The Slatest

Trump Supporter Voted Twice in Iowa Because “Polls Are Rigged”

Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally at Germain Arena in Estero, Florida, on Sept. 19.

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Donald Trump has been warning supporters left and right about the potential devastating consequences of voter fraud. But the first arrest for voter fraud in this election season is actually a staunch Trump supporter. Terri Rote, 55, was arrested on first-degree misconduct charges after she cast two ballots in the election. She was released on a $5,000 bond.

So why did Rote, a registered Republican, decide to cast two ballots? She was apparently afraid that her first ballot would be counted as a vote for Hillary Clinton. “I wasn’t planning on doing it twice, it was spur of the moment,” Rote told Iowa Public Radio. “The polls are rigged.”

Rote was one of three people who apparently tried to vote more than once in Polk County. The other two cases involve people who cast mail-in ballots and also tried to vote in person. The three cases marked “the first time in 12 years that Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald can remember ever having to report potential voter fraud,” reports the Des Moines Register. “I think it shows that our voting system works in Iowa, that we’re able to catch it,” Fitzgerald said.

Leigh Munsil, an editor at the Blaze, recalled on Twitter that she had posted a photo of Rote in February when she was caucusing for Trump. And the Iowa Starting Line blog took a look at Rote’s Facebook page and saw that she often posts and writes racist things.

Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 campaign.