WA: No jail time for woman who registered dog to vote
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No jail time for woman who registered dog to vote
Jane Balogh speaks to reporters after her court hearing on Wednesday, September 5, 2007.
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* 'Duncan' the dog now a registered voter
Story Published: Sep 6, 2007 at 7:37 AM PDT
Story Updated: Sep 6, 2007 at 7:37 AM PDT
By KOMO Staff & News Services
Video
SEATTLE -- A woman who registered her dog to vote has accepted a one-year deferred sentencing.
Jane Balogh, 66, of Federal Way, Wash., can get the charge of making a false or misleading statement to a public servant removed from her record by doing 10 hours of community service, paying court costs of $240 and avoiding any violation of the law for the next year, King County District Judge Mariane Spearman said Wednesday.
Balogh registered her Australian shepherd-terrier mix, Duncan M. McDonald, to vote in April 2006 by putting her telephone in the dog's name and using that as identification when she mailed the form to election officials. She said she did it to protest a change in the law that she believed made it too easy for non-citizens to vote.
In November she wrote "VOID" across the first ballot sent to the dog and returned it with an image of a paw print on the signature line. An election official called and she admitted what she had done, but the dog still was sent absentee ballots for school bond elections in February and May.
Duncan M. McDonald was removed from the voter roles in July, three weeks after the charge was filed against Balogh.
Bobbie Egan, a county elections office spokeswoman said that under the federal Help America Vote Act, the department was required to accept a utility bill as identification.
Egan said she's unaware of anyone else who has registered anything from a kiwi to a cat, by having it listed as a utility customer and then using that as identification.
Solving the problem would require either federal legislation or a change in state law, which currently follows the federal voting act, Egan said.
"The department takes any attempt to circumvent election rules very seriously," she said.
