A 67-year-old Sevierville man accused of living under a stolen American identity for more than four decades is now facing an 11-count federal indictment after prosecutors say he voted in numerous elections while posing as a U.S. citizen. Gregory Allan Porter, also known as Tony Wayne Ortiz, pleaded not guilty Friday and will remain detained ahead of a January trial.
According to the Department of Justice, Porter came to the United States from Canada in 1984 and went on to fraudulently obtain a birth certificate, Social Security number, Tennessee driver's license and U.S. passport, as reported by WVLT. Officials said he then voted in numerous state, local and federal elections under that assumed identity, living and working in Sevierville under the Ortiz name for decades before the scheme unraveled.
Grand Jury Returns Sweeping Indictment
A federal grand jury in Knoxville returned the 11-count indictment against Porter on October 21. The charges include three counts of voting by an alien, three counts of passport misuse, two counts of false statements in a passport application, one count of aggravated identity theft, one count of falsely claiming U.S. citizenship, and one count of misusing a Social Security number, per the same outlet's reporting. The Department of Justice alleges Porter unlawfully entered the country and assumed an American citizen's identity to build his life in Tennessee.
Porter entered his not guilty plea Friday. The station reports he will remain detained pending trial, which is scheduled to begin January 5, 2027, in U.S. District Court in Knoxville.
What Porter Could Face If Convicted
If convicted, Porter faces up to ten years in prison along with as many as three years of supervised release, the station's report notes. Authorities said the aggravated identity theft count alone carries a mandatory two-year prison term that must be served consecutively to any other sentence he receives.
Part of a Broader Federal Push
Porter's case lands amid a wider federal effort targeting noncitizen voting allegations. As of mid-September, the Department of Homeland Security had opened 1,620 investigations stemming from a review of more than 100 million voter records, identifying 300,000 potential noncitizens in the process, according to CNN. That effort has led to around 160 arrests so far, a figure that includes both criminal arrests and administrative immigration proceedings, CNN reported.
CNN also found that many defendants swept up in these cases were not actually charged with noncitizen voting but instead with making false statements during the naturalization process. The outlet noted just 23 California cases have alleged noncitizen voting during this period, with similar or smaller numbers charged elsewhere, and that most defendants in the cases it reviewed were legal permanent residents, some of whom had lived in the U.S. for decades.
Other Tennessee Voting Cases
Porter's prosecution follows other recent Tennessee cases involving voting eligibility. Federal prosecutors separately charged three non-U.S. citizens in Middle Tennessee with allegedly voting illegally in the 2024 federal election and falsely claiming citizenship on voter-registration applications, according to WSMV. Separately, a Sumner County grand jury indicted 11 people on charges of illegal registration or voting and false entries on election documents, after investigators examined reports that 15 felons had unlawfully voted in county elections between 2020 and 2022, as reported by KFVS12.
