Minnesota election judge jailed after accepting ballots from unregistered voters

A Hubbard County election judge was ordered to serve 30 days in jail after admitting he accepted ballots from 11 unregistered voters during the Nov. 5, 2024 general election. Timothy M. Scouton, 65, of Nevis, had served as head election judge in Badoura Township, east of Park Rapids, when the mistake came to light. The court records and reports did not identify any local race outcome that changed because of the 11 ballots.

The case began when Hubbard County Auditor-Treasurer Kay Rave could not find completed registration forms for the 11 people who had voted. Court records say Rave emailed attorney Jonathan Frieden on Nov. 7, 2024, two days after the election, to flag the missing forms. Other election judges later told investigators that Scouton directed them not to use voter registration application forms and instead had voters sign “the back of the book.”

Scouton pleaded guilty on March 23, 2026, to one felony count of accepting the vote of an unregistered voter. A second charge of neglect of duty was dismissed under the plea agreement. Records show he had completed both basic election judge training and head judge training in July 2024, months before the election day errors surfaced.

Hubbard County District Court sentenced Scouton on June 16, 2026, to 30 days in Hubbard County Jail and gave him credit for four days already served. The Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office called election-related crimes rare and said it was unaware of any other case in which an election judge knowingly allowed people to vote without registering.

The state’s election manual says registration judges handle Election Day registration, and about 10 to 20 percent of Minnesota voters typically register that way. For Otter Tail County and nearby counties that rely on the same procedures, the case underscores how much rests on a simple paper trail, trained judges, and a county check of precinct materials. Officials said Scouton’s conduct was caught immediately, but the episode left a clear test for local election administrators: every voter who registers at the polls needs a completed form, and every precinct return needs to match the ballots it processed.