Owner of pooch finds herself in the doghouse

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Officials want to charge the woman with voter fraud.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — Anyone reading through the King County voting rolls would find under M one Duncan M. MacDonald, an Australian Shepherd-terrier mix with shaggy paws and a glistening black nose.

Duncan's owner, Jane Balogh, a 66-year-old self-described "white-haired granny," is aghast that her dog remains on the rolls months after she informed authorities of her ruse.

Balogh says she wanted to expose the laxity of registration laws and show how easy it is for someone not entitled to vote to get a ballot and potentially skew an election.

Officials at King County, which includes Seattle and this suburb of 83,000, are so unhappy with Duncan's owner that they're set to charge her with voter fraud, a felony that carries a penalty of as much as a year in jail.

A pretrial hearing has been set for July 11.

What they're saying

A popular conservative talk-radio program has hailed Balogh's actions as clever while the state's largest newspaper, the Seattle Times, in a recent editorial condemned the ruse as having "crossed the line."

Balogh, who describes herself as being shy and reclusive, has been startled by the attention but seems resolute in fighting to the end. She could have pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and been done with it but Friday went to the King County Courthouse, lawyer by her side, and told a judge she would rather face trial.

"Yes, I'm very nervous about all this," Balogh said. "But I wasn't trying to scam an election or do anything fraudulent. I wanted to make a point. I thought maybe they'd even say 'Thank you.'"

An army veteran with two grown children, Balogh lives with Duncan, three other dogs and five cats in a quiet tree-lined subdivision next to a golf course. Balogh, with Duncan looking on behind a gate, says she's an inveterate letter writer who feels strongly about issues.

Came up with idea

After voter-fraud allegations in the 2000 presidential election and in the 2004 gubernatorial race in her state, Balogh, with encouragement from family and friends, came up with the idea of registering one of her dogs as a voter.

In early 2006 she put her phone bill in Duncan's name and then used a phone-bill statement as identification to register him as a King County voter. As part of the process, she signed the form declaring Duncan was a legitimate voter — which is at the heart of the case against her.

In three subsequent elections, Balogh sent in absentee ballots in Duncan's name. She wrote "VOID" on the ballots and signed the envelopes with a paw print.

At the same time, she was writing letters to legislators describing her trick and pleading for them to "fix the system."

The votes, elections officials admitted, could have counted had she not blown the whistle on herself. Eventually she got a call from an elections worker, and shortly after received a visit from a King County detective. The prosecutor's office, instead of charging her with a felony, offered a misdemeanor charge — making false or misleading statements to a public official — if she agreed to plead guilty. The penalty would have been 10 hours of community service and a $250 fine.

Balogh initially agreed but changed her mind. She was also miffed that Duncan's name is still on the voting rolls.

Election officials said taking someone off the rolls is much more difficult than putting someone on. It entails a formal challenge and a public hearing.

Monday, July 2, 2007