CAMDEN, N.J. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A former Atlantic City councilman pleaded guilty on Wednesday to falsifying voter registrations ahead of the June 2019 primary election, according to prosecutors.
MD Hossain Morshed, 50, a former councilman of Atlantic City’s Fourth Ward, confessed in Camden federal court to allegations charging him with fraudulent procurement and submission of voter registration applications, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.
According to court documents, in April 2019, Morshed provided a voter with a New Jersey voter registration application that had already been completed which falsely claimed that the voter’s residence was in the Fourth Ward of Atlantic City, which Morshed represented.
Despite the fake address, Morshed encouraged the voter to sign it. Later, he visited the voter's actual residence and provided them with a vote-by-mail application to sign which included the same false Fourth Ward Atlantic City address as the voter registration form. Additionally, Morshed listed yet another false Atlantic City address for where the mail-in ballot should be sent to the voter.
The Atlantic County Superintendent of Elections received the falsified form, and that ballot was counted towards the June 2019 primary election.
Morshed was elected on Nov. 5, 2019, to serve a four-year term.
The voter later confessed that they did not receive or return the mail-in ballot, according to court documents.
Morshed later also instructed the voter to lie about their residence and the origin of the forms Morshed provided if questioned by law enforcement.
Prosecutors said a lawfully recorded conversation between the voter and Morshed revealed that he told law enforcement that the voter was working in Atlantic City and had “a place in Atlantic City and some time I live in Atlantic City, some time I live in Galloway.”
The voter then brought up concerns that all this would be lying to law enforcement and Morshed assured the voter that he “can make a voter registration any place but it has to be that one place. You cannot do the voter registration in two places. . . . "And this is one-hundred percent legal. This is nah (sic) nothing is illegal."
Morshed also told the voter that “you are not doing anything wrong. Nothing
will happen. Don’t worry whatever I tell you they gonna ask you the same question, you gonna give the answer.”
“This defendant admitted that he attempted to deprive residents of New Jersey of a fair election by obtaining false voter registration applications and facilitating their submission,” Sellinger said. Working with our law enforcement partners, we were able to uncover Morshed’s efforts to garner votes from residents who were not allowed to vote for him.”
Morshed sentencing is scheduled for July 16.