Well now we finally know where the voting fraud was! It was a Republican, again, this time a county elections official in New York, who will plead guilty in federal court as part of an ongoing Department of Justice election fraud case. The Albany Times-Union reports that Jason T. Schofield, who until yesterday served as the commissioner of elections for Rensselaer County, will plead guilty on January 11 to felony election fraud charges.
Schofield had been arrested by the FBI in September and charged with using at least eight people’s personal information without permission to apply for absentee ballots in 2021. The specific charges were “12 felony counts of unlawful possession and use of a means of identification.” He had initially pleaded not guilty; the plea deal announced yesterday by the DOJ noted that Schofield resigned his county elections job after agreeing to the plea deal.
The Times-Unionreported in September that the indictment accused Schofield of
using an online state Board of Elections portal to request absentee ballots on behalf of eight voters who had no interest in voting, did not request absentee ballots and didn’t know that Schofield was using their personal information to obtain the ballots. The indictment alleges the official “falsely certified” that he was the person requesting the ballot when he entered the voters’ names and dates of birth in the portal.
The ballots that were delivered to the Rensselaer County Board of Elections were subsequently filled out and submitted in last year’s primary election, the general election, and sometimes both.
You have to admit, it was really convenient having the ballots come to him at work like that. Guess that would be why convicted but pardoned election felon Dinesh D’Souza’s fanciful cell-phone tracking detective work didn’t discover this actually real alleged fraud, and instead had to settle for making shit up.
The Times Union reported Schofield’s misdeeds came to light earlier this year as part of an FBI investigation into another local Republican official, Troy City Councilwoman Kimberly Ashe-McPherson, who resigned from the City Council when she pleaded guilty in June to absentee ballot fraud. No doubt these New York Republicans had to submit fraudulent ballots to balance out all the Democratic cheating they believed was happening, although as far as we can tell, both Ashe-McPherson and Schofield were savvy enough not to actually say that aloud.
Schofield, the Times-Union reports today, will be cooperating in the DOJ’s ongoing investigation of absentee ballot frauding in Rensselaer County over the last couple years; while the paper calls it a “voter fraud” case, we’d note that all the people being investigated so far appear to be Republicans associated with the city and county governments, not your average everyday voters who always seem to be the targets of GOP “voting integrity” measures.
In addition to the federal probe, there’s also a state AG’s investigation of possible absentee ballot fuckery by Rensselaer County employees, including Leslie A Wallace and Sara. J. McDemott, who “has been described by county political insiders as a GOP operative.”
God, New York is such a wonderfully sleazy state!
Wallace was listed in payroll records two years ago as an “assistant for constituent relations” in the office of county Executive Steve McLaughlin, who was indicted last year on unrelated felony charges for allegedly misusing campaign funds and falsifying campaign finance filings. McLaughlin has pleaded not guilty; his criminal case is being handled by the state attorney general’s office.
McDermott, a confidential assistant in the human resources office, has been active in local politics and government. Last year, she ran for county executive on the Working Families Party line after defeating McLaughlin’s Democratic challenger, Gwen Wright, in a primary for the progressive party’s line. McDermott did not actively campaign for county executive, but her primary win may have siphoned general-election votes away from Wright, whose name only appeared on the Democratic line.
Nothing illegal there, just some good old political ratfucking. So charming!
And yeah, McLaughlin, the unrelated alleged felon, is also a Republican.
Moar!
TN Judge Sentences Woman To Six Years For Attempting To Register To Vote While Black
We’ll also remind you that all this very intentional election frauding by Republicans is happening while Black women in Tennessee and in Texas continue to serve years-long sentences for voter fraud that occurred when they mistakenly tried to vote while incorrectly believing they were eligible to vote. (Crystal Mason, the woman in the latter case, won the right to have her appeal reviewed in May, but as far as we can tell is still in prison as that process continues.)
We bet these New Yorkers end up with seriously slapped wrists, and rightwing media will insist this fuckery by Republican political insiders proves that absentee voting needs to be made more difficult, the end.
[Albany Times-Union / Times-Union / Texas Tribune]
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