Northern Minnesota Woman Pleads Guilty to Voter Fraud
A 51-year-old woman from rural Nashwauk, Minnesota, has pleaded guilty to voter fraud after casting a ballot in the name of her recently deceased mother. Danielle Christine Javorina admitted to filling out an absentee ballot for her mother, Rose Marie Javorina, ahead of the 2024 general election. According to court documents, Javorina claimed her mother was an “avid Donald Trump supporter” who had hoped to vote for the Republican presidential nominee.
Circumstances of the Crime
Javorina received absentee ballots for herself and her mother in the mail just weeks after her mother’s death. She claimed that her mother had requested she fill out the ballot, but Javorina had no recollection of mailing the ballots back to the elections office due to intoxication. The Itasca County Auditor’s Office received the sealed ballot envelopes containing signatures for both on October 7, 2024, but a routine check of the Minnesota Vital Statistics death report showed that Rose Javorina had died on August 31.
The defendant, who was listed as the witness on her mother’s ballot, and the deceased woman was listed as the witness on Javorina’s ballot, according to a criminal complaint. Both listed their street address as County Road 54, north of Nashwauk. The Itasca County Sheriff’s Office reviewed the signatures and determined they appeared similar, as well as matching the signature on the daughter’s driver’s license.
Sentence and Consequences
Javorina will spend up to three years on supervised probation, undergo a psychological evaluation, and pay an $885 fine and any restitution. She agreed to read the book “Thank You for Voting: The Maddening, Enlightening, Inspiring Truth About Voting in America” by Erin Geiger Smith and write a 10-page paper about “the importance of voting in a democracy and how election fraud can undermine the voting process.” Successful completion of probation will result in the conviction being deemed a misdemeanor.
Defense attorney Justin Braulick called it an isolated “lapse in judgment,” noting his client has no criminal history and is not a frequent drinker. He said she lost both parents in 2024 and was going through an emotional time. Voter fraud has been a major talking point in recent elections, with experts saying cases are exceedingly rare and there is no evidence of systematic fraud.
According to the Associated Press, after the 2020 election, there were fewer than 475 possible instances of voter fraud among 25.5 million votes cast in six swing states. The conservative Heritage Foundation maintains a database with just 1,600 “proven instances of voter fraud” nationwide over several decades, including 138 cases in Minnesota from 2004 to 2022.
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