Republicans are certain the electoral system is rife with corruption and vote theft. It’s another case of mass projection. Republicans assume everyone else wants to corrupt the system because THEY actually do. Whenever vote fraud is investigated, it’s almost always Republicans who are committing the fraud. Yesterday, the Department of Justice announced that a Republican Elections Commissioner for Rensselaer County, NY, Jason Schofield, was indicted, arrested and arraigned for submitting names and dates of birth he stole to apply for absentee ballots for himself.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York, reported that “The indictment alleges that Schofield applied for absentee ballots in the names of people who had no interest in voting in 2021; did not request absentee ballots, or Schofield’s assistance in voting or obtaining absentee ballots, in 2021; and/or did not know that Schofield was using their personal information. In some of these instances, according to the indictment, Schofield also took possession of the absentee ballots issued to these voters, brought the ballots to the voters, and had the voters sign absentee ballot envelopes but not actually vote; this allowed Schofield or another person to cast votes in these voters’ names, in Rensselaer County’s primary and general elections held in 2021… On each of 12 counts, if convicted, Schofield would face up to 5 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of post-imprisonment supervised release of up to 3 years.”
Outside of the blue city of Troy, Renssaeler County is very Republican. A Democrat has never been elected county executive and the county legislature consists 6 Democrats (all from Troy) plus 13 Republicans and Conservatives and a right-wing independent who caucuses with the Republicans. The county voted narrowly for Trump in 2016 and narrowly for Biden in 2020. The Renssaeler races are very close. For example, in the last congressional race, most of the county was in NY-19. There was a hot contest between Democrat Antonio Delgado and Republican Kyle Van De Water. District-wide Delgado celebrated a double-digit victory, 54.5% to 42.9% with Libertarian Victoria Alexander taking 1.2%. But in Renssaeler it was much closer:
Antonio Delgado- 17,525 (49.0%)
Kyle Van De Water- 17,350 (48.6%)
Victoria Alexander- 526 (1.5%)
Easy to see why a Republican would try to steal absentee ballots. It wouldn’t take much to flip the county. Less than a year after losing the election Van De Water, an attorney and former Army major shot himself and died, leaving behind 4 children, including 8 year old triplets.
The local newspapers reported Schofield’s arrest fairly graphically, noting that he was arrested outside his house Tuesday morning, with 12 felony counts and “led into court in handcuffs.” Being white, he was released on his own recognizance.
The local report reminded voters that “The ballots that were delivered to the Rensselaer County Board of Elections were subsequently filled out and submitted in last year's primary election, the general election, or in some instances both. In some instances documentation was completed falsely claiming the ballots were mailed to the voters at their residences… Schofield had become a focus of an FBI investigation that led to the guilty plea earlier this year of a Troy councilwoman. Mary Sweeney, the county's Democratic deputy elections commissioner, testified before a federal grand jury in Albany last week as federal authorities zeroed in on Schofield's use of an online portal to obtain absentee ballots. GOP employees at the board of elections also were subpoenaed this summer to testify before the same federal grand jury in Albany. In addition, the county received a federal grand jury subpoena that sought materials related to absentee ballots that had been handled by Schofield last year, including through a state-run online portal.”