A Nigerian woman living in Massachusetts has been charged with illegally voting in federal elections after allegedly lying about her citizenship status. Gladys Adaeze Okafor, 56, faces charges from the Justice Department for unlawfully voting as an alien in the 2024 presidential primary election and the 2022 midterm elections. She is scheduled to appear in a Boston federal courtroom on Wednesday.
According to federal prosecutors, Okafor falsified her citizenship status on official documents to gain access to the ballot. In July 2022, she submitted a voter registration card, certifying that she was a US citizen. The City of Lynn registered her to vote based on this information. In October 2023, she submitted another voter registration card, again indicating that she was an American citizen, and subsequently voted in the 2024 presidential primary election.
Okafor, who was born in Nigeria, obtained lawful permanent resident status in December 2022 but has not applied for US citizenship. She faces a potential penalty of up to one year in prison and fines of up to $10,000. This case follows recent indictments of seven noncitizens in Texas related to an election integrity investigation, as well as charges against five individuals in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Wisconsin for alleged illegal voting or fraudulent registration during the 2022 or 2024 elections.