Two men who are not U.S. citizens have been indicted on federal charges accusing them of illegally voting in Haywood and Fayette counties during the 2022 and 2024 elections. Federal prosecutors allege both men falsely claimed U.S. citizenship on their Tennessee voter registration applications before casting ballots.
According to FOX13 Memphis, Cesar Sanchez Correa, a 44-year-old citizen of Mexico, allegedly voted in Haywood County during the 2024 election, while Andreas Van der Werf, a 62-year-old citizen of Germany, allegedly voted in Fayette County in both the 2022 and 2024 elections. The 2024 election included federal races for president, vice president and members of Congress, and the 2022 and 2024 elections in Fayette County included races for federal offices as well. Sanchez Correa faces one count of unlawful voting by an alien, while Van der Werf faces two counts, both charged under 18 U.S.C. § 611, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Tennessee.
Prosecutors allege Van der Werf represented himself as a U.S. citizen on a Tennessee voter registration application. Federal prosecutors did not allege that the two men acted together, and they did not allege that the alleged conduct changed any election outcome, per the same FOX13 account.
Federal Officials Vow Continued Enforcement
U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant announced the unsealing of the indictments against Sanchez Correa and Van der Werf, saying the charges reflect the Justice Department’s commitment to enforcing federal election laws. Dunavant said federal prosecutors would continue pursuing cases involving alleged illegal voting, the station’s report noted. Homeland Security Investigations Nashville Special Agent in Charge Dennis M. Fetting also addressed the indictments.
The cases were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office, according to FOX13 Memphis. Assistant U.S. Attorneys will prosecute the cases through the Western District of Tennessee’s Special Prosecutions Unit. The Justice Department did not provide information on indictment dates, court appearances or scheduled trial dates for either man, the outlet’s report indicated.
A Second Case Surfaces in Middle Tennessee
The West Tennessee indictments arrive alongside a separate case in the Middle District of Tennessee, where three foreign nationals have been charged with illegally voting in federal elections, per WJJM. Those defendants allegedly voted in the 2024 election and falsely represented themselves as U.S. citizens on Tennessee voter registration applications that same year, the outlet reported.
A similar case emerged in East Tennessee less than two weeks before the West Tennessee indictments. A federal grand jury in Knoxville returned an eleven-count indictment on October 21 against Canadian citizen Gregory Allan Porter, including three counts of voting by an alien, according to WLOS.
State Referrals and Questions Over Accuracy
The indictments follow broader scrutiny of noncitizen voting in Tennessee. Secretary of State Tre Hargett said his office was referring 42 people who might not be U.S. citizens to the FBI for investigation, according to the Tennessee Lookout. Those 42 potential cases represented just 0.0001% of all registered voters in the state, the outlet reported.
Tennessee’s elections office has also said it plans to resume using the SAVE voter-identification tool after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ruling that had barred states from using it, according to NewsChannel 5. The same report noted that Texas’s use of the system mistakenly identified more than 2,000 U.S. citizens as noncitizens, and the Tennessee Lookout separately reported that the Brennan Center has warned SAVE data can be incomplete or outdated, potentially leading states to wrongly flag eligible voters.
Nationally, an NBC News review found that enforcement efforts around noncitizen voting have generated more than 200 voting-related federal prosecutions among the 174 million registered voters in the U.S., with the outlet’s headline noting that a majority of noncitizen voters charged by the Justice Department were found to be lawfully present in the country. The federal statute underlying the West Tennessee charges, 18 U.S.C. § 611, is titled Voting by Aliens, according to the United States Code, Office of the Law Revision Counsel.
