A Lackawanna County judge of elections and her son were charged Friday with election fraud and tampering with ballots on Election Day.
Kathie Sico, 67, and her son, Michael Sico, 46, who both live at the same Dunmore address, wrote her name on ballots so she could gain votes for judge of elections at one of Scranton’s Jackson Heights precincts, according to arrest affidavits.
County Detective Colleen Catanese charged both with fraud by election officers, interference with an election, forging and destroying ballots and tampering with a public record.
The ballots with Sico's name
Catanese found 35 of 141 valid ballots had Kathie Sico’s name written in the section for election a judge of elections and/or inspector of elections. Of five other ballots discarded because of “imperfections or issues with the voting,” two more had Sico’s name in the judges of election section, according to the affidavits.
County deputy sheriffs who investigated said Michael Sico told them “they were writing (his mother’s) name on the ballots because people were calling them and telling them to write her in.”
Sico admits writing name on ballots
In an interview, Kathie Sico “admitted to signing her name to ballots prior to voters receiving the ballots,” according to the affidavits.
She said she wrote on two ballots “because someone asked her to and then someone else came and took the ballot instead.”
“She went on to say that she thinks her son wrote on a couple as people were standing there asking them how to spell her last name,” Catanese wrote.
When Catanese told Kathie Sico she had information that she and her son wrote her name on multiple ballots, Sico said she didn’t do that “and if I did, I don’t remember.”
She said she didn’t know if her son wrote on ballots.
Sico blames medical condition
Sico “stated that she knows it looks like voter fraud, but she has had so much going on the past couple weeks with her medical condition that she didn’t even think,” Catanese wrote. “She confirmed that she got a call from someone at the elections (bureau) and asked her if she was writing names.”
She told her person, “Yes, I guess I screwed up, I did two names.”
In the same interview, she confirmed writing two names and seeing her son write her name but couldn’t recall how many ballots he wrote on. At the end of the day, her son couldn’t recall how many ballots he wrote her name on “because a lot of people asked for her name and they wrote it down too,” according to the affidavit.
The Facebook trigger
Elections officials learned of what happened from a Facebook post purporting to show a ballot with the judge’s name, District Attorney Brian Gallagher said last week.
“IS THIS LEGAL?” the poster wrote. “This is how my ballet was handed to me. When I told the person that handed it to me and told her I didn't write that name ... in judge of election, she told me she was (the judge of elections and) she wrote it because she's done the job for years but this year she didn't register in time so she wrote herself in on the ballets (sic).”
The Facebook poster declined to comment. County officials have said they would have no comment because of the investigation.
Judges of elections oversee polling places and take an oath to prevent voter fraud and ensure an accurate vote count.
Gallagher said the Sicos are expected to turn themselves in next week.
