Aspiring North Texas politician Zul Mohamed has lost an appeal in his six-year-old voter fraud case, in which he admittedly schemed to illegally request and receive other people’s ballots to cast fraudulent votes for himself.
But despite a May 26 appellate ruling that affirmed the lower court’s judgment against him, Mohamed is not headed to prison just yet, nor is he barred from election-related activity.
Mohamed pleaded guilty in December 2024 to more than 100 voter fraud felonies in his failed 2020 campaign for Carrollton mayor and was sentenced to four years in prison.
His appeal allowed him to remain free on bond.
The appeal also allowed Mohamed—declared delusional by his attorney—to remain politically active.
In May, Mohamed made a second failed run for Carrollton mayor, then announced plans to run for the U.S. Senate in November.
Mohamed also drew political attention by promoting a “Rally Against Rednecks” in Frisco on June 2, which turned out to be little more than a brief shouting match with counter-protesters.
Now that the Seventh Court of Appeals has affirmed the district court’s judgment, Mohamed has 30 days to submit his case to the Court of Criminal Appeals for review, which would delay a final resolution even longer.
If he does file an appeal, Denton County prosecutors confirm that it’s up to 462nd District Judge Lee Ann Breading to decide if Mohamed continues to remain free on bond and, if so, whether his election-related activity will be restricted as a condition of that bond.
The Cases Against Mohamed
In October 2020, Mohamed was arrested after getting caught with a box of fraudulently obtained mail ballots. The scheme cooked up by Mohamed involved submitting forged ballot-by-mail applications and directing the ballots to the addresses of commercial mailboxes he leased using fake ID.
After four years of legal wrangling, Mohamed pleaded guilty in December 2024 to 81 counts of fraudulently using a mail-ballot application (3 counts were thrown out) and 25 violations related to possessing other voters’ ballots.
Mohamed’s attorney argued during sentencing that his client suffers from delusional disorder and should not be imprisoned.
A jury agreed Mohamed is mentally ill but still sentenced him to four years in state prison and 10 years of probation.
Mohamed then appealed parts of his conviction and sentencing, arguing that the sting operation used to trace a mail-ballot fraud scheme back to him was constitutionally suspect, as was the court’s condition of probation that barred Mohamed from engaging in any election-related activities.
Following an April 1 hearing, the Seventh Court of Appeals issued an opinion on May 26 that affirmed the judgment of the 462nd District Court except for certain probation conditions restricting Mohamed’s election-related activities.
The appellate court modified the conditions to more narrowly state that Mohamed “shall not engage in registering voters, accessing or requesting voter data, assisting any voter to complete a ballot or ballot application, poll watching or poll greeting, or working or volunteering for any political campaign.”
However, Mohamed is not yet on probation, so those conditions are not yet applicable.
Denton County felony prosecutor Jesse Davis told Texas Scorecard that his office asked Judge Breading to add the election-related prohibitions as conditions of Mohamed’s bond, but as of June 4 she has not yet ruled on the request.
Davis said if Mohamed moves forward with another appeal, his office will ask the judge to revoke Mohamed’s bond.
If bond revocation is denied and Mohamed remains free, Davis will again ask Judge Breading to apply the election-related restrictions to Mohamed’s bond conditions, in the form approved by the appellate court.
Davis noted that the state’s concern is the same whether Mohamed is free on bond or on probation: safeguarding the public from an admitted vote fraudster.
Mohamed is also facing six counts of impersonating a public servant, a third-degree felony.
The charges stem from fake jury duty notices sent to dozens of Denton County residents for the first day of Mohamed’s voter fraud trial, which authorities traced back to Mohamed.
His next court date for those charges is set for August 14 before Judge Breading.
Mohamed’s Ongoing Political Activity
While he continues to appeal, Mohamed is not considered “finally convicted” of a felony and therefore is not barred from running for political office.
Earlier this year, Mohamed again ran for mayor of Carrollton. As expected, he lost the May 2 election to incumbent Mayor Steve Babick, although he did manage to garner 450 votes—6.5 percent of the total votes cast.
Mohamed has since announced that he intends to run for U.S. Senate in November against Ken Paxton and James Talarico, as the candidate of the American Millennial Party he founded—assuming he is still out of prison and not prohibited by the terms of his bond from political campaigning.
He also announced last week that he would be hosting a “Rally Against Rednecks” on June 2 at Frisco City Hall and invited the “local Asian community” to attend the event.
Local conservative activists organized a counter-protest “Redneck Rally.”
While covering the rallies, North Texas-based political media outlet Current Revolt contacted Mohamed by phone about his plans. Mohamed said he wasn’t holding a rally, just speaking at that evening’s Frisco City Council meeting—which did not include public comments.
Mohamed told Current Revolt that people “misunderstood” his posts and that he wasn’t holding any sort of event.
Texas Scorecard will continue providing updates on Mohamed’s criminal cases and political activities.
