A poll worker faces election fraud charges after county investigators said he tried to change people's votes on election day. Sean Stevens, 59, of Long Pond said he was just doing his job. Stevens faces felony fraud charges, after working the polls in Monroe County on election day.
He addressed the Monroe County elections board a few weeks after election day before the charges were filed.
"Had the machines been further apart, had people better knowledge of how to use the machines, there would have been less need, to me, to demonstrate," said Stevens.
Stevens was a machine inspector for the 2008 presidential election. Court papers say Stevens reached over the back of voting machines to change votes, and encouraged people to vote for Barack Obama. Stevens said that's impossible.
"The machines are just too high. You cannot look over unless you strain to do so," he said.
Video from the Tunkhannock Township polling place on election day shows a platform behind the machines, where workers can easily reach the top and into the voting machines.
According to court papers, Stevens was a voting machine inspector for three other elections prior to this one. But in November 2008, election officials asked him to leave before the day was over, after voters started complaining about his actions.
Elections director Sara May-Silfee spoke with Newswatch 16 late last year on what she'll do to make sure this doesn't happen again. "Direct judges of election to be aware of what's going on inside their polling place and that they're going to have to be more careful," said May-Silfee.
If convicted, Stevens could face up to nine years in prison.
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