Several A-list rappers including Drake and 50 Cent became victims of identity theft when they were wrongfully registered to vote using the same address in Texas in what state officials say is an obvious prank.
Details of the artists including Drake, 50 Cent, Chris Brown, Trey Songz, and The Game were all entered into forms using the same home address in Katy, a city west of Houston. Despite this, residents of the neighborhood where they were registered stated they had not seen any of the celebrities in the community.
Records from the Harris County Tax Assessor’s Office indicate that the men were registered to vote on August 15, a day when Drake was performing in California, approximately 1,500 miles away, as reported by the New York Post.
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The same person completed all registration applications for the celebrities, yet none voted in last year’s elections, indicating no occurrence of voter fraud.
“These people are either committing high misdemeanors or felonies,” said Randall Erben, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, referring to whoever registered the celebrities to vote. “This is not fooling around.”
State law permits only a spouse, parent, or child acting as an agent to complete voter registration forms on behalf of someone else, implying that the same individual could not have legally submitted forms for all five celebrities.
Federal law permits people to register to vote in Texas without a driver’s license number, ID, or Social Security number if they provide full legal names and birth dates, information easily accessible online for celebrities.
The prankster who used the details of the five artists checked a box indicating they lacked a supplementary form of ID on each registration.
Providing a false or forged voter application form is considered a third-degree felony while acting as someone else’s agent is a Class A misdemeanor. Class A misdemeanors can result in up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. The individual who completed the applications signed the papers, which read: “I understand that giving false information to procure a voter registration is perjury and a crime under state and federal law. Conviction of this crime may result in imprisonment up to one year in jail, a fine up to $4,000, or both.”
Underscoring the gravity of voting rights, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said such issues should never be trivialized as a mere prank.
“Drake and 50 Cent did not do these voter registrations, and whoever did commit a crime,” he said.
