Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia have charged five green card holders — from Reading, Atglen, Philadelphia and Doylestown — with illegally voting or fraudulently registering to vote in Pennsylvania, announcing the cases on Monday, November 2, the day before the midterm elections.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Eastern District of Pennsylvania
United States Attorney David Metcalf said the five were charged despite knowing they were not U.S. citizens; under both federal and state law, only citizens may vote in Pennsylvania. “Upholding the integrity of our electoral process is more than ‘important’ — it’s critical to the wellbeing of our democracy,” Metcalf said. “American citizens alone have the right to determine the outcome of our national elections.”
“Every unlawful vote compromises the principle that elections must be decided by eligible American citizens,” said Nathan Abel, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Philadelphia, which investigated all five cases. “Voters deserve confidence that the law is enforced, and HSI will continue to investigate anyone who violates it.”
The five cases, one by one
Rosanny Fabre Villa, 28, of Reading, a citizen of the Dominican Republic and a lawful permanent resident, was arrested and charged by indictment with making a false statement of citizenship in order to vote. The indictment alleges that on or about March 3, 2026, in Berks County, she submitted a voter registration application she knew was fraudulent because it falsely claimed she was a United States citizen. If convicted, she faces a fine, up to five years in prison, or both — the heaviest exposure of the five.
Gavin Moir, 55, of Atglen in Chester County, a citizen of Canada and a lawful permanent resident, was charged by information with four counts of voting by an alien. Prosecutors allege he illegally voted in the 2022 and 2024 general elections and in the 2022 and 2026 primaries — four separate elections. If convicted, he faces a fine, up to four years in prison, or both.
The remaining three were each charged by information with one count of voting by an alien in the 2024 general election: Antonio Lyttle, 68, of Philadelphia, a citizen of Jamaica; Widarto, 56, also of Philadelphia, a citizen of Indonesia; and Eija Annikki Yaroma, 66, of Doylestown in Bucks County, a citizen of Finland. All three are lawful permanent residents, and each faces a fine, up to one year in prison, or both if convicted.
The Justice Department stresses that the charges in the indictment and the informations are merely accusations. Every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. None of the five has been convicted of a voting offence on the basis of these charges.
Part of a wider Pennsylvania crackdown — and a wider argument about scale
The five are the latest batch in a rolling series of Pennsylvania cases this autumn: four people were charged on September 24, and nine more on October 23 in a joint Eastern and Middle District announcement. The charges announced Monday bring the total number of people charged with noncitizen-voting offences in Pennsylvania to 20 since September, The Daily Item reported.
Source: The Daily Item (CNHI), Pennsylvania charges coverage
The same reporting put the numbers in perspective: a Votebeat and Spotlight PA analysis of election crimes since mid-2015 found just 176 allegedly fraudulent ballots out of more than 67 million votes cast in Pennsylvania in that period — even counting these latest, still-unproven charges. Prosecutors present the cases as election integrity; critics of the crackdown point to that ratio and to the fact that the defendants announced so far are overwhelmingly green card holders rather than people in the country illegally.
For immigrant readers, the practical stakes go beyond the criminal penalty. All five defendants are lawful permanent residents, and for a green card holder an unlawful-voting conviction can carry immigration consequences up to and including deportation, on top of any fine or prison term. The four elections Moir is accused of voting in — and the single registration application alleged against Villa, who prosecutors say never got as far as a ballot in the charge as framed — show how a signature on a registration form can follow a permanent resident into both criminal and immigration court.
What happens next
The cases now move into the federal court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where the defendants will make their first appearances and answer the charges. Villa was arrested on the indictment; the other four were charged by information, a route often used when a case is expected to proceed on the filed allegations. No pleas were announced on Monday, and no trial dates have been set. The announcement landed one day before Pennsylvanians vote in the November 3 midterms — an election in which who is eligible to vote has itself been one of the contested issues in the state.