SCITUATE, R.I. -- State police Supt. Steven O'Donnell said the law enforcement agency has closed its investigation into allegations of voter fraud by the campaign of U.S. Rep. David Cicilline leveled by his Democratic primary opponent Anthony Gemma.
O'Donnell said by phone Wednesday night that his agency, working with the attorney general's office, had not been able to find any support for allegations or any evidence that state law had been violated.
Maj. Todd Catlow said the police interviewed witnesses and that the statements they made to the media -- concerning such things as delivering of absentee ballots and paying people to vote certain ways in 2010 and 2012 -- differed from statements they made when interviewed by state police.
Among the allegations that surfaced in late August 2012 was one by Enerolisa Escobar, who declared that while working for the Cicilline campagin in 2002 she was asked to create a list of people who were not expected to come to the polls on Election Day and that she then was asked to distribute money to individuals who presumbably voted in their place.
Another allegation concerned a video showing Erasmo Ramirez telling an aide to Gemma that for $500 a week he could deliver up to 1,000 absentee ballots to the Gemma campaign, saying he used to get paid $450 by the Cicilline campaign for doing the same thing, back when Cicilline was mayor.
O'Donnell said that the state police investigation uncovered some procedural irregularities, which have been turned over to the state Board of Elections, but found nothing that rose to the level of criminal conduct.
O'Donnell said some allegations that concerned activities that were said to have taken place in the Dominican Republic were being investigated separately by the FBI.