MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Two women were arrested Friday morning in connection to two separate election fraud cases in Miami-Dade County, the Miami Herald first reported.
"Our law enforcement effort against these election law violators was swift and resulted in an immediate arrest of the wrongdoers. The Elections Department was quick to detect and report these violations to our Task Force," Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. "Anyone who attempts to undermine the democratic process should recognize that there is an enforcement partnership between the Elections Department and our Prosecution Task Force in place to thwart such efforts and arrest those involved. Now we need to move forward with the election."
According to the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, detectives discovered that Gladys Coego, 74, of Westchester, a temporary worker for the county elections department, had submitted at least two fraudulent votes for mayoral candidate Raquel Regalado.
File: Arrest warrant for Gladys Coego
Due to witness testimony, detectives believe that Coego, who was tasked with opening absentee ballots, likely illegally marked other ballots.
Coego turned herself in to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where she is being held on charges of illegally marking another person's ballot, which is a felony.
Another woman, Tomika Curgil, 33, of Liberty City, was arrested Friday morning at her home.
She is accused of filling out voter-registration forms for five people without their consent, submitting 17 forms for people who don't exist and several forms for others who are dead.
File: Arrest warrant for Tomika Curgil
Prosecutors said the forms were submitted by the organization People United for Medical Marijuana, where Curgil worked as a canvasser to register voters.
Prosecutors said detectives watching Curgil noticed that she had not left her home during a day of "work" and then submitted falsified voter registration forms for the time she had been under police observation.
She is charged with five counts of submitting false voter registration information.
"I want to assure the voters of Miami-Dade County that the integrity of the electoral process is intact because our procedures work," Miami-Dade Elections Department supervisor of elections Christina White said in a statement. "While disappointed by these incidents, I am very proud of the safeguards the Elections Department has in place to prevent these fraudulent attempts, and I commend the employees who remained vigilant, just as they were trained to do."