Indiana Resident Pleads Guilty To Felony Election Fraud Charges After Pre-Marking Absentee Ballots

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Indiana resident Janet Reed pleaded guilty to felony election fraud charges after she was accused of allegedly sending hundreds of absentee ballot applications with instructions which left voters no choice but to participate in the Democrat primary election.

The 68-year-old Vanderburgh County resident was charged with Unauthorized Absentee Ballot, a Level 6 felony which is punishable with six months to two and a half years in prison.

Reed allegedly modified the applications sent to people who applied for absentee ballots, which allow for eligible voters to submit their votes early. Acquiring such a ballot requires an application from your county office.

Reed pre-marked “Democrats” in the section that allows voters to choose a party, effectively requiring them to vote for one of the Democrat candidates in the primary. Reed wrote that the section of party affiliation “needs no input.”

County Clerk Carla Hayden said that Reed sent more than 400 such applications to absentee voters.

An example of a ballot application with primary election party preselected.

In Indiana, voters must choose between voting in a Republican or Democratic primary election and cannot vote in both primaries. During general elections, voters are able to pick and choose candidates regardless of their party affiliation.

The case was referred by the local election board to county prosecutor Nick Hermann.

Hayden became aware of Reed’s actions in April 2020 and asked her to stop her actions since it required the office to send replacement applications and this “put a burden on our office.” Hayden has declared that in almost all cases, the initial applications sent by Reed were not approved for voting.

What was Reed’s motive? County Democratic Party chair Edie Hardcastle said that Reed had not used party funds to send her pre-modified applications, but was able to access the county’s voter list through her work for Thomasina Marsili, a Democratic candidate who won Indiana’s 8th congressional district by 2,500 votes, eventually losing in the general election to Republican Larry Bucshon.

Marsili claimed that Reed was not an employee of her campaign but did not respond to questions about whether Reed had volunteered for her campaign.

Hardcastle said that the Democratic party did not plan to take any legal action against Reed “until the legal process has played itself out.”

Reed ran for a position in June 2020, albeit not one for public office. She won 2,680 Democratic votes to become a delegate at the Indiana Democratic Party’s Virtual State Convention on June 13. She placed 36th in a field of 78 candidates, earning one of the 64 available positions.