SIOUX CITY – A federal jury on Tuesday found a Sioux City woman guilty of 52 counts of voter fraud, ruling that Kim Taylor had illegally filled out election documents and ballots for members of the Vietnamese community, who had limited ability to read and understand English.
Kim Taylor is the wife of Woodbury County Supervisor Jeremy Taylor, and prosecutors said she pursued unlawful means to help her husband, who ran for two electoral positions as a Republican candidate in 2020.
The trial testimony covered six days in the Federal Courthouse in Sioux City through midday Monday, then the jury started deliberations in the afternoon. The 12 jury members returned a verdict before noon Tuesday.
Kim Taylor will be sentenced at a later date. She faces five years in prison on each count of voter fraud.
Taylor’s Defense Attorney F. Montgomery Brown said Tuesday he respects the decision, and now is the time for empathy for a family that is suffering.
Jeremy Taylor has been named an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.
The prosecution called several witnesses who testified that the signatures on such voting materials as absentee ballot requests and absentee ballot return envelopes were not their signatures. A few people testified that they went to vote in 2020, only to be told they had voted, which was a huge surprise to them.
Brown in his closing arguments said that she did not forge any signatures on voting materials, nor did she authorize anyone else to sign such materials. Kim Taylor declined to testify just before the defense team rested their portion of the trial Monday.
Prosecutor Ron Timmons in his closing remarks said American democracy cannot thrive if there is voter fraud, which undercuts the hallmark of one person, one vote.
In other news, a second Democratic candidate on Tuesday announced a bid to challenge Republican Zach Nunn for Iowa’s 3rd District congressional seat in the U.S. House.
Melissa Vine is executive director of The Beacon, a nonprofit organization in Des Moines that provides housing and other services to women recovering from trauma.
Vine says after leaving an abusive marriage she had to rebuild her career while raising four sons on her own. She says she can relate to the struggles Iowans face, so she wants to speak up to change the systems that impact families like hers.
Vine says her campaign will focus on upholding abortion access, improving income supports for families and moving past extreme partisanship.
She is the second Democrat to officially enter the 3rd Congressional District race, following U.S. Department of Agriculture official Lanon Baccam of Des Moines.
