Non-Profit’s Investigation Leads to Conviction in Double-Voting Case

by Sharon Rondeau

(Apr. 26, 2023) — As reported last Wednesday, ongoing investigative work conducted by the non-profit organization Look Ahead America (LAA) recently led to an April 17, 2023 “Nolo Contendere” plea conviction in the case of a Bradley County, TN resident charged with three counts of improper voting or registration in 2020 and 2022.

According to the Legal Information Institute (LII), “nolo contendere,” or “no contest,” signifies, “I do not wish to contend.” Further, the website explains:

In a criminal proceeding, a defendant may enter a plea of nolo contendere, in which the defendant does not accept or deny responsibility for the charges but agrees to accept punishment.

The plea differs from a guilty plea because a “no contest” plea cannot be used against the defendant in another cause of action. 

Founded in 2017 and relaunched after the 2020 election, LAA focuses on voter registration, engagement and action on “America First initiatives”; promoting election integrity through a number of initiatives, including updating voter rolls and investigating potential cases of fraud; and shedding light on those arrested in connection with the January 6, 2021 incursion at the U.S. Capitol, including maintaining a database of individuals charged and their outcomes.

The Post & Email reported on LAA’s work beginning last year, concentrating on the area of election integrity. In LAA’s short history, it has uncovered ample evidence of both illegal voting in various forms as well as disproving election fraud allegations in a curious Wisconsin case. The organization utilizes a number of publicly-available tools such as the National Change of Address (NCOA) list published by the U.S. Postal Service; DMV records; the resource voteref.com, and other sources to search for potential voting irregularities.

Upon a finding of suspected vote fraud, LAA Director of Research Ian Camacho and members of his team, who are volunteers, contact the election authority for the jurisdiction(s) where the voter appears to have voted in violation of state law. If investigations are launched by county or state officials, Camacho told us, they are often lengthy, and despite evidence of fraud, many are not prosecuted.

In addition to the conviction in Bradley County, LAA currently has open investigations with case numbers in Arizona, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina.

In January, local media reported on the indictment issued by the Bradley County grand jury in December charging Emily Jessop Bowers, 64, with three counts of voting or attempting to vote “in violation of TCA 2-19-107.”

The applicable law states it is a Class “D” felony to register to vote or cast a vote “more than once in the same election.” In Bowers’s case, the other jurisdiction is Volusia County, Florida, which confirmed she had cast a vote there in 2020 and 2022.

The law also imposes a fine of $1,000 which goes into a “reward pool fund” providing a payout to anyone reporting a suspected “criminal offense in this state” leading to a conviction of one or more felonies ranging from Class “A” down to Class “E.”

The Post & Email obtained a copy of the indictment assigning Bowers the case number 22-CR-740 charging her with “Illegal Registration or Voting” on three occasions: August 6-18, 2020; November 3, 2020; and August 4-23, 2022.

The indictment was signed by District Attorney General Stephen D. Crump for Tennessee’s Tenth Judicial District and the judgment sheet signed by Criminal Court Judge Sandra N.C. Donaghy.

“It is vindicating to see our work lead to a successful conviction, and we look forward to more progress in the many pending cases that we are pursuing around the country,” Camacho said in last week’s press release. “While we have documented many cases of voter fraud, few are convicted due states and localities refusing to prioritize election integrity. We encourage state legislators to remedy this by dedicating resources for these prosecutions and for state and local law enforcement agencies to follow Bradley County’s lead and take voter fraud seriously.”

Bowers’s case began when in late January 2021, Camacho purchased a copy of Tennessee’s voter roll current to that month. On February 5, 2021, he told The Post & Email in an interview Friday, he contacted Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s office to relate his discovery of evidence that Bowers voted not only in Tennessee, but also in Volusia County, FL in 2020.

Initially, Bowers was one of 12 submissions Camacho made to Hargett’s office via email wherein Tennessee voters appeared to have voted in a total of six other states. Camacho also contacted Volusia County, FL election officials Lisa Lewis and Frank Celeste regarding his findings. Last month, Lewis acknowledged to Camacho that she was in touch with Tennessee officials regarding Bowers as well as election officials in two New York counties where additional evidence Camacho provided her pointed to possible triple voting among those jurisdictions and Volusia County during the year 2010.

Lewis and Goins did not respond to our request for comment for this story.

Bowers’s hearing took place on April 17 and proceeded without an affirmation of complaint, Bradley County Criminal Court Deputy Clerk Kelly Blazon informed The Post & Email Wednesday morning. She did, however, provide the indictment and judgment sheet from Bowers’s case.

During our interview, Camacho said Goins informed him of Bowers’s arrest and indictment long after he had submitted to the Elections Office as many as “three dozen” possible cases involving Tennessee residents apparently double-registering or using post office boxes as their residential address on their registrations.

He now submits cases one at a time, he said, so that any investigation the official might launch will not prove overwhelming.

“It’s not that voter fraud is rare; it’s rarely reported but also rarely prosecuted,” Camacho said, and often, he contended, authorities lack the “political will” to pursue even clear cases of violations. Election officials in some states, he told us, have even asked him for advice in instances when the evidence appears to show improper voting. He has advised them to ascertain that an example of apparent double voting is not a “false positive” by checking the voter’s Social Security number and that the signature is in the right place, he said. “It’s a very long process, and that’s the way justice is supposed to work,” he said.

Given the contentiousness of the 2020 election, Camacho said, “We wanted to check a state that was not in contention,” which included Tennessee. “To my knowledge, Tennessee is the only state that offers a reward upon a conviction,” he added.

“Goins had notified me through an email and called me from his personal number, asking me how we found the cases,” he recalled. “‘We just use matching software; run queries on first name, middle name, last name; exact date of birth; and we have the National Change of Address and we could match the addresses or by phone number,'” he said he responded.

The penalty Bowers received is one of “judicial diversion,” meaning two years’ probation in lieu of prosecution.

As to how the fraud was carried out, Camacho said, “On her Florida voting record, she had her Florida address, but her mailing address was her Tennessee address. It seems she cast her ballot absentee in Florida but cast ballots in person in Tennessee.”

“I’m told there’s another case they may have pending in Tennessee,” he said. “I’ve contacted the other states involved, but they haven’t done anything, and this person has since voted.”

Ironically, Camacho pointed out, the Cleveland Daily Banner reported that since 2014, Bowers was a member of Advocates for Bradley County, which describes itself as “a small group of individuals working to improve integrity and accountability in our local government” and produces the Bradley County “digital voter guide.”