The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office filed election fraud charges against a local man on Monday, one day before the midterm election.
District Attorney Dan Dow announced the charges at a press conference in Los Angeles, along with representatives from the Trump administration’s Department of Justice and Homeland Security.
“This is the first case that my office has filed since we received the list of registrants from our federal partners,” Dow said. “We are close to making filing decisions in sixteen other similar cases.”
Dow said his office charged 31-year-old John Ruel S. Ambos with illegally registering to vote, illegally voting in 2021, and perjury for falsely stating on a registration form, "I am a US citizen."
“I want to be clear, Mr. Ambos is legally presumed innocent under California law until proven guilty, either by a plea or a verdict,” Dow added. “A criminal complaint is an accusation. It's not final proof.”
At Monday’s press conference, first assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the new charges are part of a statewide campaign called “Operation Protect the Vote.”
“We suspect there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of suspected non-citizens on California's voter rolls,” Essayli said.
Six people in Los Angeles County were also charged with illegally voting, according to the Justice Department.
SLO County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano said in a statement Monday she will support and cooperate with Dow’s investigation. She wrote that they both “share a commitment to ensuring that elections in San Luis Obispo County are secure, transparent, lawful, and limited to eligible voters.”
“While our respective responsibilities, legal authority, and investigative tools differ, we're united in protecting the integrity of our elections,” her statement said.
Last month, the Trump administration’s Justice Department sent a letter to Cano that contained 63 names that the letter described as registered voters who are likely noncitizens.
In an interview with KCBX, Cano said the list includes verified citizens.
Similar letters that asked election officials to set aside ballots of people identified as likely noncitizens were sent to officials across California.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Justice Department’s push to pause counting of ballots returned by the 20,000 people the department had identified as likely non-citizens, according to CalMatters.
