The Jefferson County District Court has selected a date for a pre-trial hearing and a jury trial for the McKenrick vs. state of Montana case.
During the Nov. 30 preliminary hearing, Tim McKenrick, runner-up in the Republican primary election for state House District 75, and his counsel will discuss whether the state has probable cause to charge McKenrick for a single felony count of deceptive election practices.
If the state can prove it has sufficient evidence, the case will be brought before a jury on Dec. 21. McKenrick will also have the opportunity to reaffirm or alter his “not guilty” plea during the hearing.
McKenrick faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in state prison, a $50,000 fine or both.
Katherine Stein, deputy clerk for the district court, told The Monitor that “anything can happen” at the hearing. Stein described the preliminary hearing as a time to make sure that a trial by jury is in fact necessary.
McKenrick was charged with a single count of felony voter fraud on May 24 after allegedly falsifying a signature on his mail-in ballot for the May 3 Jefferson High School Board of Trustees election. The charging documents state that McKenrick claimed to have falsified the signature to “test the system.”
When McKenrick turned in his ballot to JHS Business Manager Lori Carey, he expressed opposition to language on the envelope asking voters to affirm with their signature that they are voting only once and only for themselves.
“I understand that failure to complete the signature information may invalidate my ballot,” the probable cause affidavit says McKenrick told Carey. McKenrick then told her that it should say “… shall invalidate my ballot.”
Hours after allegedly forging the signature on his ballot, McKenrick participated in a candidate forum. During the forum McKenrick said, “you wouldn’t be able to read mine. There’s too many people that can forge really well.”
The affidavit goes on to explain that McKenrick admitted to Jefferson County Election Administrator Ginger Kunz that he intentionally forged his signature to verify that signatures were checked — an act that qualifies as felony deceptive election practices.
