Georgia man gets prison time for voting twice in 2021 runoff

Jury convicted him of forging and sending in someone else's absentee ballot

LAFAYETTE, Georgia (WDEF) – A Walker County man is going to prison for voting twice in the 2021 runoff election in Georgia.

62 year old William Chase was convicted this month by a jury of Forgery, and various voting violations.

Prosecutors say they began the investigation when a voter questioned election officials about why she didn’t get her absentee ballot.

They discovered it was sent to her old PO Box, not her current one.

And someone had sent it in and forged her name to it.

William Chase now had access to that box.

They discovered that he had already sent in his own absentee ballot.

When the GBI crime lab checked out the forged ballot, they found Chase’s fingerprint on it.

He also had a long record of convictions that included forgery, bankruptcy fraud, identity fraud and stealing public documents.

The judge sentenced Chase to 25 years, the first 15 with no chance of parole.

“This defendant sought to disenfranchise a Walker County citizen. Thankfully Mr. Chases ’voter fraud was caught and we had sufficient evidence to successfully prosecute him. This prosecution, along with the stiff prison sentence will hopefully send a clear message that we do not tolerate voter fraud in the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit.”