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Oakland County Dems Charged With Election Fraud

MOUNT CLEMENS (WWJ) - Two former officials with the Oakland County Democratic Party have been indicted for alleged political dirty tricks during last November's election.

WWJ and Fox-2 legal analyst Charlie Langton was in the courtroom, Wednesday morning, when Michael McGuinness and Jason Bauer stand accused of forging documents to place to bogus candidates on the ballot.

Langton shared more details about the indictment.

"We do know that they're felonies. We do know they involve election fraud, and we do know that they involve these Democrats trying to put phony Tea Party candidates on the ballot in an attempt to kind of dilute the Republican vote in last November's election," Langton said.

"There was no official Tea Party candidate on any ballot," he said.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said it's not illigal to put a person's name and party on a ballot, but he what's being alleged here is that forgery and fraud were committed in the process.

"As an example, one of the individuals didn't know they were on the ballot until they got a call, until they started receiving things in the mail," Bouchard said.

The pair was arraigned on multiple felony charges, including election fraud, and then released on bond.

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