Michigan city council member, former council candidate to stand trial in election forgery case
A Saginaw City Council member and a former city council candidate will stand trial for allegedly attempting to get the candidate's name on the ballot with fraudulent signatures.
According to the Michigan Attorney General's office, city council member Monique Lamar-Silvia, 64, and former candidate Eric Eggleston, 53, were charged in January with one count of conspiracy to do a legal act in an illegal manner and one count of election law forgery.
Lamar-Silvia was also charged with one count of signing a nominating petition with multiple names and one count of signing a nominating petition with a name other than her own. Eggleston was also charged with signing a nominating petition as a circulator when he was not the circulator.
A pretrial date has not yet been set.
The AG's office alleged that on July 23, 2024, Lamar-Silvia fraudulently signed voters' names on a petition to get Eggleston's name on the ballot for the November 2024 election. Eggleston allegedly signed his name on the petition as the circulator and submitted the form to the Saginaw City Clerk's Office before the filing deadline.
Eggleston's name was not placed on the ballot.
"Election laws and regulations ensure fairness and accountability in the electoral process," Nessel said. "Dedicated and trustworthy clerks play a critical role in protecting local elections, as they demonstrated in this case by successfully identifying and disqualifying fraudulent signatures. While these safeguards worked as designed, my office takes election fraud allegations very seriously and will continue to investigate and prosecute violations."
