Fresno Woman Among Four Valley Residents Charged With Illegal Voting in 2024 Election — Photo: Arnaud Jaegers ajaegers — CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Fresno Woman Among Four Valley Residents Charged With Illegal Voting in 2024 Election
Four Central Valley residents — including a Fresno woman — face federal charges for allegedly voting illegally in the 2024 presidential election, part of a broader Trump administration push to prosecute noncitizen voting that has drawn criticism from California officials and election experts.
The U.S. Department of Justice charged Edith San Pedro Carter, 59, of Fresno; Lorie Jane Alcala, 44, of Hanford; Maria Joao Bettencourt, 49, of Visalia; and Rosa Bento Silva Anderson, 26, of Turlock. All four allegedly voted Nov. 5, 2024, while not U.S. citizens. Carter and Alcala appeared in Fresno federal court Friday; Bettencourt and Anderson appeared Monday.
Each faces up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine if convicted.
The charges are part of a larger set of 28 criminal complaints the DOJ filed statewide Oct. 19 against people accused of voting while noncitizens. U.S. Attorney Eric Grant said in a statement that “the right to vote is one of the most fundamental” privileges of citizenship, “and its theft by noncitizens will be prosecuted.”
The prosecutions come amid an intensifying feud between the Trump administration and California over a list of 20,000 registered voters the federal government claims are likely noncitizens. California officials have said the DOJ provided no evidence for that claim and that complying with federal demands to segregate those voters’ ballots would violate state and federal law. The Trump administration sent a letter Oct. 23 threatening prosecution of Fresno County officials who do not cooperate with federal requests for voter-fraud evidence.
Research on past cases where legal permanent residents registered to vote has found the cause is often bureaucratic error or confusion about eligibility, not intentional fraud. Election experts told NPR it rarely makes sense for someone to risk their path to citizenship by casting one vote. The 28 people charged statewide represent roughly 0.0001% of California’s registered voters.
The Breakdown
- Four Valley residents were charged with voting in the 2024 presidential election while not U.S. citizens, according to criminal complaints filed by federal prosecutors.
- The charges are part of a broader DOJ effort that filed 28 complaints statewide Oct. 19, all stemming from a list of 20,000 names the administration says are likely noncitizens on California’s voter rolls.
- California officials have said the federal government provided no supporting evidence and that segregating those voters’ ballots as the DOJ demands would likely violate state and federal law.
- Each defendant faces up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.
What This Means for You
The Trump administration sent a letter threatening Fresno County officials with potential charges if they don’t cooperate with federal voter-fraud requests. This is part of a broader pattern of pressuring local election offices over claims the administration made without supporting evidence. When you vote, you’re deciding who has the power to investigate, to threaten, and to prosecute — and this is what it looks like in practice.
What to Watch
The Justice Department has not provided the evidence behind its claim that 20,000 people on California’s voter rolls are likely noncitizens — no names, no documentation, no methodology. California officials and election-law experts say the lack of evidence is a problem, not a detail.
What would confirm whether the 20,000-person claim is accurate? The actual list, with the data and method behind it. What would show whether the four Valley residents charged knew they were ineligible? Their immigration records, their voter-registration forms, and whether anyone explained eligibility to them when they registered. The material does not provide any of that.
Here’s the real question: why charge these four people now, weeks before an election, when the conduct happened two years ago? The timing itself is a decision someone made.
Announcing charges like this as early voting begins allows the administration to give the impression that noncitizen voting is happening more than it is — 28 people out of millions of registered voters is not evidence of widespread fraud, but the announcement creates that appearance.
Election experts told NPR they worry this kind of accusation could be used to justify federal interference with ballot counting after Election Day. Local election officials in other states are watching California and preparing as though they’ll be next.
Who benefits from this? The administration that has spent years claiming elections are rigged, and now has the tools to make that claim look justified.
Who suffers? The people charged — some of whom may genuinely have made a bureaucratic mistake — and the local officials being threatened for following state law instead of federal demands with no evidence behind them. And voters, if the goal is to cast doubt rather than to actually secure elections.
