BUFFALO — Tea Party activist Rus Thompson was arraigned Friday on multiple charges of election and voter laws stemming from his voting in Erie County while allegedly living in Niagara County.
According to Acting Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Flaherty, Jr. Thompson, 60, was indicted by a grand jury, which charged him with false registration, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and three counts of illegal voting. The false-instrument charge is a penal code violation. The others are a violation of election law.
According to the district attorney’s office, Thompson, whose legal name is John, registered to vote in the Sept. 10 primary election via affidavit ballot, “claiming that he resided on Grand Island when the year before he had moved to the City of Niagara Falls.” As a result, Thompson was able to vote in the Grand Island September primary, November general election and April presidential primary.
He faces anything from conditional discharge to up to four years in prison if convicted on the charges, which do not carry a mandatory minimum prison sentence.
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