Paws for thought over voter

Duncan M. MacDonald can't vote, which could be a relief to politicians who otherwise might have to outline their positions on chew toys, postal carriers and squirrels.
That's because Duncan is a dog - an Australian shepherd-terrier to be exact.

His owner, Jane Balogh of Washington state, is in trouble for submitting voided ballots in his name in three elections. One tipoff for authorities: One of the envelopes was signed with a picture of a paw print.

Balogh said she was protesting a 2005 state law that she says makes it too easy for non-citizens to vote. She put her phone bill in Duncan's name, then used the phone bill as identification to register him as a voter. Prosecutors have offered a deal to Balogh, a grandmother and army veteran.

If she pleads guilty to a misdemeanour charge of making a false statement to a public official, they will not file a felony charge of providing false information on a voter-registration application.

Balogh says she doesn't plan to contest the charge because she knows she's guilty.

"I wasn't trying to do anything fraudulent. I was trying to prove that our system is flawed," she said. "So I got myself in trouble."

She said she submitted ballots in the dog's name in the September and November 2006 and May 2007 elections. She wrote "VOID" on the ballots and didn't cast any votes.

Prosecutors said they would recommend she be sentenced to 10 hours of community service, pay a $250 fine and commit no other crimes for a year. Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said his office "can't simply look the other way. They say you should let sleeping dogs lie, but you can't let voting dogs vote."