HONOLULU – In a federal courtroom on September 18, 2026, Bernadette Acaso, a 20-year-old Filipino national, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully voting as an alien. The plea came after she admitted to FBI agents that her uncle had pressured her to cast a ballot in the 2024 presidential election, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Hawaii.
Acaso, who was living in Honolulu and Kahului, Maui, was originally charged by criminal complaint on July 22. She had been scheduled for trial on December 7 before changing her plea. She remains free on an unsecured $25,000 bond and is restricted to Oahu, according to court records.
The case began with a referral from the Maui County clerk's office on January 29. Their records indicated that Acaso had submitted a mail-in ballot in the 2024 general election on November 5, 2024, federal prosecutors said. The FBI interviewed Acaso on June 17, and she was not in custody when she "admitted she voted by signing and mailing a ballot for the 2024 presidential election" while living on Maui, according to an FBI affidavit.
Acaso told agents that her uncle, who had petitioned for her and her family to come to the United States from the Philippines, pressured her to vote for a particular candidate. She said she felt scared of him, but she also said she did not think he would physically assault her and that she was not forced to put the ballot in the mail. Acaso told the FBI she believed lawful permanent residents could vote and did not think she was breaking the law.
Acaso was born in the Philippines and came to the U.S. in 2018 on an immigrant visa, later becoming a lawful permanent resident. Federal law does not allow non-citizens to vote in any federal elections, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Acaso is the second Filipino national charged with illegal voting by federal prosecutors in Hawaii since June. On June 2, Remedios A. Alasaas, 66, of Kahului, who is in the U.S. illegally, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of unlawfully voting. Alasaas allegedly voted in a 2022 general election for U.S. House and Senate races and in a 2024 primary for president, vice president, and congressional races. She pleaded not guilty on June 9 and is scheduled for trial on December 1.
Unlawful voting carries a penalty of up to one year in prison, a term of supervised release, and a fine of up to $100,000. According to a Reuters report published July 19, federal prosecutors have charged 129 people under the "voting by aliens" statute since Congress created it in 1996, with more than two-thirds of those cases filed during the Trump administration. The report noted that none of the cases alleged a coordinated effort to influence an election, and no defendant was accused of being paid to vote.
What remains unclear is who Acaso voted for—that was not part of the public record. Also unknown is whether her uncle faces any charges; the sources do not mention any.
Acaso's sentencing has not yet been scheduled. Her attorney has not commented publicly on the plea.