GOP official’s wife convicted in months-long 2020 voter-fraud scheme
Rita Palomino, the wife of a Republican National Committee (RNC) official, was convicted of multiple counts of voter fraud for her involvement in a months-long scheme to forge votes in the 2020 general election in Arizona. Rita Palomino was found guilty by a jury of three felony counts of forgery, three felony counts of unlawful control of an election and one misdemeanor count of tampering with an election. Palomino’s husband, Hector Palomino, is the Arizona state chair for the RNC. Prosecutors argued that Palomino and her cohorts forged numerous voter ballots in the November election using absentee ballots that were sent to members of her family who no longer lived in Arizona. Palomino and her co-conspirators are accused of submitting the forged ballots and other fraudulent election documents to polling locations in Maricopa County, AZ. Palomino faces up to 12.5 years in prison for her crimes and is expected to be sentenced in February 2021.