Photo: Rojer Wisner / Wikimedia Commons (archive)
Six lawful permanent residents in the Eastern District of California have been charged with illegally voting in the 2024 presidential election, the Justice Department announced Monday in a separate group of cases from newly disclosed prosecutions in Los Angeles.
The department alleges that one of the six, Meryll Joy Quirong Costi, also voted illegally in the November 2022 midterm election. The charges are accusations, and all six defendants are presumed innocent unless proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The cases appear in the Eastern District of California section of a November 2 Justice Department announcement involving 63 individuals nationwide. That national total spans multiple districts and several kinds of alleged election-related offenses; it is not a count of these six California cases alone.
The six defendants
The Justice Department identified the defendants as:
- Lorie Jane Alcala, 44, a Philippine national and lawful permanent resident, accused of illegally voting in the November 2024 presidential election.
- Edith San Pedro Carter, 59, a Philippine national and lawful permanent resident, charged with illegally voting in the November 2024 presidential election.
- Maria Joao Bettencourt, 49, a Portuguese national and lawful permanent resident, charged with illegally voting in the November 2024 presidential election.
- Rosa Bento Silva Anderson, 26, a Portuguese national and lawful permanent resident, charged with illegally voting in the November 2024 presidential election.
- Janelyn Stewart, 38, a Philippine national and lawful permanent resident, charged with illegally voting in the November 2024 presidential election.
- Meryll Joy Quirong Costi, 36, a Philippine national and lawful permanent resident, charged with illegally voting in the November 2024 presidential election and the November 2022 midterm election.
The department’s national release lists the allegations but does not report convictions or pleas resolving these six cases. The announcement therefore should not be read as a finding of guilt.
Separate from Los Angeles naturalization cases
The Eastern District cases are distinct from six Los Angeles County prosecutions reported separately by JBizNews. Those Central District of California defendants are charged with making false statements on naturalization applications after alleged voter registration or voting conduct.
The Eastern District defendants named here face illegal-voting allegations. Combining the two groups without identifying the different districts and charges would obscure what prosecutors actually announced.
Lawful permanent residence allows a person to live permanently in the United States but is not U.S. citizenship. It does not confer eligibility to vote in federal elections. Whether prosecutors can prove the alleged conduct against each defendant remains a question for the criminal process.
Individual prosecutions and the voter-list dispute
The cases also are separate from litigation over federal efforts to require California officials to change ballot-processing procedures based on suspected-noncitizen lists.
On Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington granted preliminary relief restricting federal demands tied to those lists. His opinion discussed evidence that citizens had been wrongly included.
That district-court decision did not determine these defendants’ guilt or innocence. The criminal charges likewise do not establish the accuracy of an entire statewide list, the number of unlawful ballots statewide, or an effect on any election outcome.
The legal questions remain distinct: prosecutors must prove the individual criminal allegations, while the separate civil litigation addresses federal authority over state election procedures.
JBizNews Desk | Sacramento, California
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