Iowa US House candidate’s wife sentenced for casting multiple votes for her husband
The wife of a Woodbury County Republican elected official has been sentenced to four months in prison for voter fraud.
Kim Taylor, whose husband Jeremy is a county supervisor and former Iowa House member, was convicted in November of 52 federal offenses, including fraudulent voting, fraudulent registration and providing false information.
Prosecutors said Taylor, a native of Vietnam, approached numerous voters of Vietnamese heritage with limited English comprehension and filled out and signed election forms and ballots on behalf of them and their English-speaking children, casting their votes for her husband in the 2020 Republican 4th District congressional primary. Her husband lost to the eventual winner of the seat, fellow Republican Randy Feenstra.
Jeremy Taylor was not charged but was named as an unindicted coconspirator, the Associated Press reported in November.
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Kim Taylor appeared for sentencing Monday before U.S. District Judge Leonard Strand, who ordered she serve four months in prison and a further four months of home confinement. She must then complete two years of supervised release.
Siouxland Public Media reported that Strand said that in choosing the sentence, he balanced Taylor's lack of a prior criminal record and status as primary caregiver for the couple's six children against the need to deter voter fraud in a closely watched case.
Defense attorney F. Montgomery Brown, who argued for a nine-month sentence of home confinement, told the Register afterward that the court considered mitigating factors in Taylor's background as well as numerous letters of support.
"On her behalf and her family, I was pleased with the result," Brown said.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa US House candidate’s wife sentenced for 2020 voter fraud
