Federal prosecutors have charged 56-year-old Lynn resident Gladys Adaeze Okafor with illegally voting as a noncitizen, alleging that she cast ballots in the 2022 midterm elections and the 2024 presidential primaries despite never becoming a U.S. citizen. Okafor was born in Aba, Nigeria, according to authorities.
Okafor obtained lawful permanent resident status in December 2022 but has not applied for U.S. citizenship, as reported by Boston.com. The federal complaint alleges that she submitted a voter-registration card in July 2022, signed a certification under penalty of perjury stating that she was a U.S. citizen, and was subsequently registered by the city of Lynn. Prosecutors say she voted in the November 2022 midterm election.
In October 2023, the complaint says, Okafor submitted another voter-registration form and again checked the box identifying herself as a U.S. citizen. Authorities allege that she later voted in the 2024 presidential primaries.
Records Prosecutors Cite
Prosecutors point to a January 2023 I-130 Petition for Alien Relative that Okafor submitted to the Department of Homeland Security, two months after the 2022 election. On that form, court records say, she identified herself as a “Lawful Permanent Resident.” Prosecutors argue that the filing shows she understood she was not a U.S. citizen while remaining registered to vote.
What Massachusetts Law Requires
Massachusetts law defines an automatic voter-registration agency as a state-agency location where an eligible citizen may register to vote, according to the Massachusetts Legislature. The law requires those agencies to tell applicants that noncitizens are not eligible to register and that they must decline registration unless they are U.S. citizens and otherwise eligible. That requirement establishes the eligibility guidance agencies must provide; the records cited in this case concern registration forms submitted to Lynn and the citizenship certifications prosecutors say Okafor signed.
Court records also show that Okafor's registration name on Lynn's municipal voter rolls was altered on April 16, 2024, from “Gladys Adaeze Okafor” to “Adaeze Gladys Okator,” though election officials confirmed both entries belong to the same voter history file, according to the Department of Justice complaint.
The Massachusetts U.S. Attorney's Office announced the charge against Okafor. She faces up to one year in prison, up to one year of supervised release, and a fine of up to $100,000 for unlawful voting as an alien, and authorities said she may also be subject to deportation once any sentence is completed.
Part of a Broader Federal Crackdown
The charge was announced by the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney's Office amid a district-wide initiative launched in March 2026 by U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley. The initiative created a Benefit and Voter Fraud Team, led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Philip Mallard and Mark Grady, to investigate public-assistance and election-integrity offenses across Massachusetts, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The effort also follows Executive Order 14399, issued March 31, 2026, which directed federal agencies and the Justice Department to prioritize citizenship verification and cases involving alleged noncitizen registration or voting in federal elections, according to The White House.
Hoodline previously reported on a related case out of Andover, where a man framed a couple as fake voters after allegedly submitting an online voter registration and early ballot during the 2024 election in Malden using a lawful permanent resident's spouse's stolen identity.
Statutes at Play, and How Rare the Offense Is
Under 18 U.S.C. § 611, voting by a non-citizen in a federal election is punishable by up to one year in prison, according to the U.S. House Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Federal law also addresses false claims of U.S. citizenship under 18 U.S.C. § 1015. Massachusetts law separately restricts voting eligibility to U.S. citizens aged 18 and older.
Beyond criminal exposure, Okafor may also face deportation.
The allegations come against a backdrop of research indicating that noncitizen voting cases are uncommon. A Brennan Center for Justice study of 23.5 million votes in 42 jurisdictions during the 2016 general election identified 30 suspected instances of noncitizen voting — roughly 0.0001% of ballots cast — according to the Migration Policy Institute.
