The Supreme Court observed in McNally that deceit concerning the
quality and value of a commodity or service remains within the scope of
Section 1341:
We note that as the action comes to us, there was no
charge and that the jury was not required to find that
the Commonwealth itself was defrauded of any money
or property. It was not charged that in the absence
of the alleged scheme the Commonwealth would have
paid a lower premium or secured better insurance.
McNally, 483 U.S. at 360 (emphasis added). Election fraud schemes
involve an aspect of material concealment insofar as the “value” of the
services the public is paying for are concerned: the public “hired” the
candidate because it was falsely led to believe this candidate
received the most valid votes, or (at least in part) because it believed
the candidate did not engage in illegal fundraising activities, and
consequently received services from an individual that were thus of
lower value.
This “salary theory” of post-McNally mail or wire fraud has
been applied to election frauds in only a few cases to date, with mixed
results. The Fifth and Sixth Circuits have outright rejected the theory
in the election fraud context. United States v. Ratcliff, 488 F.3d 639,
647 (5th Cir. 2007) (candidate lied to election ethics board about
illegal campaign loans); United States v. Turner, 459 F.3d 775, 784–
90 (6th Cir. 2006) (defendant fraudulently concealed illegal
contributions and bribed voters to vote for candidate). District courts
have split on whether the theory is viable in prosecuting election fraud.
Compare United States v. Schermerhorn, 713 F. Supp. 88, 92
(S.D.N.Y. 1989) (scheme to conceal that state senate candidate was
being financed by organized crime in violation of state campaign
financing laws held actionable under the salary theory); United States
v. Webb, 689 F. Supp. 703, 707 (W.D. Ky. 1988) (scheme to
fraudulently elect sheriff by procuring false absentee ballots held
actionable under the salary theory), with Westchester Cnty. Indep.
Party v. Astorino, No. 13–CV–7737 (KMK), 2015 WL 5883718, at
69