Ohio Republican official said he made ‘honest error’ in voting twice

A Republican Ohio government official admitted to forging his deceased father’s signature on an absentee ballot in the 2020 presidential election, calling his actions “an honest error.”

Edward Snodgrass, a Porter Township trustee, told NBC News that he had been signing documents on his father’s behalf for several years due his father breaking his arm.

“It was there with a pile of other paperwork,” Snodgrass said of the absentee ballot. “I was sleep-deprived and not thinking clearly. But I’m not going to run away from it.”

“I was simply trying to execute a dying man’s wishes,” he added, saying that it would be wrong to characterize what he did as “just Trump voter fraud.”

The forged signature was discovered when a Delaware County election worker questioned the ballot, leading to an investigation that revealed it had been mailed one day after the trustee’s father, H. Edward Snodgrass, had died.

Morrow County Assistant Prosecutor David Homer told NBC News that this was the first case of this nature that he was worked on.

Snodgrass was initially charged with illegal voting, a fourth-degree felony. However, as part of plea deal, he is expected to plead guilty to a reduced charge of falsification, serve three days in jail and pay a $500 fine, NBC reports. He is expected to be in court on July 9.

“It ain’t over till the guy pleads guilty, and that’s July the 9th,” Homer said.