NEWARK, N.J. — Another alleged case of non-citizen voting has surfaced in New Jersey, this time involving a Union County woman accused by federal prosecutors of casting a ballot in the 2024 presidential primary.
Mercedes Alexandra Cardoso, 41, was charged with voting by an alien in a federal election, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced Friday.
According to the federal criminal complaint, Cardoso was not a United States citizen when she used the New Jersey Division of Elections’ online voter registration system. Prosecutors allege that she nevertheless certified on the application that she was a U.S. citizen.
Cardoso subsequently cast a ballot in New Jersey’s June 2024 primary election, according to the complaint. The ballot included federal races for president and vice president.
Federal authorities say Cardoso originally entered the United States from Ecuador on a B-2 visitor visa and remained a non-citizen when she voted.
“Government has a responsibility to the people to safeguard elections. Even one illegal vote is one too many,” U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer said in announcing the charge.
Frazer added that federal authorities in New Jersey would investigate and prosecute alleged violations of federal election law to protect election integrity and prevent lawful votes from being diluted.
The charge could land the accused in prison for up to one year. Cardoso is scheduled to appear Tuesday, September 8th, before U.S. Magistrate Judge José R. Almonte in Newark.
The case is being prosecuted through the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Election Integrity Task Force and investigated by the FBI, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Homeland Security Investigations.
Cardoso isn’t the first New Jersey non-citizen to face federal prosecution for voting this year. In June, Toms River resident Eliezer Kadoch, a French citizen, pleaded guilty to illegally voting in the 2022 federal midterm election. Federal prosecutors also charged four New Jersey resident aliens in May and another Middlesex County man in July in separate cases involving alleged illegal voting.
The latest charge comes amid heightened scrutiny of New Jersey’s voter-registration safeguards and adds another actual federal prosecution to the broader debate over non-citizen registration and voting in the Garden State.
