Three people charged with voter fraud in US

Three people have been charged with voter fraud in two separate US states, as countdown to next month's presidential election begins amid vote rigging speculations raised by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Officials filed voter fraud charges against two women in Florida and a man in Virginia on Friday.

The man, identified as Vafalay Massaquoi, stands accused of filing bogus voter registration forms. State prosecutors said he was submitting falsified forms while working for a voter-registration campaign.

One of the Florida women, a temporary worker for the county elections department, is also accused of filing bogus voter registration forms.

Gladys Coego, 74, was caught red-handed as she was changing ballots that had been left blank to support a mayoral candidate, said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.

Elsewhere in Florida, Tomika Curgil, 33, was charged with submitting false voter registration information for allegedly handing in forms filled out by fictitious voters while working on a voter-registration drive for a medical marijuana advocacy group.

County election officials in the state of Iowa also referred three cases of suspected voter fraud to police earlier this week. One of the suspects was arrested on Thursday, police said.

The suspect, a woman identified as Terri Lynn Rote, was accused of voting twice - casting early-voting ballots at two locations. According to the Des Moines Register newspaper, the fifty-five year old suspect was a registered Republican. Police, however, did not disclose her political affiliation.

The fraud charges are reported as Americans started a countdown to go to cast their ballots in the November 8 presidential vote.

Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump formerly raised concerns about the legitimacy of the American electoral system, saying that the election would be rigged in favor of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

During his final presidential debate with Clinton on October 19, Trump refused to say whether he will accept the results of presidential election in an event of Clinton victory.

Many of his supporters also believe that the election could be "stolen" from Trump due to widespread voter fraud.

Only half of Republicans would accept Clinton as their president, according to a recent poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos.

If Clinton wins the race, almost 70 percent said it would be because of illegal voting or vote rigging, the poll showed. Less than 50 percent, however, would attribute her victory to illegal voting or vote rigging, according the poll.

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