Oakdale Man Charged with Voting While Ineligible

An Oakdale man has been charged with voting in the November 2008 general election, even though he is a convicted felon and was ineligible to do so.

Jason Carleton Wood, 32, faces a felony count of voting as an ineligible voter, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint against Wood, filed in Washington County District Court in Stillwater, the county’s elections division last summer forwarded a list of apparently ineligible voters who nevertheless voted in the November 2008 general election to the Washington County attorney’s office.

That information was subsequently forwarded to the Oakdale Police Department, which concluded that Wood should not have voted in 2008.

Wood was convicted in May 2008 in Washington County of failure to register as a predatory offender and was placed on probation. He remains on felony probation, according to court documents.

Records provided by the county elections division show that Wood voted in Oakdale’s third precinct.

An Oakdale police investigator questioned Wood in March, and he admitted that he had voted in 2008. Wood told the investigator that he knew he wasn’t allowed to possess a firearm, but wasn’t aware that he was ineligible to vote.

An omnibus hearing in Wood’s case is scheduled Sept. 22 in Stillwater.