Marple Man Cast Ballot For Dead Mother To Boost Trump: DA

MARPLE TOWNSHIP, PA — A Marple Township man is accused of illegally voting for a dead family member in the general election, according to authorities.

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer Monday said Bruce Bartman, 70, of Marple, voted in place of his dead mother.

Bartman was charged with two counts of felony perjury and one count of unlawful voting. He faces 19 years in prison.

Stollsteimer said Bartman, a registered Republican, registered two deceased people — his mother Elizabeth Bartman and his deceased mother-in-law Elizabeth Weihman — to vote as Republicans in August this year. Bartman's mother has been deceased for more than 12 years, according to Stollsteimer.

This was possible through the state's online voter registration system, which asks for the last four digits of a resident's Social Security number or their driver's license number. Bartman, Stollsteimer said, used his mother's driver's license number.

"For some reason, not only was it not caught as a voter registration for a deceased individual, in fact the system uploaded the information from PennDOT, including the signature," Stollsteimer said.

For his mother-in-law, Stollsteimer said Bartman used the last four digits of her Social Security number, which was caught by the system. But the system then generated a letter that was sent to the person who was trying to register, who authorities allege was Bartman, to confirm the current information is correct. Bartman is accused of receiving that letter and lying on it to obtain a ballot for his deceased mother-in-law, according to Stollsteimer. In doing so, that overrode the system's flag on the deceased Social Security alert.

"The fact that Mr. Bartman was able to register two deceased individuals through the Commonwealth’s online voter registration system should trouble our state lawmakers," Stollsteimer said. "After all, the Delaware County Voter Registration Commission can only administer the system our Legislature puts in place."

Bartman then applied for, received, filled out, and cast an absentee ballot for his mother that was counted in the third ward precinct of Nether Providence, where Bartman also cast his ballot, Stollsteimer said. The ballot was received by the county Oct. 28.

He did not apply for an absentee ballot for his mother-in-law.

Stollsteimer said the only reason Bartman's political affiliation was made public was to be as clear as possible given the controversy around the election.

"We are not prosecuting this case because of who he voted for," Stollsteimer said. "The team of prosecutors you see here are a mix of both Republicans and Democrats. It matters not a whit to us who he voted for."

Stollsteimer called Bartman's alleged actions a violation of the integrity of the American electoral process.

Authorities did not access the vote he's accused of casting for his mother to determine who the vote went to. Rather, Bartman willingly provided that information to investigators.

Stollsteimer directly addressed "conspiracy theorists," saying this case is not indicative of widespread voter fraud.

Bartman was released on $100,000 unsecured bail and is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 7.