Democrat Election Win Declared Void After Voter Fraud Discovered

A judge has ruled an extremely tight election between Republicans and Democrats for a Louisiana parish sheriff is void because of voter fraud.

The race to become Caddo Parish sheriff was closely fought between Democrat Henry Whitehorn and Republican John Nickelson. In November, a recount was ordered after Whitehorn won by just one vote in an election that saw over 43,000 ballots cast. The recount found three additional votes for each candidate and Whitehorn was declared the winner.

Both Nickelson and Whitehorn have been approached for comment by Newsweek.

Nickelson filed a lawsuit and retired Louisiana Supreme Court Justice E. Joseph Bleich declared the result void on Tuesday. Nickelson's suit said the count was done too quickly and could not be accurate, while ballots cast by people twice through mail-in and in-person ballots were discovered, NBC affiliate KTAL reported. Bleich was assigned to the case after four judges recused themselves due to their friendships with Nickelson.

In all, Bleich said that two people voted twice, five mail-in ballots should not have been counted for failure to comply with the law, and there were a further four invalid votes by interdicted persons who were unqualified voters.

Bleich wrote: "This runoff election involved a one-vote margin. It was proven beyond any doubt that there were at least 11 illegal votes cast and counted. It is legally impossible to know what the true vote should have been."

A new runoff has now been called, causing Whitehorn to comment that, "The judiciary should not decide elections." His team has appealed Bleich's decision to the second circuit court of appeal and says it will take it to the state Supreme Court if necessary.

In a statement, Whitehorn said: "Of course I am disappointed about the court's decision to overturn the will of the people of Caddo Parish. I was always taught that the person with the most votes wins, even if that's by a thousand votes or by one vote."

Whitehorn questioned the ruling, saying, "The rules of the game are different depending on who the players are." He continued: "I won the sheriff's race, not once, but twice. My opponent conveniently chose to question the integrity of the election only after he lost, not once, but twice. In elections, you should not be given a redo simply because you are unhappy with the results."

Nickelson said the decision was a "victory for election integrity" and that he was looking forward to the runoff scheduled for March.

Correction, 12/6/23, 8:30 a.m. ET: The headline on this article was updated to remove the word "widespread" when describing the voter fraud.