Louisiana city councilman Emanuel Zanders III was recently arrested and charged with eight counts of election fraud by an ongoing joint investigation between the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation and the Secretary of State’s office.
Zanders had been accused of fraudulent activity regarding the election in early January after voters complained about being registered in District 3 where they did not live. The 52-year-old Democrat had changed and manipulated over a dozen voter registration applications by asking citizens to sign forms that he would later complete with a fraudulent address.
The congressman had changed the addresses to register voters into his district, which were then tied to multiple vacant lots in Amite. During the investigation, the Secretary of State’s office had found six people registered to vote at the first address and 16 people registered at the second.
Zanders was then accused of using his own address on the forms, even though the signatures were not his. He was arrested at the Tangipahoa Parish Prison Tuesday but has since bonded out, according to booking records.
“Election integrity matters. Yesterday’s arrest is the culmination of work by my office, the Attorney General’s Office, the Registrar of Voters, and others; and it proves that the multi-level checks and balances of our election processes and procedures work. This should serve as a stark warning to those looking to violate our election laws,” said Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin.
Ardoin and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced the arrest Thursday morning during a news conference in Baton Rouge. They discussed that the incident of breaking the law and betraying their fellow citizens is even more disheartening when the perpetrator is an elected official.
Zanders was reelected for a 3rd term on the Amite City Council Dec 5, while Ardoin and Landry continued to push for Zanders’ prosecution. Some council members spoke out against the story and are not yet convinced of Zanders’ guilt. Longtime Amite Councilman Jonathon Foster even accused the city of creating gossip to score political points.
The story was kept quiet and only covered by a handful of media platforms since Democrats aren’t supposed to be caught cheating during an election. There was no mention of party affiliation in any of the headlines and most news networks used pictures of the secretary of state, not Zanders.
There is a continued bias from the left about trying to control the narrative in maintaining a ‘secure’ election, even when a member of their own party gets caught cheating. It’s always about preaching and never practicing.
