GRAND RAPIDS — A rural Nashwauk woman was charged Oct. 22 with three felony counts of absentee voter fraud after attempting to vote for her dead mother.
Danielle Christine Miller, 40, was charged with two counts of intentionally making or signing a false certificate and one count of casting an illegal vote. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $10,000 fine or both.
According to the criminal complaint, Miller told an Itasca County sheriff’s lieutenant she filled out the absentee ballot of her mother Rose Marie Javorina and signed her mother’s name on the signature envelope. According to the Minnesota Vital Statistics Death Report of Itasca County, Javorina died Aug. 31.
Miller allegedly said her mother was “an avid Donald Trump supporter” and wanted to vote for him, but died shortly before the absentee ballots were received. The criminal complaint stated Miller admitted to filling out her mother’s ballot and signing her mother’s name on the envelope. She also admitted to signing her mother’s signature as a witness on Miller’s own ballot.
The sheriff’s office was notified earlier this month of possible voter fraud by the Itasca County auditor, who flagged the ballots for fraud based upon the signatures.
Itasca County Auditor Austin Rohling said they receive a list of dead individuals from the state, and those people are flagged in the voter registration system. He explained Javorina died before the list was certified, so she was still issued a ballot.
“But then when the ballot comes back in the signature envelope, that envelope is tied to her name,” he said.
“So, when we cross-referenced it in the system, they come back deceased, and the timeline where she passed away before ballots could have even been dispersed was enough for us to determine that that needed to go to our county attorney’s office and ultimately got referred by them to the sheriff’s office for an investigation.”
Rohling said the county’s bipartisan absentee ballot board has processed about 8,000 ballots so far. He estimated the board has further reviewed hundreds of ballots, and fewer than 10 instances have come before him.
“These instances where fraud and nefarious activity are actually happening are rare,” he said. “ ... We do catch things, and we do review them, and this is the only one that has been to the point of there was intentional, nefarious, fraudulent activity happening and we had to bring charges forward.”
On a Minnesota absentee ballot signature envelope, the voter must sign that they “certify that on Election Day I will meet all the legal requirements to vote.” A witness must also sign, certifying the voter showed them the blank ballot before voting, marked the ballot in private, sealed the ballot in the envelope and that the witness is registered to vote or is authorized to give oaths.
The lieutenant reviewed the two sealed ballots and compared the signature envelopes, according to the criminal complaint. On Miller’s ballot, the witness section was signed by Javorina, and on Javorina’s ballot the witness section was signed by Miller and the voter section by Javorina.
The lieutenant compared the signatures to each other and to Miller’s license and noted they appeared to match.
Miller is scheduled to appear virtually before Judge Heidi M. Chandler on Dec. 4.
Rohling said things must be in place from the Secretary of State’s Office down to local offices for election “checks and balances” to work, and he’s proud of how the system works.
“Everybody did their jobs to bring this to light,” he said. “And the level of scrutiny that’s given to this — to me, it’s just proof the system works and that the local election officials are doing their best to provide a secure, safe election for all voters.”
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