Arizona man gets prison sentence for illegally voting in 2020 election

An Arizona man received an 18-month prison sentence on Monday for illegally voting in the 2020 presidential election.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced in a press release that Roberto Garcia, 35, had completed a voter registration form in which he falsely indicated that he had not been convicted of a felony or had his voting rights restored.

Garcia had previously been convicted of two felonies and did not have his voting rights restored prior to registering. He pleaded guilty in July to one count of illegally voting, another felony.

The judge ordered his voter registration canceled, though his vote was counted in the 2020 presidential election, according to the Brnovich press release.

Garcia will serve his sentence concurrently with a separate sentence unrelated to his illegal vote. He was already serving that sentence at the time of his Monday sentencing.

Arizona was one of the pivotal states in the 2020 presidential election, breaking narrowly for now-President Joe Biden after backing former President Donald Trump in 2016. The narrow margin along with the protracted ballot counting process due to vote-by-mail measures prompted accusations of electoral fraud.

The state has since passed election integrity measures, including a proof of citizenship requirement that the Biden administration has sought to block.