Election Judge Charged with Felonies After Auditor Flags a Major Problem

An election judge from a Minnesota township has been charged with two serious felonies after being accused of improperly accepting votes from individuals who should not have been allowed to cast a ballot.

Timothy Michael Scouton, hailing from Nevis, Minnesota, was serving as the head election judge for Badoura Township Precinct in Hubbard County, as reported by KMSP-TV.

Scouton is now facing one count of neglect of duty as an election official and another count of accepting the vote of an unregistered voter.

The issue was discovered after Hubbard County Auditor Kay Rave reviewed the election documents and noticed that several essential voter registration forms were missing from the materials Scouton had submitted following the election, per The Associated Press.

On November 7, Rave contacted Scouton, who informed her that he could not locate the registration forms for 11 voters. Eventually, Rave recovered the forms herself and discovered through a criminal complaint that Scouton had admitted he and other election judges had not used them.

According to the complaint, Rave subsequently informed the police that these 11 voters had not completed the necessary forms to verify their identities.

Another election judge mentioned in the complaint that Scouton had directed her on Election Day not to use the Minnesota Voter Registration Application form. Scouton’s son, who also worked as an election judge, had been responsible for managing the registration applications.

Yet another judge revealed he was unaware of the existence of Minnesota Voter Registration Application forms, claiming Scouton had instructed new voters only needed to sign in, rather than complete registration forms, according to the complaint.

The Hubbard County Sheriff’s Office arrested Scouton, who declined to comment on the charges.

“These allegations are extremely serious and must be fully and thoroughly investigated,” the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office emphasized in a statement. “Election judges take an oath to administer elections in accordance with the law. A deliberate failure to do so is unlawful and a betrayal of the public trust.”

“Minnesota’s elections rely on the dedication and public service of 30,000 people, and they are required to conduct their work fairly, impartially, and within the letter of the law,” the statement added. The Hubbard County Auditor’s prompt action to report the discrepancies to local authorities was described as appropriate and necessary for investigation.

KTSP-TV reported that Scouton had attended both basic election judge training and head judge training in July.

Scouton’s next scheduled court date is January 6.

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon commented on the incident, stating, “99.99 percent of election judges do the right thing. But you are going to have somebody do the wrong thing,” he said, as cited by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

“It was caught and detected. … The system worked,” Simon added.