WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — A Wausau man has been charged with voter fraud after sending in ballots for his deceased mother.
The Wausau Daily Herald is reporting that a 70-year-old David Kitowski is charged with voter fraud for mailing in two absentee ballots for his late mother.
The alleged fraud was caught by the Wausau City Clerk’s Office after the August primary election. City Clerk Toni Rayala sent a letter to the Marathon County District Attorney’s Office in October detailing the fraud instance. Upon further investigation, Kitowski had also sent an absentee ballot for his mother for local April races.
The letter also said that his mother had passed away in January 2018. The clerk’s office found Kitowski signed his name as the witness on his mother’s ballots and forged her signature as the witness for his ballots.
The fraud was caught when the office compared the fraudulent signature to signatures from official documents the city kept on file. The clerk’s office did not receive ballots from either Kitowski or his deceased mother for the midterm election.
When contacted by the Daily Herald, Kitowski said he did send in the ballots in his mother’s name. He said when the ballots came to his home he didn’t know what to do with them, so he filled them out and sent them in.
Kitowski will be charged with one felony count of impersonating an elector and will be in court on November 29th.
