Oregon Election Worker Fired For Allegedly Altering Ballots

An Oregon election worker was relieved of her duties after she allegedly changed a few ballots to help out the Republican party, according to The Huffington Post.

Clackamas County spokesperson Tim Heider released a statement on Monday which explained that 55-year-old Deanna Swenson had altered two ballots in an attempt to assist the GOP. For her role in the scheme, Swenson was “relieved of duty immediately after the alleged ballot tampering was discovered.”

The Willamette Week reports that Swenson filled in a straight Republican ticket on ballots that voters chose to leave blank. When she was contacted in regards to situation, the suspect claimed she had only changed two ballots.

“We are investigating felony violations of Oregon election laws which allegedly took place in Clackamas County and involved a temporary county elections’ employee’s tampering with cast ballots,” Oregon Department of Justice spokesman Jeff Manning explained.

When asked by Oregon Live how many ballots were affected by Swenson’s behavior, Manning stated that investigations are still underway.

“Charlotte Lehan, chairwoman of the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners, said at least two ballots are ‘highly suspect’ and have been seized as evidence. An unknown additional number of ballots processed by the worker have been quarantined,” he explained.

Clackamas County said at an emergency meeting on Monday that the ballots altered by Deanna Swenson would not be counted, according to The Raw Story. Unfortunately, voters will not be able to recast their votes since all of the ballots are anonymous. If Swenson’s behavior deprived you of your vote, then apparently you’re just out of luck.

Tampering with official ballots is a Class C felony, which means that Swenson, who has worked in elections since 2000, could be fined up to $125,000 and spend quite a bit of time behind bars.

What do you think should happen to the Oregon election worker who was fired for altering ballots?