UNH student gets community service, $2G fine for 2016 voter fraud

CONCORD - A Massachusetts man has pleaded guilty to voter fraud in New Hampshire.

The state Attorney General's office today announced that Spencer McKinnon, 21, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in Strafford County Superior Court on Thursday to a single count of Class A misdemeanor charge of providing a false statement on a voter registration during the 2016 General Election.

According to court documents, McKinnon on Oct. 24, 2016, mailed a completed absentee ballot for the Nov. 6, 2016, general election.

McKinnon signed an affidavit on the absentee ballot envelope stating that he was eligible to vote in Massachusetts and that his hometown was Dracut. Just two days later, on October 26, signed and submitted a voter registration form in Durham, which contained false material information regarding his qualifications as a voter in New Hampshire, in that, he signed an affidavit, under the penalties of wrongful voting, that he was "not domiciled or voting in any other state or any other city/town."

McKinnon, who had been a UNH student, was sentenced to six months in the House of Corrections, all suspended for one year conditioned on the completion of 200 community service hours and paying a $2,000 fine. As part of the sentence, McKinnon has lost the right to vote in the State of New Hampshire.

McKinnon has agreed to cooperate as part of the terms of his plea agreement.

This is the first conviction as a result of investigations stemming from the Interstate Voter Crosscheck Program following the 2016 General Election.

In September a Hampton couple was charged with casting absentee ballots in New Hampshire while also voting in Massachusetts.

The case against McKinnon was prosecuted by Assistant Attorneys General Matthew T. Broadhead of the Election Law Unit and John J. Kennedy of the Criminal Justice Bureau. The Attorney General's investigation was conducted by Chief Investigator Richard Tracy of the Election Law Unit.