A Sydney woman will face trial in the US state of Louisiana after being accused of falsely claiming to be a US citizen and voting illegally in two federal elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Denise Nataly Migliore, 51, has been charged with two counts of making a false statement and two counts of fraudulent voting following her arrest in New Orleans earlier this month.<\/p>\n
According to the federal indictment, prosecutors allege Ms Migliore knowingly made a false claim that she was a US citizen in October 2022 and October 2024 in order to cast fraudulent votes in the last two presidential elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the time, the US Attorney’s Office said, Ms Migliore was a legal permanent resident.<\/p>\n
The indictment alleges she “knowingly and wilfully” defrauded Louisiana residents of “a fair and impartially conducted election process” by casting a ballot she allegedly knew was “materially false and fraudulent”.<\/p>\n
Ms Migliore is set to face a Louisiana jury in September. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.<\/p>\n
In a statement to the ABC, Ms Migliore said she was “just devastated that this is happening to an Australian”.<\/p>\n
Arrest comes after US crackdown on non-citizen voting<\/p>\n
The 51-year-old had been living in the small town of Franklinton in northern Louisiana after moving to the US from Australia.<\/p>\n
She previously told US media she thought legal permanent residents could vote, and did not realise casting a ballot would be illegal.<\/p>\n
“I have been here almost three decades, I had a pending application for citizenship, and I just considered myself a citizen,” Ms Migliore told Louisiana news outlet NOLA last month<\/a>, after she was indicted.<\/p>\n “I just didn’t realise that it was such a big deal.”<\/p>\n Ms Migliore told NOLA she had been encouraged by the state to register to vote, and said nobody stopped her when she signed up or when she cast her ballot.<\/p>\n She said when she went to vote in the 2024 election, workers were “very polite” and scanned her ID card, but did not ask whether she was a citizen.<\/p>\n “I feel like I’m being used as a guinea pig to show how flawed the electoral system is, and I’m being unfairly targeted,” she told NOLA.<\/p>\n The case comes as the Trump administration has made non-citizen voting a major enforcement priority, despite election officials and multiple studies consistently finding such cases are exceedingly rare.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump threatened to withhold some federal funding from states that did not make changes to voting practices.<\/p>\n