Plea deal reached in odd voter fraud case
A San Francisco man who was charged with voter fraud, although he never actually voted, has reached a plea deal with the district attorney’s office.
Donald Dewsnup pleaded guilty Wednesday to two misdemeanor counts of false voter registration.
Under the deal, Dewsnup will have to perform 100 hours of community service and serve three years’ probation. He was given credit for two days served in jail.
“It was mutually agreeable,” said Dewsnup’s attorney, public defender Paul Myslin. “The main thing is that Mr. Dewsnup wanted to put this behind him and focus his efforts elsewhere. I know he is very passionate about his advocacy and I expect we will hear from him again.”
The case against Dewsnup was unusual.
When the charges were filed last April, District Attorney George Gascón said Dewsnup registered to vote using a false address, allowing him to vote in a supervisorial district in which he didn’t live.
By registering in that district, Dewsnup was able to infiltrate the influential Telegraph Hill Dwellers neighborhood association to advance his political agenda, according to Gascón.
“San Francisco’s supervisorial races can be decided by a small number of voters,” Gascón said at the time.
Dewsnup faced charges of three felony counts of filing a false document with a government agency, two felony counts of perjury and two felony counts of false voter registration.
In 2015, Dewsnup also led a failed effort to take over the San Francisco chapter of the Sierra Club to make it more development-friendly.
Max Szabo, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said: “These types of violations are not brought to our attention often, but when they are it’s important that we pursue them to ensure the public knows these violations will be taken seriously. A clean electoral process is fundamental to a healthy democracy.”