Did a California Mayor Pro Tempore Plead Guilty to Election Fraud?

He violated state law by not meeting residency requirements. He was not accused of any ballot tampering or vote manipulation.

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Viral social media posts have claimed that the mayor pro tempore of a California town pleaded guilty to election fraud:

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  1. Avatar photo
    Farhall

    I read this and was a bit confused what's going on, since I doubted "Mayor Pro Tempore" was an elected post.

    Alex Campbell ran for city council of Crescent City, California in the November 2020 election, and was elected to the council then. After he was elected, he became mayor pro tempore in December, for reasons I cannot easily google right now.

    The issue at hand is that elected councilmembers of Crescent City must live strictly within the city limits. Campbell had been renting a room within the city limits of Crescent City, but owned property located on Del Mar Road, a street just outside the city limits (but close enough that a Google search for this street actually lists it in Crescent City). Campbell had claimed to have spent more than 50% of his time in the rented apartment instead of the owned house, thus fulfilling the residency requirement.

    Consequently, he is pleading guilty to election fraud with respect to the residency requirement for his councilmember election, and just happens to be mayor pro tempore at the time of his resignation.

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    1. Shaybult

      You should have been the one to write the fact check.

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      1. Avatar photo
        Farhall

        I'm glad to hear the post was useful for others ☺️

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About Alec Dent

Alec Dent is the culture editor and a staff writer for The Dispatch. He is a graduate of the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC Chapel Hill, and previously oversaw The Dispatch's fact checking team.
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