Led astray by false claims, voter says

A Pennsylvania man has pleaded guilty to felony perjury and unlawful voting — and blamed his decision to cast the fraudulent ballot on consuming too many false claims about the 2020 presidential election.

Bruce Bartman, 70, of Marble Township, admitted Friday to mailing his mother’s absentee ballot with a check mark next to President Donald Trump’s name even though his mother had been dead since 2008.

“I was isolated last year in lockdown,” Bartman said, while apologizing to the judge for his crime, The Associated Press reported. “I listened to too much propaganda and made a stupid mistake.”

Bartman was accused of submitting voter registration forms for his deceased mother and mother-in-law, who died in 2019. Bartman registered both women as Republicans, but did not submit an absentee ballot on behalf of his mother-in-law.

After sentencing him to five years of probation, leaving him unable to vote for four years, Common Pleas Court Judge George A. Pagano noted that Bartman’s crime “goes to the heart of our democracy,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, but also commended him for taking ownership of his crimes.

As Trump has doubled down on his false claims of widespread voter fraud, especially in battle ground states like Pennsylvania, Bartman’s case is among the few proven instances of wrongdoing. Statewide investigations have debunked Trump’s claims of broad wrongdoing and led to dozens of dismissed lawsuits.