MD Hossain Morshed, former Atlantic City councilman, pleads guilty to vote-by-mail scheme
CAMDEN – A former Atlantic City councilman has admitted he falsified voter registrations, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey.
MD Hossain Morshed, 50, a Democrat who represented the Fourth Ward for one term, allegedly promised a city job to induce one person to sign a false voter registration application, says a charging document called an information.
It alleges Morshed provided a fraudulent application to a Galloway resident in April 2019, prior to the June 2019 primary election.
The application given to the resident was largely filled out and contained a false address in the Fourth Ward, the information says.
Alleged vote-by-mail scheme Atlantic City political figure, former council president accused of election fraud
The Galloway resident signed the application at Morshed’s urging, but balked later at signing a vote-by-mail application with the same false address.
Morshed repeatedly visited the resident’s home to press for his signature, the information says.
During one visit, Morshed allegedly showed the Galloway resident “a stack of vote-by-mail applications that appeared to bear the signatures of other individuals” and asserted the resident could legally sign the application.
Morshed also allegedly told the resident that “when Morshed won election to the Atlantic City council, Morshed would get (the voter) a job in Atlantic City government," the information claims.
The resident signed the application after that conversation.
The Atlantic County Board of Elections subsequently received the prospective voter’s mail-in ballot, and counted it towards the June 2019 primary election.
Morshed was elected to a four-year term in November 2019.
He left council after losing the June 2023 Democratic primary by 25 votes.
The information says investigators questioned the Galloway resident about the voting applications in August 2022, and that Morshed then told the resident to give false information to law enforcement.
Morshed admitted guilt on March 13 to fraudulent procurement and submission of voter registration applications.
As part of a plea agreement, the prosecution agreed not to pursue charges alleging a separate vote-by-mail scheme in 2019,
Under a plea agreement, the federal prosecutor's office will not pursue criminal charges alleging Morshed engaged in a voter-registration scheme from February through April 2019, made false statements to the FBI, and fraudulently obtain state jobless benefits from April 2020 to September 2021.
Morshed is to be sentenced July 16 by U.S. District Judge Renee Marie Bumb.
Jim Walsh is a senior reporter for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: MD Hossain Morshed admits he falsified voter registration applications
