Iowa candidate’s wife convicted on 52 counts for voter fraud scheme involving Vietnamese immigrants

The wife of a candidate for office in Iowa was convicted on 52 federal charges of voter fraud after enlisting Vietnamese immigrants to fraudulently fill out absentee ballots, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Kim Phuong Taylor is the wife of Jeremy Taylor, formerly a member of the Iowa House of Representatives and a candidate for the Republican nomination for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District in 2020. While her husband was campaigning, Kim Taylor, who immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam, approached multiple Vietnamese voters who spoke little English to fill out absentee ballots for themselves and their children in her husband’s favor, according to the press release.

“The right to vote is one of our most important constitutional rights. Ms. Taylor deprived citizens of their right to vote in order to benefit her husband’s campaign,” said Tim Duax, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, whose office prosecuted the case, to SiouxlandProud.com, a local news organization. “The guilty verdict is an example of how the justice system works to protect the voting rights of citizens and ensure fair and honest elections.”

Kim Taylor’s fraudulent scheme was discovered in September 2020 after two students at Iowa State University, who were the children of the voters she enlisted, sought to cast their votes, but were informed that they had already voted, according to The Associated Press. The auditor of Woodbury County, Pat Gill, then examined the fraudulent absentee ballots that had been cast, noting that the handwriting on each was similar, the AP reported.

Kim Taylor had allegedly been present in each of the fraudulent voters’ homes to oversee them filling out the ballots, though she was not witnessed to have signed any of them. She was charged with 23 counts of fraudulent voting, three counts of fraudulent registration, and 26 counts of providing false information while registering and voting, according to the AP.

The jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts after six hours of deliberation, the AP reported. Each count carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment, according to The Hill.

“Despite what’s in the media, voter fraud is extremely rare,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Evans, one of the prosecutors assigned to the case, to the AP. “To have someone vote dozens of times for several people, that is rare.”

Jeremy Taylor was not charged in the case, though he was named as an “unindicted co-conspirator.” He lost the congressional primary election to Randy Feenstra, who was later elected to the office and was also removed from office as a member of the Woodland County Board of Supervisors in January of 2020, after he moved to another jurisdiction, in accordance with state law.

Under federal law, naturalized citizens of the United States do not lose their citizenship even if convicted of a crime of moral turpitude. The only grounds for revocation of naturalization are fraud during the immigration process, membership of the Communist Party or a terrorist organization within five years of naturalization, or refusal to testify before a congressional committee regarding subversive activities.

Duax’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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