Election fraud charges against Paterson City Council President & Wife
Councilman Alex Mendez faces a new batch of criminal election fraud charges, including accusations against his wife and campaign manager, stemming from the 2020 ward council races that resulted in the long-pending indictment against him.
Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced late Wednesday afternoon that state investigators had determined that Mendez, 48, illegally collected ballots and oversaw the fraudulent mailing of ballots, while members of his campaign stole ballots from residential mailboxes and discarded several that did not show a vote for their candidate.
Platkin also said Mendez and his co-defendants tampered with witnesses to avoid prosecution. Councilman Alex Mendez faces a new batch of criminal election fraud charges, including accusations against his wife and campaign manager, stemming from the 2020 ward council races that resulted in the long-pending indictment against him.
Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced late Wednesday afternoon that state investigators had determined that Mendez, 48, illegally collected ballots and oversaw the fraudulent mailing of ballots, while members of his campaign stole ballots from residential mailboxes and discarded several that did not show a vote for their candidate.
Platkin also said Mendez and his co-defendants tampered with witnesses to avoid prosecution. The case involved an election conducted entirely with mail-in ballots during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Attorney General's Office said many of the ballots Mendez’s campaign collected were not sealed by voters when they were turned over. The state said that after the ballots were taken to Mendez’s campaign headquarters, they were examined to see if they were votes for Mendez. If a ballot did not select Mendez as the candidate, his wife allegedly would destroy the ballot and replace it with another mail-in ballot that did select Mendez for the council seat, Platkin’s announcement said.
The Attorney General's Office said the blank ballots used as replacements were obtained by stealing ballots out of voters’ mailboxes. Mendez associate Omar Ledesma is accused of taking ballots out of mailboxes in specific neighborhoods and apartment buildings in Paterson that were known to have a large number of residents supporting Mendez’s main opponent in the election, former Paterson Councilman William McKoy, Platkin said.
n May 5, 2020, a week before Election Day, Mendez allegedly watched from his wife’s vehicle as a large, heavy bag, completely filled with ballots, was emptied into the Haledon postal box before the election.
Authorities have said the finding of Paterson election ballots at the Haledon post office was what triggered the probe.
About one week later, Platkin’s announcement said Mendez’s campaign attorney filed a letter with the Passaic County Board of Elections, urging the board to count the Haledon ballots, even though Mendez knew they had been unlawfully collected and submitted to the county.
Authorities said that after Mendez was indicted on Feb. 24, 2021, on charges of election fraud, he, his wife, and others were recorded agreeing to attempt to contact the witnesses against Alex Mendez, so they could propose new statements that the witnesses could give that would be helpful to Mendez’s defense.
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