Dog off voter rolls

SEATTLE – Duncan M. McDonald is finally off the King County voter rolls after three elections in which the Australian shepherd-terrier mix was sent absentee ballots.

Elections Director Sherril Huff said she canceled the voter registration Tuesday for the dog owned by Jane K. Balogh, 66, of Federal Way, who registered her pet to protest a change in the law that she said made it too easy for noncitizens to cast ballots.

Balogh put her telephone in the dog’s name, then used that as identification when she mailed in the registration form in April 2006. In November she wrote “VOID” across Duncan’s ballot and returned it with an image of a paw print on the signature line.

An election official called and she admitted what she had done, but the dog still was sent absentee ballots for school bond elections in February and May.

Balogh was with making a false or misleading statement to a public servant, a misdemeanor.