South Park man faces election crime charges

A South Park man was charged Thursday with election-related crimes after he allegedly cast a ballot in his dead wife’s name in the 2020 general election.

Francis Fiore Presto, a 79-yearold registered Republican, is accused of requesting and casting a ballot in the name of his late wife, Judy Presto, who died in 2013. Although Mr. Presto is a Republican, state records do not show who the ballot was cast for.

In addition to a misdemeanor charge of forging ballots, Mr. Presto faces felony charges of interference with elections and unlawful use of a computer.

Mr. Presto could not be reached for comment.

When police spoke to Mr. Presto on the phone in November and inquired about the incident, he told authorities that his mail had been stolen and he filed a report with the postal service, according to a criminal complaint. But police said U.S postal records showed no such report was filed.

Attorney Paul Giuffre then contacted police on behalf of Mr. Presto, the complaint reads, and told them that his client was a victim of a credit card fraud or identify theft scheme, and he had disposed of his computer in October.

Yet again, when police looked into South Park Township police records, they found no such fraud report filed with authorities, the complaint states.

Mr. Giuffre was not available for comment.

Police said Pennsylvania Department of State records show the ballot was marked as successfully cast in October, but the envelope and ballot have not been recovered because of the separation of the envelope and ballot by the elections board.

The computer IP, email and home addresses used to request the ballot all belong to Mr. Presto, police wrote in the complaint.

County police Sgt. Matt Mineard said the department is not investigating any other suspects in connection to the case. It was not clear Friday afternoon when Mr. Presto will face a hearing.