An Australian shepherd mix was registered to vote in Washington State for more than a year in protest of a voting law change.
Owner Jane Balogh registered Duncan M. McDonald in April 2006 — in order to meet identification requirements, she put her phone bill in the dog’s name. That was apparently enough for election officials, who sent the dog his first ballot in November 2006. Balogh returned the ballot unmarked — she wrote VOID on it and stamped a paw print on the signature line. Someone called her house after that and she confessed to registering her dog to vote — but Duncan M. McDonald still received absentee ballots in February and May 2007 for school board elections.
Why did she do it? Balogh was trying to demonstrate that it was too easy to register non-citizens to vote. If a dog can get registered, why not another animal? Why not a foreign citizen? Could someone register an inanimate object? There have been news stories before about ballots being sent to people who have passed away. There’s a lot of potential for voter fraud here.
Charges were filed against Balogh this summer; three weeks later, Duncan M. McDonald was finally removed from voter lists. The charges of making a false or misleading statement to a public official come with up to ninety days in jail, but Balogh has agreed to a deal. She’ll be doing ten hours of community service, paying a fine, and being on her best behavior for the next year.
If my dogs could vote, I’m sure they’d be interested in issues like animal abuse, health care, cracking down on dogfighting and puppy mills, and curfews for cats. They would want to see investigations into tainted pet foods and more research money spent on toys and treats.