LANSING, Mich. (WWJ) – A 28-year-old Macomb County woman has pleaded guilty and will serve jail time for forging signatures on absentee ballot applications ahead of the 2020 election, Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Thursday.
Trenea Myesha Rainey, an employee at a nursing home in Centerline, admitted to three counts of election law forgery and three counts of forging a signature on an absentee ballot application.
While those are five-year felonies, according to the AG’s office, she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of making a false statement on an absentee application.
Since the convictions were for misdemeanors, Circuit Court Judge Michael Chupa had the authority to do an immediate sentencing.
Rainey was sentenced to two years’ probation, with the first 45 days to be served in the Macomb County Jail.
The AG’s office says back in October 2020, Centerline Clerk contacted the Michigan Bureau of Elections after a stack of roughly two dozen absentee voter applications were dropped off for processing. While crosschecking the signatures on the applications with voter signatures in the Qualified Voter File, the clerk noticed the signatures did not match.
That led a team of Department of Attorney General investigators to begin examining the matter in November 2020.
The applications came from an assisted-living facility in the area – Father Murray Nursing Home. Investigators then determined the applications were for residents who had not yet told staff whether they wished to vote in the 2020 General Election, the AG’s office said.
Instead, investigators determined Rainey, who worked at the nursing home, did not contact the residents as set by procedure and instead filled out the applications and forged the residents’ signature to each application.
She then turned the applications over to another employee who was instructed to deliver the applications to the Centerline Clerk. Ultimately, the Department charged her on three of the applications.
Rainey’s case was announced alongside two other election-related cases last year, including one woman who was sentenced to 12 months’ probation for forging her grandson’s signature on his absentee ballot.
In another case, Nancy Williams, a guardian who developed and implemented a plan to obtain absentee ballots for legally incapacitated persons under her care, faces trial in four Wayne County cases. Those are set for a final conference on May 9. A fifth case filed against her, which is in Oakland County, is scheduled for preliminary examination March 23 in 46th District Court.
Related
