Iowa Official’s Wife Found Guilty of Voter Fraud

The U.S. Department of Justice in Washington on June 20, 2023. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The wife of a Woodbury County, Iowa, supervisor was convicted Tuesday of all 52 counts related to a voter fraud scheme during the 2020 primary and general elections in Iowa.

Kim Phuong Taylor, 49, of Sioux City, is married to Jeremy Taylor, who unsuccessfully ran in the Republican primary for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District to replace Rep. Steve King in 2020.

She was found guilty of perpetrating a scheme to generate votes for her husband during the 4th Congressional District election and again later when he ran for Woodbury County supervisor in 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a press release.

The DOJ states that Ms. Taylor had submitted or caused others to submit voter registrations, absentee ballot request forms, and absentee ballots containing false information. She was arrested in January.

The DOJ said that the jury convicted Ms. Taylor of 26 counts of providing false information in registering and voting, three counts of fraudulent registration, and 23 counts of fraudulent voting. She faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count.

According to the press release, Ms. Taylor allegedly “completed and signed voter forms without voters’ permission and told others that they could sign on behalf of relatives who were not present.”

Her husband has not faced any charges so far but has been named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the case.

Mr. Taylor finished in third place after garnering just over 6,400 votes in the GOP primary for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District. However, he was successful in the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors race and currently serves as the board’s vice chairperson.

‘Set Up To Take The Fall’

Woodbury County Board of Supervisors chairperson Matthew Ung has urged Mr. Taylor to resign from his position as vice chair of the board. He also criticized Mr. Taylor for setting up his wife “to take the fall.”

“The only thing I’m uncomfortable with is that his wife has been set up to take the fall,” Mr. Ung told news broadcaster KCAU 9 on Tuesday.

According to an 11-page indictment, prosecutors alleged that Ms. Taylor, a U.S. citizen, perpetrated the scheme to illegally generate votes through a variety of means, including by “approaching residents of the Vietnamese community in Sioux City, Iowa who had limited ability to read and understand English and offering to help them vote.”

Prior to both the primary and general elections in 2020, she allegedly “visited numerous households within the Vietnamese community in Woodbury County encouraging residents to fill out voter registration forms and absentee ballot request forms that she brought with her for each election.”

In some instances, Ms. Taylor assisted the residents with filling out the forms or filling them out herself, according to prosecutors. She then took the forms with her and either mailed them to the Woodbury County Auditor’s Office or placed them in one of the county’s drop boxes, they said.

Ms. Taylor “also signed voter registration forms and absentee ballot request forms for residents who were not present at the time or told residents who were there that they could sign the forms for their other family members,” prosecutors said.

The DOJ states that a sentencing date will be set after a presentence report is ready.

Katabella Roberts contributed to this report.