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2 Bucks County women face voter-fraud charges in separate incidents

The women allegedly submitted ballots in the names of their recently deceased mothers.

File photo of election workers processing mail-in and absentee ballots for the 2020 general election in Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
File photo of election workers processing mail-in and absentee ballots for the 2020 general election in Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)Read moreMatt Slocum / AP

Two Bucks County women face voter-fraud charges in separate cases for allegedly trying to cast absentee ballots in the names of their recently deceased mothers, District Attorney Matt Weintraub said Friday.

Danielle Elaine Dooner, 56, of Buckingham Township, and Melissa Ann Fisher, 51, of Quakertown, are expected to be charged by summons with third-degree misdemeanor violations of provisions relating to absentee and mail-in ballots.

Weintraub said his office did not know the voter registrations of the women or for whom they intended to vote. Weintraub said the ballots were never opened or counted.

According to voter records, Fisher is registered as a Democrat, and Dooner is a Republican.

Weintraub said in a statement that detectives investigated 22 complaints ranging from residency issues to ballot tampering and found no “widespread or systematic election fraud here in Bucks County.”

Reached by phone Friday night, Fisher said the ballot had been prepared for her ailing mother, but she died on Sept. 2, about six weeks before Election Day. The ballot was mailed by accident, she added.

“It was not anything intentional,” Fisher said.

She said that rather than fight the case she had agreed to plead guilty to the third-degree misdemeanor and be sentenced to a year of probation so she could move on with her life.

Weintraub, however, alleged that Fisher signed the declaration on the ballot she obtained on Oct. 7 as her deceased mother.

A handwriting analysis confirmed that Fisher’s mother did not sign either the application or the ballot and those documents were signed by Fisher after her mother had died, Weintraub said.

Dooner could not be reached for comment Friday night.

Weintraub said Dooner’s mother died on Sept. 29 and that Dooner allegedly signed the declaration on the ballot she obtained purporting to be her mother on Oct. 7.

A handwriting analysis confirmed that Dooner’s mother did not sign either the application or the ballot and those documents were signed by Dooner after her mother had died, Weintraub said.