Amite City Councilman Arrested On Voter Fraud Charges

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, and Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin announced the arrest of a Louisiana city councilman today. That city councilman now faces voter fraud charges.

Landry announced that Amite City Council member Emanuel Zanders III was arrested this week, and has been charged for voter fraud. The accusations from Landry's office state that Zanders was discovered to have facilitated voter registration forms that were tied to multiple vacant lots in Amite. The total number of fraudulent voter registration forms totaled 16 individuals.

According to witness statements obtained during their investigation, Landry says that Zanders purposefully had citizens change their voter registration addresses to move them into his District, which is District 3, in Amite. The investigation also accuses Zanders of using his own address to register a voter who was unaware of the change. This individual reportedly told investigators that the signature on the form was not his.

Based on the information provided by Landry today, it would appear the activity Zanders is accused of was for his personal election gain, and not for other candidates.

During their joint press conference, Landry and Ardoin both focused on the safety of our elections in Louisiana. Focusing on the efforts to weed out issues like this alleged incident (and one from last year in Crowley) to preserve the integrity of our elections.

Ardoin pointed out that Louisiana had a smooth, and safe election this year. The Secretary of State pointed out that this investigation and arrested proves that our checks and balances work in our election system. He called for Governor John Bel Edwards to increase funding to his office to help further ensure election security in the future.