MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Two people have been charged with conspiracy to commit voter registration fraud in a case that shows Minnesota's election safeguards work and prevented anyone from voting illegally, Secretary of State Steve Simon said Friday.
The charges announced by the U.S. Attorney's Office allege that Ronnie Williams and Lorraine Lee Combs generated fictitious names and other data they used to fill out Minnesota voter registration forms in 2021 and 2022.
The charging documents, filed in federal court on Tuesday, say Williams provided the completed forms to an entity that sought to register voters in Minnesota that is identified only as “Foundation 1,” which paid him, and that he then split the proceeds with Combs.
The documents also indicate that others were involved in the alleged conspiracy, serving as intermediaries between Williams and “Foundation 1,” which would submit the false registration forms to election offices across the state “through its agents,” but charges against them have not been announced.
Williams and Combs were longtime romantic partners, according to the documents, which don't say how much they were paid.
The charges are the result of a two-year investigation by the FBI and the Secretary of State's Office and are punishable by up to five years in prison.
“The extensive checks in Minnesota’s voter registration process ensured that the fraudulent applications were immediately flagged, and no ineligible votes were cast,” Simon said in a statement.
While voter fraud does happen occasionally, the country's processes provide many safeguards that generally keep it detectable and rare. When it happens, it tends to get caught and prosecuted.
“Election fraud strikes at the heart of our democracy,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in a separate statement. “Thankfully, the FBI stopped this fraud in its tracks, before anyone successfully cast a fraudulent ballot. But we will stay vigilant.”
Court documents suggest that the two defendants plan to plead guilty. They were charged by complaints instead of grand jury indictments, which are normally needed to take a case to trial in federal court. And the case dockets show that Williams has a plea agreement hearing set for July 8, while Combs has a change of plea hearing on June 24.
Attorneys for Williams and Combs declined to comment on the charges. The announcement from prosecutors said the two are Nevada residents who formerly lived in Minnesota. Neither has a listed phone number in either state.
But Combs told the Minnesota Star Tribune that she filled out roughly 500 forms as part of the operation and turned them over to Williams. She told the newspaper that she didn’t know the name of the foundation, and she didn’t know how many applications Williams completed illegally.
Simon's office said local officials used verification tools that are built into the state's voter registration system to identify inconsistencies on the forms, then immediately reported them to law enforcement and his office. The office then worked with every county election office to confirm that all fraudulent registration attempts would be detected and confirm that no ballots were wrongly requested or cast.
“Our message to would-be fraudsters is clear: If you try to trick or scheme your way into registering voters in Minnesota, you will be caught and prosecuted,” Simon said.
FILE - Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon speaks to the media about early voting at the Minnesota State Capitol, Thursday, September 19, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher, File)
ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Saudi warplanes have reportedly struck on Friday forces in southern Yemen backed by the United Arab Emirates, a separatist leader says.
This comes as a Saudi-led operation attempts to take over camps of the Southern Transitional Council, or STC, in the governorate of Haramout that borders Saudi Arabia.
Tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE rose after the STC moved last month into Yemen’s governorates of Hadramout and Mahra and seized an oil-rich region. The move pushed out forces affiliated with the Saudi-backed National Shield Forces, a group aligned with the coalition in fighting the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
Meanwhile, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen accused the head of the STC of blocking a Saudi mediation delegation from landing in the southern city of Aden.
The STC deputy and former Hamdrmout governor, Ahmed bin Breik, said in a statement that the Saudi-backed National Shield Forces advanced toward the camps, but the separatists refused to withdraw, apparently leading to the airstrikes.
Mohamed al-Nakib, spokesperson for the STC-backed Southern Shield Forces, also known as Dera Al-Janoub, said Saudi airstrikes caused fatalities, without providing details. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify that claim.
Al-Nakib also accused Saudi Arabia in a video on X of using “Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda militias” in a "large-scale attack " early Friday that he claimed sepratists were able to repel.
He likened the latest developments to Yemen’s 1994 civil war, “except that this time it is under the cover of Saudi aviation operations.”
Salem al-Khanbashi, the governor of Hadramout who was chosen Friday by Yemen's internationally recognized government to command the Saudi-led forces in the governorate, refuted STC claims, calling them “ridiculous” and showing intentions of escalation instead of a peaceful handover, according Okaz newspaper, which is aligned with the Saudi government.
Earlier on Friday, al-khanbashi called the current operation of retrieving seized areas “peaceful.”
“This operation is not a declaration of war and does not seek escalation,” al-Khanbashi said in a speech aired on state media. “This is a responsible pre-emptive measure to remove weapons and prevent chaos and the camps from being used to undermine the security in Hadramout,” he added.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen demands the withdrawal of STC forces from the two governorates as part of de-escalation efforts. The STC has so far refused to hand over its weapons and camps.
The coalition's spokesperson Brig. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said Friday on X that Saudi-backed naval forces were deployed across the Arabian Sea to carry out inspections and combat smuggling.
In his post on X, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed al-Jaber, said the kingdom had tried “all efforts with STC” for weeks "to stop the escalation" and to urge the separatists to leave Hadramout and Mahra, only to be faced with “continued intransigence and rejection from Aidarous al-Zubaidi," the STC head.
Al-Jaber said the latest development was not permitting the Saudi delegation's jet to land in Aden, despite having agreed on its arrival with some STC leaders to find a solution that serves “everyone and the public interest.”
Yemen’s transport ministry, aligned with STC, said Saudi Arabia imposed on Thursday requirements mandating that flights to and from Aden International Airport undergo inspection in Jeddah. The ministry expressed “shock” and denounced the decision. There was no confirmation from Saudi authorities.
ِA spokesperson with the transport ministry told the AP late Thursday that all flights from and to the UAE were suspended until Saudi Arabia reverses these reported measures.
Yemen has been engulfed in a civil war for more than a decade, with the Houthis controlling much of the northern regions, while a Saudi-UAE-backed coalition supports the internationally recognized government in the south. However, the UAE also helps the southern separatists who call for South Yemen to secede once again from Yemen. Those aligned with the council have increasingly flown the flag of South Yemen, which was a separate country from 1967-1990.
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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.
Southern Yemen soldiers of Southern Transitional Council (STC) at a check point, in Aden, Yemen, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo)
