Beltrami County area election judge jailed for accepting unregistered ballots

An election judge in rural Hubbard County was sentenced to jail after admitting he accepted ballots from 11 people who were not registered to vote in the November 5, 2024 general election. Timothy Michael Scouton, 65, of Nevis, served as head election judge at the Badoura Township precinct east of Park Rapids, where prosecutors said the normal registration process was bypassed.

Scouton was charged in November 2024 with one felony count of accepting the vote of an unregistered voter and one felony count of neglect of duty as an election officer. Court records and later news reports say he pleaded guilty and was sentenced in Hubbard County District Court to 30 days in Hubbard County Jail. Some reports said the sentence included credit for four days already served and five years of supervised probation.

The failure centered on registration forms that should have been used at the precinct. An election auditor told law enforcement that 11 voters should have completed Minnesota voter registration applications before voting, but did not. Reports also said Scouton directed other election workers not to use the standard Minnesota Voter Registration Application forms. In Minnesota, same-day registration is a legal avenue voters can use at the polls if the required steps are followed.

State election officials described the misconduct as unusual. The Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office said election-related crimes are rare and noted that all election judges are required to attend training. The office also said Minnesota elections are administered locally by county, city and township election officials under state law, and that the state uses paper ballots in all elections. That local structure is designed to keep control close to the polling place, but it also depends on judges and precinct workers following the registration rules precisely.

For voters in Beltrami County and surrounding northwest Minnesota precincts, the case is a reminder that election safeguards are not abstract. They rely on trained local workers, paper records and the routine use of registration forms when a voter is not already on the rolls. The Hubbard County case now stands as a test of whether officials see the breach as one judge’s lapse or a warning about how closely precinct procedures are being enforced.