Wife of Iowa official charged with 52 counts of voter fraud

SIU CITY, Iowa – A federal prosecutor’s office said the wife of a county monitor in northwest Iowa was charged with 52 counts of voter fraud after she allegedly filled out and filed absentee ballots in her husband’s unsuccessful race for the 2020 Republican nomination for Congress. .

According to the Sioux City Journal, Kim Phuong Taylor, 49, was arrested on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to the charges before being released on bail. Her trial is due to begin on March 20.

In an indictment released Thursday, prosecutors allege that Phuong Taylor filled out voter registration forms or delivered absentee ballots to people in the Sioux City Vietnamese community who had limited ability to read and understand English.

According to the indictment, she filled out “dozens of voter lists, absentee ballot application forms, and absentee ballot forms containing false information” and delivered absentee ballots, sometimes without the knowledge of the people whose names were used.

Pat Gill, who is Woodbury County Auditor and Electoral Commissioner, said Thursday that he notified the Iowa Secretary of State’s office after someone contacted his office because a ballot was fraudulently filed on their behalf in November 2020. .

He said his office later provided the FBI with suspected fraudulent registration forms and absentee ballots.

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Phuong Taylor committed fraud ahead of the June 2020 primary in which her husband, Jeremy Taylor, a former member of the Iowa House of Representatives, finished a distant third in the race for the Republican nomination for a congressional seat from Iowa’s 4th district, prosecutors allege. The winner of that race, Randy Finstra, easily won congressional elections in November of that year.

Prosecutors allege Phuong Taylor committed the same fraud ahead of the November 2020 election that saw Jeremy Taylor elected to Woodbury County Council, according to the indictment.

Jeremy Taylor is not named in the indictment and is not charged with any wrongdoing.

Kim Phuong Taylor’s attorney, John Greer of Spencer, Iowa, declined to comment on the allegations, the magazine reported.