Former Atlantic City Council President Craig Callaway, who is scheduled to be sentenced on federal voter fraud charges on August 8, has recently been spotted participating in GOTV operations.
According to sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Callaway has been seen at polling locations and outside the office of Atlantic County election officials. He’s also been viewed driving ballot messengers to county offices.
Callaway’s car, the New Jersey Globe, broke down outside a county election office during the week, and the veteran ballot harvester watched as he got his car jump-started.
It’s unclear who Callaway is supporting, but there are contested races for mayor and city council in Atlantic City and for two council seats in Northfield.
In February, Callaway pleaded guilty to procuring, casting, and tabulating fake vote-by-mail ballots in the November 2022 general election.
Callaway, who faces five years in prison, was initially set to be sentenced on June 17, but yesterday, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Renee Bumb changed the date to August 8. No explanation was included in the order. Callaway previously spent nearly four years in prison after his conviction on bribery charges.
The conditions of Callaway’s release pending sentencing prohibit him from violating state, federal, or local laws, but do not specifically ban his participation in elections.
Callaway admitted that he and others working for him approached numerous voters in Atlantic City and offered to pay them $30 to $50 to act as authorized messengers for VBM voters. Those messengers allegedly went to the county clerk’s office with one to four applications for a mail-in ballot, waited for them to be processed, and left in possession of ballots.
Instead of delivering the ballots to the voters, they gave them to Callaway. Those ballots never made it to the voters, who federal investigators say never authorized the VBM application or submitted a ballot. Callaway or his team allegedly cast those votes.
In 2023, Superior Court Judge Michael Blee permanently barred him from serving as a ballot assister after former State Sen. Colin Bell, the attorney for the Atlantic County Democrats, said that, among other things, Callaway had served as an assistor in the June primary to a voter who had claimed she could not read and write but actually graduated college with honors.