Foreign national suspected of illegally voting in battle ground state for over two decades

Federal prosecutors have charged a foreign national in North Carolina with voting in at least two federal elections and believe he may have participated in local elections for the past twenty years.

Denis Bouchard, a 69-year-old Canadian citizen who has resided in the U.S. since the 1960s, never obtained American citizenship, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Despite this, he is accused of listing himself as a citizen on voter registration applications in the 2022 midterms and the 2024 presidential election, casting a ballot in both contests.

The Canadian man’s alleged election meddling may go back much further in time, with prosecutors suspecting that he voted in local county elections since the early 2000s.

“Every single time a noncitizen casts an illegal vote in North Carolina, it steals and nullifies the vote of an actual citizen,” U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle said in a public statement. “If the records are correct, this Canadian citizen appears to have voted in New Hanover and Pender County elections over the past 20 years.”

“We intend to prove his illegal conduct in court and put an end to it,” Boyle continued. Federal prosecutors are working with the North Carolina Board of Elections on the ongoing investigation.

A federal grand jury indicted Bouchard on Tuesday, charging him with illegally registering to vote and voting in the 2022 and 2024 elections, according to the DOJ. He faces a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment for each count, if convicted.

With both Democrats and Republicans currently occupying statewide positions in North Carolina, the state is considered by most election observers as competitive. The 2026 race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis  is considered a toss up by the Cook Political Report.

The indictment against Bouchard is the latest in the Trump administration’s crackdown against foreign nationals daring to partake in federal elections — which is a crime under U.S. law.

For example, prosecutors charged two Ukrainian nationals in April with unlawfully voting in the 2024 presidential election and, in that same month, charged a 45-year-old Iraqi man of illegally voting in the 2020 presidential election. In May, prosecutors revealed that a Colombian illegal migrant resided in the U.S. for decades under a stolen identity and voted in the 2024 presidential election, along with allegedly stealing around roughly $400,000 in rental assistance, Social Security and food stamp benefits

It can be hard to quantify just how many foreign nationals have participated in past U.S. elections. Michigan officials in October charged a Chinese student of voting in the 2024 election — but only after that individual reached out to his local clerk’s office and asked if he could get his ballot back. He fled the country one day before President Donald Trump returned to office.

Since assuming his position in July, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joe Edlow has streamlined resources for elected leaders to better identify and remove noncitizens from their state’s voter rolls. An executive order signed by the president in March directs the Department of Homeland Security, the parent department of USCIS, to offer the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database free of charge to every state to protect election integrity.

SAVE is an online service administered by USCIS that allows various government agencies to verify the immigration status or U.S. naturalization of applicants seeking benefits or licenses. State officials cracking down on voter fraud have said access to the database has turbocharged their efforts.

The Trump administration in May put SAVE’s usefulness into overdrive by partnering with the Social Security Administration to ensure a reliable source for verifying immigration status and American citizenship. Under the update, state and local officials are now able to input Social Security numbers for verification of American citizenship and prevent foreign nationals from voting in American elections.

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