I’ve been following the voter registration fraud allegations in Daggett County, Utah, with some interest recently. In a recent sheriff election, a challenger beat the incumbent by 20 votes of the 594 votes cast; not surprisingly the losing incumbent challenged the outcome of the election, and one of the allegations involved a number of supposedly fraudulent voter registrations.

Recently, three of those charged in the case pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, were fined $500 and had their jail time waived. And now The Salt Lake Tribune reports that 28 of the 51 defendants in the case will have their misdemeanor charges waived if they don’t commit any additional crimes in the next six months.

Most of these defendants who saw their charges waived involved people who did not live in Daggett County but who were told, for various reasons, that they could register and vote in the county:

Defendant Patricia Moore agreed to a diversion pact Friday. She and her husband and other family members live along the Wasatch Front but spend half their time at a second home in Daggett County.
“I’m not thrilled with it. But it’s over, and we didn’t have to pay for an attorney.”
Moore said Daggett County officials told her that she could vote in the county – as long as it was the only place she voted.
“I think this is a face-saving measure,” she said of Friday’s action.
Another person to take a diversion agreement Friday was Sarah Ellsworth, the sheriff’s niece. She conceded she didn’t live in Daggett County, but said at the time of the election, she was contemplating moving to the area.
Assistant A.G. Pat Nolan told the judge that the diversion agreements were the best way to deal with defendants who didn’t live in the county but who believed they had been advised they could vote in Daggett anyway.