Hoax Email Sent While Drunk Gets Democrat Activist Felony Voter Suppression Charge

A Democrat activist, who had been dismissed for the campaign of a candidate for state representative, apparently gets drunk and emails a hoax press release looking like an announcement from the Republican candidate withdrawing from the race. The alleged prank resulted in voter suppression charges, the Huffington Post reported. The former campaign worker for the Democratic candidate was also charged with distributing a false document.

Carl Gibson, a 28-year-old Democratic Party activist from Concord, New Hampshire, faces the two charges after emailing a press release that claimed Republican candidate Yvonne Dean-Bailey had withdrawn from the race for a state house seat in a New Hampshire special election. The Democrat in the race, Maureen Mann, had dismissed him from his campaign earlier this year and condemned his actions as “absolutely reprehensible.”

“Gibson is scheduled to be arraigned June 22 in Concord District Court. He told the Concord Monitor this week that he ‘probably had one too many beers’ before sending out the false email,” the Huffington Post reported.

“Gibson, a self-described journalist, is charged with a class B felony alleging he suppressed voters by knowingly attempting to induce them to refrain from voting in the election held Tuesday. Dean-Bailey won the special election for Rockingham County’s 32nd House district, covering Candia, Deerfield, Northwood, and Nottingham,” the Concord Monitor reported.

“Gibson previously volunteered for Dean-Bailey’s opponent, Democrat Maureen Mann, but was booted from her campaign about a month before he sent out the hoax press release. He said he was operating Mann’s Twitter account but taking her tweets in a direction Mann didn’t want to go, and the two left on bad terms.”

Gibson was quickly identified as the source of the fake press release via email when his name was found in the properties of the file attached to the email.

“Carl Gibson’s fake press release might have been a drunken prank, but authorities say it’s a serious case of voter suppression. The former Democratic campaign worker now faces up to seven years in prison,” the Inquisitr reported.

“Gibson, 28, confessed to sending out fake press releases, posing as 19-year-old Republican candidate Yvonne Dean-Bailey and saying she was ending her campaign to concentrate on her college studies. The fraud was quickly detected — Gibson’s name was embedded in the electronic properties of the email message.”

The state attorney general’s office took the prank quite seriously, as Gibson was charged with distributing a false document and a felony charge of voter suppression, which could get him a seven-year prison sentence and a fine of $4,000.

The special election was won, in a close race, by Dean-Bailey, who is now the State Representative for the New Hampshire towns of Candia, Deerfield, Northwood, and Nottingham.

[Photo of Carl Gibson from his public LinkedIn profile.]