A head election judge in Badoura Township, Minn., is facing two felony charges after he allegedly allowed 11 unregistered voters to cast votes on Election Day.
Timothy Michael Scouton, 64, was charged by the Hubbard County Attorney’s Office Friday with one felony count of accepting the vote of an unregistered voter and one felony count of neglect of duty. Each charge comes with a maximum penalty of five years in jail and a $10,000 fine.
Hubbard County Auditor Kay Rave told local authorities that 11 voters at Scouton’s polling place should have completed registration forms prior to voting, but no completed forms were returned to her after the election, according to a criminal complaint. Rave explained that the form is used to validate the identity of the individual casting a ballot.
Scouton told Rave that he and his colleagues could not find the registration forms to use, but when Rave located them, Scouton said they did not use them, the charges say.
Police confirmed that Scouton completed basic election judge training and head judge training in July.
Other election judges told police that Scouton directed them not to use the voter registration application forms and instead had new voters sign “the back of the book,” the complaint says.
Scouton met with an investigator at the Hubbard County Sheriff’s Office but declined to provide a statement, according to the charges. He was then placed under arrest.
Rep. Krista Knudsen, R-Lake Shore, called the charges another example of why Minnesota needs a voter ID law and urged the secretary of state to work with Republicans “in making election law changes that will put a stop to the numerous problems we’ve seen throughout this election cycle.”
“I want to thank the Hubbard County Auditor for their work to catch this individual and for their vigilance in protecting the integrity of our election,” Knudsen said. “Ballot printing issues, results reporting malfunctions and errors, slow counting of ballots, missing ballots, and illegal voting all undermine confidence in the security of our elections. The status quo is not working, and we need to take action next session to address these problems.”
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
