After telling a local news station that he was "surprised" by the possibility of someone stealing his dead wife's mail-in ballot and using it in the 2020 election, a Nevada man has been charged with voter fraud.
In November, Donald Kirk Hartle, 55, of Las Vegas, had initially told KLAS-TV that he couldn't imagine someone stealing the ballot and using it.
"That is pretty sickening to me, to be honest with you," he said.
But now, the attorney general for Nevada, Aaron D. Ford, has filed two charges of voter fraud against Hartle alleging that he was the one who forged his wife's signature to vote with her ballot.
"Voter fraud is rare, but when it happens, it undercuts trust in our election system and will not be tolerated by my office," Ford said in a statement on Thursday. "I want to stress that our office will pursue any credible allegations of voter fraud and will work to bring any offenders to justice."
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Hartle is a registered Republican and was also charged with voting using the name of another person and voting more than once in the same election, the statement said. Prosecutors said that each charge would carry a prison sentence of up to four years and a fine of up to $5,000.
It was not explained in the complaint how prosecutors concluded Hartle committed voter fraud.
The New York Times reported that Hartle's lawyer, David Chesnoff, shared that his client "looks forward to responding to the allegations in court."
Hartle's court date is set for Nov. 18 in Las Vegas Township Justice Court.
