noncitizens they claimed were California’s voter rolls, provided on a thumb drive — giving the state 48 hours to comply.

The California Secretary of State, Shirley Weber, defiantly refused to comply.

The DOJ is “demanding unprecedented measures that threaten thousands of Californians’ right to vote, based on unverifiable information or methodology that you still fail to explain or provide,” Weber wrote in the letter.

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