LEWIS COUNTY, Wash. — Lewis County prosecutors charged a woman with one count of casting another person’s ballot after elections officials determined she signed two ballots in the August primary.
Michele Tomes was accused of signing her name to her ballot and her 34-year-old son’s ballot. Tomes said she made a mistake.
“I just didn’t think about it,” she told KING 5 News Monday at her Centralia home.
Tomes said her son made the selections on the ballot, but she signed it.
“I sign for him all the time,” said Tomes, who said her son has autism.
Tomes said she is her son’s legal guardian.
”It’s a pretty clear-cut statute," said Lewis County senior deputy prosecuting attorney Paul Masiello. "If you cast another person’s ballot, you’ve broken the law."
In 2020 Masiello successfully prosecuted a felony case of a voter who submitted a ballot in Lewis County and in Oregon.
He said the law must be taken seriously.
”Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy,” Masiello SAID. “The mail-in voting was done more as a convenience, to open it up to everybody else, but it’s still just as important as showing up in person and casting your one vote.”
The Lewis County Auditor’s Office has identified five ballots submitted in the November general election that will be investigated for potential signature forgeries.