Woman who threw out dead mother

A Minnesota woman convicted of completing and mailing a mail-in ballot for her deceased mother in support of Republican Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential election was ordered by a judge to write an essay and read a book about the importance of voting to democracy.

Itasca County Prosecutor Jake Fauchald said the Minnesota case shows how well the election system works and detects attempts at voter fraud.

Danielle Christine Miller, 51, of Nashwauk, in a rural area about three hours north of Minneapolis, was charged last fall with three felonies after local election officials notified authorities in October about two absentee votes that had been flagged as fraud.

One of them was from a registered voter who had died, Miller’s mother.

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According to court documents, Miller told an investigator that he had filled out his mother’s absentee ballot and signed his mother’s name on the envelope. He said his mother was an avid Trump supporter and wanted to vote for him, but died in August 2024 before receiving an absentee ballot, according to the complaint. Miller also said he signed his mother’s signature as a witness on his own ballot, according to the document.

Miller pleaded guilty last week to intentionally making or signing a false certificate. As part of her plea, she claimed she was intoxicated while mailing the ballots and couldn’t precisely remember what she did, but agreed the evidence could convict her, Fauchald said.

A message left with Miller’s attorney was not immediately returned.

Minnesota’s Ninth Judicial District Judge Heidi Chandler on Wednesday dismissed the other two charges. Miller’s sentence includes up to three years of supervised probation and an $885 fine.

The judge also imposed some other unorthodox conditions.

Miller should read a book about the history of voting in America and related current issues, “Thank You for Voting: The Maddening, Enlightening, and Inspiring Truth about Voting in America,” by Erin Geiger Smith; and was ordered to write a 10-page article “on the importance of voting in a democracy and how voter fraud can undermine the voting process.”

Fauchald said the sentence is a fair result. He called the document a unique aspect of the ruling, but a fair expectation.

“I think the sentence that was imposed here is designed in large part to help her better understand the importance of those things and make sure that she (and frankly not other people) don’t take the same type of actions in the future,” the prosecutor said.

Dura reported from Bismarck, North Dakota.