Plainfield Mayoral Candidate Pleads Guilty to Voter Forgery

Henrilynn Ibezim, a 71-year-old former candidate for mayor of Plainfield, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to third-degree forgery after admitting to falsifying nearly 1,000 voter registration applications ahead of the city's June 2021 Democratic primary.

New Jersey's Office of the Attorney General announced the plea on Thursday. Prosecutors said Ibezim brought a garbage bag containing the applications to a post office in Elizabeth, intending to mail them to the Union County Commissioner of Registration. Investigators determined that associates and volunteers had filled out the blank forms at Ibezim's home using voter information he provided. Most of the applications bore handwriting from only three or four individuals, and none indicated they had been completed by anyone other than the purported voter, as required by law.

Ibezim, who ran on the Unity Party ticket, received just 103 votes in the primary and lost to incumbent Mayor Adrian O. Mapp. Authorities also alleged that Ibezim later attempted to coach a witness involved in filling out the forms, instructing the person not to "admit anything" when questioned by law enforcement.

Under the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped seven...