Warren women voted twice, board alleges

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — Two city women face possible felony charges on allegations of voting twice during last month’s general election, the Trumbull County Board of Elections said.

One of the women voted in her old and new voting precincts on Election Day, and the other woman voted absentee five days before the election and again on Election Day, said Jodi Fiorenzo Dibble, deputy director of the elections board.

If either woman is convicted of the fourth-degree felony associated with the alleged crime — illegal voting — she faces a possible jail term of up to 18 months and a $5,000 fine.

James Saker, an assistant county prosecutor who advises the elections board, said these are the first two cases of alleged double voting he’s handled since working with the elections board from 2002 until now.

Other cases have arisen since 2002 alleging double voting, but there were legitimate questions raised in those cases as to whether the individuals voted twice on purpose or by accident.

“There have been some instances of attempted possible double voting, but not as egregious as these two cases appear to be,” Saker said, adding that the allegation is that the women voted twice knowingly.

Elections workers discovered the two cases and turned the information over to the elections board, which voted last week to refer them to the prosecutor’s office.

A third case was not referred because it involved a woman with Alzheimer’s disease who voted absentee at the elections board office and again on Election Day at her polling place, which was inside the nursing home in Howland where she lived.

The elections board assumes the woman didn’t realize she was voting twice, Fiorenzo Dibble said.

In that case and one of the cases referred for prosecution, the double voting was discovered before vote totals were official, and the second ballot was tossed out, Fiorenzo Dibble said.

In the case of the woman accused of voting five days before the election and again on Election Day, election workers should have required her to vote a provisional ballot. But they did not, so there was no way to throw out one of her two ballots, and they both counted, Fiorenzo Dibble said.

Kevin Kidder, media relations coordinator for Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, said examples of someone voting more than once in the same election in Ohio are “exceedingly rare,” and said he’s not aware of any prosecutions in Ohio for the offense in recent years.

The two women accused of voting twice have not been interviewed, Fiorenzo Dibble said.

The most recent cases involving election violations in Trumbull County involved people who assisted congressional candidate Randy Walter in gathering petitions required to get him on the ballot in 2006.

Four people were convicted of a misdemeanor called prohibitions concerning signatures on a petition. All paid a small fine.

David Toepfer, the assistant county prosecutor who handled the cases, said the four turned in petitions knowing they contained forged signatures.

runyan@vindy.com