.
.
Boston, Massachusetts — September 16, 2026
A 56-year-old Nigerian national residing in Lynn, Massachusetts, has been arrested and charged with illegally voting in the 2022 midterm elections after falsely claiming U.S. citizenship, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.
U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley and Jeff Grimming, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England, announced the charges against Gladys Adaeze Okafor in a release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. Okafor is charged with unlawfully voting as an alien and is also alleged to have voted in the 2024 presidential primary election. She was arrested Wednesday morning and was expected to appear in federal court in Boston the same day.
According to the charging documents, Okafor is a citizen of Nigeria, born in Aba, Nigeria. She obtained lawful permanent resident status in December 2022 but is not a U.S. citizen and has not applied for U.S. citizenship.
Prosecutors allege that in July 2022, Okafor submitted a voter registration card in which she signed her name under a certification stating, “I AM A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES … Signed under penalty of perjury.” The City of Lynn subsequently registered her to vote, and she allegedly voted in that fall’s midterm elections. It is further alleged that in October 2023, Okafor submitted a second voter registration form, again checking the “U.S. Citizen” box and signing under the citizen certification, before allegedly voting in the 2024 presidential primary election. According to a separate account of the case, Okafor admitted to the 2024 vote during a recorded interview with a Homeland Security Investigations agent last week.
Charges and potential penalties
The charge of unlawful voting as an alien carries a potential sentence of up to one year in prison, one year of supervised release, and a fine of up to $100,000. Okafor may also be subject to deportation upon completion of any sentence imposed. As with all federal criminal cases, any sentence would ultimately be determined by a federal district court judge in accordance with the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and applicable statutes.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Julissa Walsh of the Major Crimes Unit is prosecuting the case.
The case is part of a broader pattern of noncitizen voting prosecutions federal authorities have pursued in recent months, including similar cases involving noncitizens accused of voting in Minnesota and cases involving a Canadian national charged with illegal voting in both federal and state elections.
