Man admits to voter fraud in casting dead mother’s ballot

MEDIA, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man who illegally voted for Donald Trump on behalf of his long-dead mother in last year’s presidential election was sentenced Friday to five years of probation.

Bruce Bartman, 70, of Marple, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of perjury and one count of unlawful voting. Besides his probation term, he will not be allowed to vote in an election for four years and is no longer eligible to serve on a jury.

Bartman apologized for his actions, telling the judge “I was isolated last year in lockdown. I listened to too much propaganda and made a stupid mistake.”

Bartman voted in place of his dead mother, authorities have said, and he also registered his mother-in-law, who died in 2019, to vote but did not obtain an absentee ballot for her.

Prosecutors have said Bartman used the driver’s license number for his mother, who died more than a decade ago, to register her to vote, obtain a mail-in ballot, return that ballot and fraudulently vote in her name.