GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. — A northern Minnesota woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to voter fraud and was ordered to read a book and write a 10-page essay about the importance of democratic elections.
Danielle Christine Javorina, 51, of rural Nashwauk, admitted to filling out an absentee ballot in the name of her recently deceased mother ahead of the 2024 general election.
Javorina, according to court documents, later told an investigator her mother was an “avid Donald Trump supporter” who hoped to vote for the Republican presidential nominee. The fraudulent submission was flagged by election officials before it could be counted.
Under questioning from Itasca County prosecutor Courtney Beck, the defendant said she received ballots for herself and her mother in the mail just weeks after Rose Marie Javorina’s death.
“Did you also fill out your mother’s ballot?” the prosecutor asked.
“Yes, at her request,” Javorina replied. “That was the last thing she said to me.”
Javorina, however, asserted that she has no recollection of mailing the ballots back to the elections office due to intoxication. For that reason, she entered a Norgaard plea to a felony count of signing a false election certificate — acknowledging that the evidence would be sufficient for a judge or jury to find her guilty.
The Itasca County Auditor’s Office said it received sealed ballot envelopes containing signatures for both on Oct. 7, 2024. But a routine check of the Minnesota Vital Statistics death report showed that Rose Javorina had died Aug. 31.
Authorities noted the envelopes contained sections to be filled out by the voter and a witness. The voter must certify that they “meet all legal requirements to vote” as of Election Day, and the witness must provide their name and address and certify that the ballot was filled out by the voter.
The defendant, then named Danielle Miller, was listed as the witness on her mother’s ballot, and the deceased woman was listed as the witness on Miller’s, according to a criminal complaint. Both listed their street address as County Road 54, north of Nashwauk.
The Itasca County Sheriff’s Office reviewed the signatures and determined they appeared similar, as well as matching the signature on the daughter’s driver’s license. Absentee ballots had been mailed Sept. 20, about three weeks after Rose Javorina’s death.
Two additional charges were dismissed by the Itasca County Attorney’s Office under the terms of the plea agreement, which were accepted by Judge Heidi Chandler at a hearing conducted via Zoom.
Javorina will spend up to three years on supervised probation, undergo a psychological evaluation, and pay an $885 fine and any restitution.
She agreed to read the book “Thank You for Voting: The Maddening, Enlightening, Inspiring Truth About Voting in America” by Erin Geiger Smith and write a 10-page paper about “the importance of voting in a democracy and how election fraud can undermine the voting process.”
Successful completion of probation will result in the conviction being deemed a misdemeanor.
Javorina was tearful as she answered questions about the circumstances of the crime. She declined to make a statement before receiving her sentence.
Defense attorney Justin Braulick called it an isolated “lapse in judgment,” noting his client has no criminal history and is not a frequent drinker. He said she lost both parents in 2024.
“She’s taking full responsibility for her actions,” Braulick said. “She was obviously going through an emotional time, and oftentimes in these cases emotions can get the best (of someone). People don’t think clearly, and it sometimes makes it hard to remember all of what happened.”
Voter fraud has been a major talking point in recent elections, as Trump has pushed false and misleading claims of widespread impropriety since he first ran in 2016. However, experts say cases are exceedingly rare and there is no evidence of systematic fraud.
After the 2020 election, the Associated Press found fewer than 475 possible instances among 25.5 million votes cast in six swing states. The conservative Heritage Foundation maintains a database with just 1,600 “proven instances of voter fraud” nationwide over several decades — including 138 cases in Minnesota from 2004 to 2022.
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