Election workers in Chelmsford are on alert, in case anyone identifying himself as Emanule Costez Junior shows up at the polls Election day.
“We were wondering, is someone trying to test the system? What’s going on here?” said Paul Cohen, Town Manager of Chelmsford.
Cohen said they received a bizarre application for voters registration in the mail in September.
He explained, “We sent the process through the system, and then sent a notice to the current household address the voter had registered. And then we immediately heard back from those folks that that person didn't live there. And they didn't know of the person either.”
That was a red flag for the clerk’s office.
Cohen explained, “That obviously set the concerns moving forward, so we immediately notified the board of registrars, notified the parties of the hearing and we have not heard from that voter since.”
Elections workers say they spotted several red flags on the application. The name written on it reads Emanule F. Costez Jr. But the former name is completely different- Rodrigo J. Hernandez Jr. The applicant also marked that he is a U.S. citizen, but didn’t provide a social security or state ID number.
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“It just was a messy application. There were misspellings. It was just poorly executed,” said Cohen.
The clerk’s office immediately inactivated the name from the voter polls.
Cohen said, “The good news is the system worked as it was intended.”
The town manager says even if the couple didn’t alert them, all voters are still required to provide proof of identification before they could vote, so there are safeguards in place to prevent voter fraud.
Town officials are holding a hearing at 1pm Thursday, November 3rd. They’re asking that applicant to show up.
