LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A nursing home employee in metro Detroit will serve jail time for making false statements in absentee ballot applications after she forged signatures for residents of the facility she worked at it, the state attorney general’s office said Thursday.
In October 2020, Center Line’s clerk alerted the Michigan Bureau of Elections to about two dozen absentee voter applications with signatures that didn’t match what was on file for those voters.
While working at Father Murray Nursing Home in Macomb County, Trenae Myesha Rainey forged signatures for residents who hadn’t given staff indication that they were interested in voting in the November 2020 election, according to investigators.
Rainey had originally faced six charges for three of the applications, all five-year felonies, but pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three misdemeanor counts of making a false statement in an absentee ballot application. A Macomb County judge sentenced Rainey to 45 days in jail and probation.
An Associated Press review of election fraud in six battleground states found state officials identified a total of 56 potential instances of voter fraud in Michigan, a number which represents less than 1% of President Joe Biden’s margin of victory in the state.
Rainey and three other individuals were charged after state investigations showed attempted voter fraud.
Carless Clark pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor earlier this year after she admitted to forging her grandson’s signature on his absentee ballot envelope in Wayne County.
Nancy Williams, who investigators say attempted to obtain absentee ballots and have them sent to the same place for multiple legally incapacitated persons under her care, faces trial in five courts in Wayne and Oakland counties with court dates scheduled in the coming months.
