Making dog a voter won’t mean jail

SEATTLE A woman who registered her dog to vote has accepted a one-year deferred prosecution.

Jane Balogh, 66, of Federal Way can get the charge of making a false or misleading statement to a public servant removed from her record by doing 10 hours of community service, paying a $250 fine and avoiding any violation of the law for the next year, King County District Judge Mariane Spearman said Wednesday.

Balogh registered her Australian shepherd-terrier mix, Duncan M. McDonald, to vote in April 2006 by putting her telephone in the dog’s name and using that as identification when she mailed the form to election officials. She said she did it to protest a change in the law that she believed made it too easy for noncitizens to vote.

Duncan was removed from the voter rolls in July, three weeks after the charge was filed against Balogh.