New Hampshire Man Arrested for Voting Twice in 2016 Election

New Hampshire Man Arrested for Voting Twice in 2016 Election
Vincent Marzell speaks to a Project Veritas operative on Aug. 21, 2020. (Project Veritas)
Zachary Stieber
9/4/2020
Updated:
9/4/2020

A 65-year-old New Hampshire resident was arrested on Thursday for voting twice during the 2016 election, authorities said.

Vincent Marzello of West Lebanon was charged with a felony for violating state law against voter fraud and wrongful voting.

Marzello voted once under his own name and once as Helen Elisabeth Ashley, New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald’s office said.

Marzello is facing civil action for allegedly applying for and obtaining a ballot by using Ashley’s name.

The New Hampshire Democratic Party had appointed Ashley as an inspector of election. The appointment was suspended on Aug. 27.

“After we were made aware that an individual who previously was appointed as a ballot inspector may have been involved in a pending investigation, we suspended the individual’s ballot inspector status,” a spokesperson for the party told The Epoch Times via email.

“New Hampshire’s Inspectors of Election are held to the highest standards, as they share responsibility for preserving the integrity of our elections. It has come to our attention that you may be involved in a pending investigation, and as such we are suspending your appointment effective immediately pending resolution of the investigation,” Ray Buckley, chair of the party, wrote in the suspension letter.

Project Veritas, a watchdog group, released video footage it said showed Marzello admitting to illegally voting twice.

“I got in trouble because I voted twice and the cops found out because I went to get the voter ID,” he said.

James O'Keefe, the group’s CEO, said New Hampshire State Police launched an investigation in August 2019 and delivered the case file to MacDonald’s office three months later.

“Only after Project Veritas filmed Vincent Marzello, did it come to light the State Police reported the case to the AG’s office nearly a year ago. It appears while simultaneously cooperating with the state Democratic Party to save face for appointing an admitted double voter, as an election inspector, the AG’s office refused to prosecute until Project Veritas forced their hand by storming their office yesterday,” O'Keefe said in a statement.

“The arrest of Marzello is a direct result of a Project Veritas investigation. Why does the AG’s office wait until Project Veritas investigates to act on fraudulent behavior?”

MacDonald’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Deputy Attorney General Jane Young confirmed to the New Hampshire Union Leader that prosecutors received information in the case in December 2019.

She blamed the COVID-19 pandemic on the delay.

“Without the involvement of Project Veritas, would we have brought the case today? Likely not. We have a couple more voter cases and in the run up to the presidential election, we are giving them to more than just the one attorney we have in the election law unit,” Young said. “We are reallocating; we recognize when these come in, we should do them quicker; we will do better.”

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly described who suspended the election inspector’s appointment. The Epoch Times regrets the error.