The Republican elections board commissioner in upstate Rensselaer County was arrested Tuesday on prices of finishing up a brazen poll scheme that allowed him to forged votes in voters’ names.
Jason Schofield utilized for absentee ballots for voters who didn’t need to vote, and, in some situations, personally pushed voters to signal absentee poll envelopes, positioning himself or his associates to commit voter fraud in major and basic elections in 2021, in response to courtroom papers.
The 12-count indictment charging Schofield mentioned ballots have been counted from at the least 4 voters who have been instructed to signal poll envelopes however weren’t allowed to finish them.
“Schofield was able to vote — or have other people vote — in the RVs’ names,” mentioned the courtroom papers, utilizing an acronym for registered voters.
The nine-page indictment was filed final Thursday within the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.
Schofield, 42, of Troy, N.Y., faces as much as 5 years in jail on every of 12 counts of illegal possession and use of a way of identification, in response to the U.S. lawyer’s workplace in Albany.
“He maintains his innocence,” Danielle Neroni, his lawyer, mentioned by telephone Tuesday afternoon.
The Albany Times Union reported that Schofield was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday morning exterior his dwelling, and entered a not responsible plea at courtroom within the afternoon.
Schofield was launched pending a trial scheduled earlier than Judge Mae D’Agostino. He declined to remark as he left his arraignment listening to, in response to the Times Union.
The Times Union reported that he was subpoenaed earlier this 12 months in reference to a sweeping poll probe that has additionally led a Troy metropolis councilwoman to plead responsible to a depend of identification theft.
The Rensselaer County Board of Elections didn’t instantly return a request for remark. The elections board is positioned in Troy, about seven miles northeast of downtown Albany.
Rensselaer County, a swing county, went for former President Donald Trump within the 2016 election and President Joe Biden in 2020.
— Tim Balk New York Daily News (TNS)
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Source: www.bostonherald.com”