OKLAHOMA CITY –The Oklahoma Multi-County Grand Jury indicted a woman on a felony count of voting twice during the statewide general election last November. However, 38 other potential violations of state election laws – including 26 other potential instances of double voting – also were reported during that election.
Victoria Vincenza Dill, 31, is accused of voting illegally in the Nov. 5 election. The Oklahoma State Election Board discovered Dill voted in person in Oklahoma County and submitted an absentee ballot in Payne County on the same day.
The general election ballot included president/vice president, state leaders such as corporation commissioner, U.S. representatives, state senators and representatives, judges, and state questions, noted Misha Mohr, the agency’s director of communications and public information.
Title 26, Section 16-102 of the Oklahoma Statutes decrees, “Any person who votes more than once at any election … shall be deemed guilty of a felony.” Dill could be imprisoned for up to five years and/or fined $50,000 if convicted of the crime.
“The integrity of our elections is fundamental to ensuring every vote counts,” Attorney General Gentner Drummond said. “Every illegal vote … undermines public confidence in our elections.”
More than three dozen other alleged voting crimes occurred during the November 2024 General Election, Mohr told Southwest Ledger. “This may not be a comprehensive list,” she said. “However, these are the alleged crimes that were reported to the appropriate district attorney, the attorney general, or the U.S. Attorney.”
Those incidents included:
• Possible double voter: Cleveland County (15 cases), Canadian County (five), Carter County (two instances), and Tulsa, Creek, Major and McIntosh counties (one instance each).
• Potential voter registration violation: Canadian County (two instances) and McIntosh County (one).
• Application for absentee ballot submitted by an alleged felon: Dewey County (one). State Statutes, Title 26, Section 102.2, states that, “Any person who knowingly executes a false application for an absentee ballot shall be deemed guilty of a felony.”
• Alleged felon voter: Washington County (two instances) and Creek County (one). Title 26, Section 16-102, states, “Any person who, “knowing that he or she is not eligible to vote at an election, willfully votes at said election, shall be deemed guilty of a felony.”
• Possible noncitizen registration: Oklahoma County (three applicants). “I am not sure when these voter registration applications were submitted; however, letters were sent to the appropriate authorities” last November and December, Mohr said. Title 26, Section 103, states, “Any person who knowingly swears or affirms a false affidavit in order to become eligible to vote” has committed a felony offense.
• Noncitizen excused from jury duty: Texas and Garfield counties (one each). “These registered voters were identified as noncitizens after being excused from jury duty as noncitizens,” Mohr said. “Again, I am not sure when these voter registration applications were submitted; however, letters were sent to the appropriate authorities in October and December 2024.”
Voter ‘fraud’ cases are mere fraction of total votes cast The 39 suspected voting offenses reported in the 2024 General Election constituted 25 ten-thousandths of 1% of the 1,566,173 votes cast in the Presidential election, the contest that received the most votes.
The last time a major voter fraud case was reported in Oklahoma was in 2021, when the daughter of a former legislative leader pleaded “no contest” to a misdemeanor voter fraud charge arising from the 2020 General Election. She submitted an absentee ballot for her father 12 days after he died.
The woman pleaded guilty, received a deferred 60-day county jail sentence, a $10 fine and $466.50 in court costs.
After the Oklahoma State Election Board reviewed information it received from Oklahoma’s 77 county election boards, the total number of voter irregularities detected during the November 2020 statewide general election was set at 66, Mohr said.
They included a couple of reported cases in Payne County in which absentee ballots were returned by persons other than the voters themselves, contrary to state law.
Elsewhere in the state, Oklahoma County reported 19 cases of voter fraud; Tulsa County, eight cases; Pittsburg and Muskogee counties, four cases each; Cleveland, Delaware and Okmulgee counties, two cases each; and Grady, Mayes, Osage and Sequoyah counties, one case each.
“All of these alleged crimes involved voters who voted twice, unless otherwise noted,” Mohr said. “I should also add that many times, alleged ‘double voters’ are elderly citizens who don’t remember submitting their absentee ballots and show up at the polls on Election Day to vote.”
Those 66 incidents constituted .0042% of the 1.566 million votes cast in the Presidential race that year – 42 ten-thousandths of 1%.
Post-election audits have consistently proven that Oklahoma elections are safe and secure, State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax said last year. “The accuracy of Oklahoma election results has been confirmed, time and time again, through both manual post-election audits and candidate-requested recounts.”
Post-election audits were enacted by the state Legislature and implemented by the State Election Board in 2022 “for the purpose of maintaining the security of the election system…” Post-elections audits are defined as “a manual or electronic examination of a limited number of ballots.”