https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-03-18/a-california-city-councilman-went-to-prison-for-voter-fraud-then-right-wing-election-conspiracies-took-overAs the polls closed in California on Super Tuesday, Jim Hicks stood watch in the parking lot of a community center while election officials wearing red vests retrieved ballots from a drop-off box.
He jiggled the handle of the metal container when they were done to ensure it was locked and peeked his head into the white van holding boxes of ballots that would be transferred to the San Joaquin County registrar of voters to be counted.
"We just need to have eyes on things after everything that's been going on," Hicks said as he rushed to his SUV to tail officials down dark farmland back roads to more drop boxes where ballots were waiting to be collected, all part of his duties as a self-appointed election observer.
Hicks, a real estate agent from Lodi, believes California's universal vote-by-mail process is fraught with fraud risks, echoing unfounded messaging from the far right that election officials nationwide have worked to combat since Donald Trump and his allies began blaming his 2020 presidential loss on claims of fraud that have been shot down by numerous courts.
That paranoia is difficult to dismiss in this part of California's Central Valley, though, after a local politician was arrested on allegations of a slew of crimes involving election fraud.
Former Lodi City Council member Shakir Khan pleaded "no contest" in January to felony charges, including election fraud, after the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office said it found 41 sealed, completed ballots in his home and about 70 people registered to vote using his address, phone number or email.
The alleged scheme, which stems from Khan's run for City Council in 2020, is just one piece of a complex criminal case in which he also faces charges for illegal gambling, money laundering, tax evasion and Employment Development Department fraud.
