RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – A former official with the North Carolina Board of Elections will spend two months in prison after she pleaded guilty to helping a Mexican citizen vote, according to federal officials. 

Denslo Allen Paige, 66, was sentenced to two months in prison followed by one year of probation, the U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of North Carolina said. 

She was also fined $250 and must pay a $25 special assessment. 

Paige pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting voting by an alien. 

Court records show Paige was a paid volunteer and former election official with the North Carolina Board of Elections.

She told Guadalupe Espinosa-Pena, a Mexican citizen, that “if he wanted his voice to be heard, he needed to vote.”

Espinosa-Pena had been denied naturalization twice, federal officials said.

Paige then assisted Espinosa-Pena with filling out a voter’s registration form for the 2016 General Elections. 

Federal officials said Espinosa-Pena intentionally left the question about being a U.S. citizen blank with assistance from Paige. 

After Paige submitted the form, someone marked Espinosa-Pena as a U.S. citizen on the form. 

Espinosa-Pena was assigned a voting location in Wake County where he voted in the 2016 General Election. 

 “The right to vote is a precious privilege available only to citizens of the United States. When a non-citizen votes in a federal election it serves to dilute and devalue the vote of American citizens and places the decision making authority of the American electorate in the hands of those who have no right to make those choices,” said Robert J. Higdon, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern
District of North Carolina.