The wife of an unsuccessful Iowa Republican congressional primary candidate was arrested Thursday for 53 alleged election law violations.
Kim Phuong Taylor, 49, of Sioux City, Iowa, was indictment for 26 counts of providing false information in registering and voting, three counts of fraudulent registration and 23 counts of fraudulent voting, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The Epoch Times further reported:
Kim Phuong Taylor, 49, of Sioux City, is married to Jeremy Taylor, who unsuccessfully ran in the Republican primary for Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District to replace Rep. Steve King in 2020.
She appeared in court on Thursday where she was charged with 26 counts of providing false information in registering and voting, three counts of fraudulent registration, and 23 counts of fraudulent voting, according to the DOJ’s press release.
If found guilty, she faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count.
According to court documents, prosecutors allege that Phuong Taylor perpetrated a scheme to generate votes in the primary election in June 2020, when her husband—who is not explicitly named in the press release—was an unsuccessful candidate for the Fourth Congressional District, and subsequently in the 2020 general election in November, when her husband was a successful candidate for Woodbury County supervisor.
Jeremy Taylor had resigned as a supervisor earlier in the year after the county auditor ruled that he did not live at the address listed on his voter registration, according to local reports, but won his seat back later in the year.
“Taylor allegedly submitted or caused others to submit dozens of voter registrations, absentee ballot request forms, and absentee ballots containing false information,” prosecutors said. “For example, although these documents required the signer to affirm that he or she was the person named in them, Taylor signed them for voters without their permission and told others that they could sign on behalf of relatives who were not present.”
According to an 11-page indictment (pdf), prosecutors allege that Phuong Taylor, a U.S. citizen, perpetrated the scheme to illegally generate votes through a variety of means, including by “approaching residents of the Vietnamese community in Sioux City, Iowa who had limited ability to read and understand English and offering to help them vote.”
Prior to both the primary and general elections in 2020, Phuong Taylor “visited numerous households within the Vietnamese community in Woodbury County encouraging residents to fill out voter registration forms and absentee ballot request forms that she brought with her for each election,” prosecutors allege.
In some instances, Phuong Taylor assisted the residents with filling out the forms or filling them out herself, according to prosecutors. She then took the forms with her and either mailed them to the Woodbury County Auditor’s Office or placed them in one of the county’s drop boxes, they said.
Phuong Taylor “also signed voter registration forms and absentee ballot request forms for residents who were not present at the time or told residents who were there that they could sign the forms for their other family members,” prosecutors allege.
Prosecutors accuse Phuong Taylor of having “knowingly and willfully deprived, defrauded, and attempted to deprive and defraud the residents of the State of Iowa of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by the procurement, casting, and tabulation of ballots that were known by Taylor to be materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent under the laws of the State.”
Jeremy Taylor finished in third place after garnering just over 6,400 votes in the GOP primary for Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District. However, he was successful in the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors race and currently serves as the board’s vice chairperson.
The FBI Omaha Field Office and USPIS Denver Division are investigating the case, according to the DOJ release.
The Epoch Times has contacted Taylor and a lawyer for Phuong Taylor for comment.
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