Upstate N.Y. GOP election official to plead guilty in brazen ballot scheme: report

Tim Balk, New York Daily News
Updated ·2 min read
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The Republican elections board commissioner in Rensselaer County, N.Y., is scheduled to plead guilty after he was accused of carrying out a brazen scheme that allowed him to cast votes in other voters’ names, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.

Jason Schofield, 43, of Troy, is scheduled to plead guilty on Jan. 11, in an agreement that contains a promise to cooperate with a sprawling federal probe, the Albany Times Union reported, citing an anonymous source.

A Dec. 13 entry on the case’s court docket set a “change of plea hearing” for Jan. 11, but did not indicate how Schofield planned to plead. He was arrested on a 12-count indictment in September.

Court papers allege that Schofield had applied for absentee ballots for voters who did not want to vote. In some instances, he personally pushed voters to sign absentee ballot envelopes, positioning himself or his associates to commit voter fraud in primary and general elections last year, according to court documents.

Ballots were counted from at least four voters who were instructed to sign ballot envelopes but were not allowed to complete them, court papers said.

The Rensselaer County elections board is located in Troy, about seven miles northeast of downtown Albany.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Albany declined to comment on Wednesday.

Danielle Neroni, Schofield’s lawyer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story, but told the Times Union that her client would “be resigning from his position” along with his planned change of plea.

After Schofield’s arrest, Neroni initially told the Daily News that the official maintained his innocence.

Earlier this year, the Times Union reported that Schofield had been subpoenaed in connection with a sprawling investigation that also led a Troy city councilwoman to plead guilty to a count of identity theft.

Rensselaer County, a swing county, went for former President Donald Trump in the 2016 election and President Biden in 2020.