In a state House district south of Helena, a Republican candidate has been charged after allegedly altering his signature on a ballot envelope in May. He claims to do so was to “test the system,” but all he tested was if he would be charged with a felony or not… He was.

On May 26, in Jefferson County District Court, Timothy D. McKenrick was charged with one count of deceptive election practices, first reported by The Boulder Monitor. He admitted that he had intentionally altered the signature on his ballot envelope.

The charge is being punishable by up to 10 years in prison and up to nearly $10,000 in fines.

Timothy McKenrick dropped his ballot off for the Jefferson County High School Board of Trustees election on May 3rd. He allegedly brought up the language on the affirmation envelope stating that “failure to complete the signature information may invalidate my ballot.” He said that it should use the word “shall” instead of “may,” which drew the official’s attention to his signature.

A comparison of his signatures which already existed on file did confirm that they didn’t match. On May 5th, the charges state McKenrick went back to the school and told an official “he had intentionally altered his signature to appear more closely to that he used when he was younger … to make sure the election workers were checking signatures.” McKenrick continued, “he would rather his vote not be counted than miss the opportunity to ‘test the system.’”

Events of fraud still remain rare.

This isn’t Timothy’s first run-in with the law. In 2008, he pled guilty to ten separate hunting violations. During this time, he was a part-time jailer and dispatcher for the county. In 2006 and 2007, he was accused of hinting without a license and using other tags.

He pleaded guilty in January 2008 and paid $4,000 in restitution in addition to fines, according to the justice court.