College student, 22, JAILED for rigging school election to make himself president as he is lambasted as an 'incredibly entitled young man'

Matthew Weaver, 22, will spend one year in federal prison in California after pleading guilty to wire fraud and identity theft



A 22-year-old college undergraduate has been sentenced to a year in prison for stealing the identities and passwords of more than 700 fellow students at his university so he could rig a campus election.

Former Cal State San Marcos student Matthew Weaver rigged the election so he could become student body president, the U.S. attorney's office said on Monday.

He was one of two candidates for the position at the San Diego area school in March last year.

Arrogance: Former Cal State San Marcos student Matthew Weaver has been jailed for a year after attempting to rig an election to make himself student body president

Weaver, of Huntington Beach, pleaded guilty in March to wire fraud, unauthorized access of a computer and identity theft.

The third-year business student admits that he bought three small electronic devices that record a computer user's keystrokes to steal 745 passwords.

Weaver says he used those stolen identities to cast about 630 votes for himself and for friends who also were on the ballot.

The 22 -year-old had searched terms including 'how to rig an election' and 'jail time for keylogger' online.



His plot was uncovered when university IT staff notice strange activity on a college computer. Weaver was arrested sitting at a campus computer.



Judge Larry Burns, who rejected the student's plea for probation, said that Weaver then made the situation much worse by trying to cover up his crime.



In the running: Weaver was on the list of candidates but decided to bypass the traditional voting process

Rules: The student at Cal State San Marcos (pictured) bought electronic devices which register key strokes and hacked other students' accounts and registered their vote for himself

The judge told U-T San Diego : ' H e’s on fire for this crime, and then he pours gasoline on it to try to cover it up.'

After he was caught out, Weaver and his friends created fake Facebook pages using real students' names to frame them for the crime.



'Conversations' from these pages were sent to various media outlets - but no one believed the ruse.



His defense lawyer said that Weaver was young and had made 'stupid decisions' for which he had apologized.

The cost of Weaver's scam cost Cal State San Marcos $40,000 which they will be seeking from Weaver.