Crime charged in vote for Obama
By JESSIE STENSLAND
Whidbey News Times Assistant editor
April 24, 2009 · 3:09 PM
A 43-year-old Camano Island woman wanted so badly to vote for Barack Obama last fall that she forged her son’s signature on his ballot, court documents state.
Prosecutors charged Susan Risenhoover in Island County Superior Court April 15 with a single count of “unqualified person voting.”
Detective John Nieder with the Island County Sheriff’s Office investigated the referral from the county elections department. Last October, an employee responsible for comparing signatures on mail-in ballots to voter signatures on file in the auditor’s office rejected a ballot bearing the name Kevin Risenhoover.
Nieder contacted Susan Risenhoover and she said she received her son’s ballot in the mail, even though he lives in Texas. She admitted forging his signature because she was not registered to vote, but really wanted to vote for Obama, the detective wrote in his report.
Susan Risenhoover said she filled out the ballot without her son’s knowledge, the report states.
“Susan stated she had spoken with Kevin and he was only mad that Susan had voted for Barack Obama and that he would have voted for John McCain,” Nieder wrote.
If convicted of the charge, Risenhoover could face up to a year in jail.
Contact Whidbey News Times Assistant editor Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or 360.675.6611 ext. 5056.Comment on this story.
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