After a five-day trial, a Palmer jury found 72-year-old John Irwin Barton, a registered Democrat from Wasilla, guilty of one count of perjury and two counts of voter misconduct in the first degree for offenses relating to the 2022 Matanuska-Susitna Borough election.
During the trial, prosecutors showed Barton, who is a former art instructor at Mat-Su College, had gone to two different polling places during the election and requested and received ballots for the same election.
At both places, Barton signed that, under penalty of perjury, “I have not and will not vote in any other manner in this election.” Borough elections officials discovered that Barton had received two ballots in the same election and reported the incident to the Alaska State Troopers, wrote the Department of Law.
In another voter misconduct case, former Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux of Anchorage, who is charged with numerous counts of felony-level voter registration fraud relating to trying to get herself reelected, has had her trial postponed yet again until November, while Barton’s case was quickly moved ahead. After being postponed up to four times, LeDoux’s trial almost proceeded in July, but then was postponed again for another several months, without adequate explanation to the public, other than that the prosecution had some new evidence against her. LeDoux’s former legislative aide has already signed a plea agreement that includes being willing to testify against her.
Like Barton, LeDoux was also a Democrat, but she switched parties in order to run in a conservative district in Anchorage.
Meanwhile, justice for Barton has been apace and sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 6, in Palmer in front of Superior Court Judge John Cagle, unless Barton appeals. He has been assigned a public defender. Barton faces a sentencing range of one to three years to serve on the perjury conviction and up to two years on each of the two voter misconduct convictions.
