A viral clip posted by RNC Research over the weekend set off alarms across social media after the San Joaquin County Sheriff said, “You’re able to register and cast a vote if you don’t live in the country,” and confirmed that a Pakistani citizen voted in a California election. Naturally, many people asked if this was real. The answer is yes — and the full story is even more disturbing.
The man at the center of it is Shakir Khan, a Pakistani immigrant and now-former Lodi city councilman. Khan was arrested in February 2023 and charged with 14 felony counts tied to election fraud. He pleaded no contest in January 2024, though he has since tried to undo that plea and is now seeking mental health diversion.
What makes this case so alarming is how perfectly it exposes the vulnerabilities created by online voter registration, universal mail-in ballots, and ballot harvesting. Once someone is registered in California, a ballot is automatically mailed to the address on file. No in-person verification. No ID. Just trust — because nothing ever goes wrong with the honor system, right?
According to investigators, Khan fraudulently re-registered voters — many of them Pakistani immigrants — to his own address. Those ballots then arrived at his home. He allegedly forced those voters to cast ballots exactly as he ordered.
Why would they comply? Because the unrelated charges that triggered the 2020 raid on Khan’s home involved illegal gambling and organized crime, with Khan allegedly running the operation. Investigators released bodycam footage showing voters saying they did not sign his candidate nomination forms and did not consent to being re-registered at his address. They said they were intimidated into going along with the scheme.
Some voters were legally registered — just not in Khan’s district. He allegedly changed their registration to his address so they could vote for him in the city council race. They confirmed they had not moved and had not authorized the changes.
And here’s the scary part: this isn’t some complicated hack. It’s exactly how the system works.
If someone controls people’s housing, jobs, or legal safety, universal mail ballots become leverage. A union boss could pressure workers to vote a certain way. A homeless shelter director could register residents at the shelter and “help” them fill out ballots. When ballots are everywhere and verification is nowhere, intimidation becomes a campaign strategy.
This all happened in one California county. And with six states now using universal mail-in ballots for all elections — and two more for general elections — the risk isn’t shrinking. It’s spreading.
Both the Sheriff and the county registrar said Khan may have violated federal election laws. But the Biden Department of Justice showed no interest in pursuing charges. Meanwhile, California’s Department of Justice — led by Attorney General Rob Bonta — has focused more energy on blocking Huntington Beach from implementing voter ID than protecting immigrant voters who were allegedly threatened and exploited.
So yes, a Pakistani citizen living in Pakistan voted in California’s election. That part is true. But the real story is what made it possible: a system built on blind trust, zero verification, and political denial.
And the good news? Cases like this are finally breaking through the narrative. The more sunlight hits these schemes, the harder it becomes to pretend election security doesn’t matter. Truth has a way of showing up — even when officials would rather look the other way.
