Terri Rote has been charged with voter fraud in Iowa after attempting to vote twice for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Polk County prosecutors charged Rote with election misconduct, a Class D felony. Rote, 55, appeared to admit to the incident, saying that the "polls are rigged," reported Iowa Public Radio.
"I wasn't planning on doing it twice; it was spur of the moment," Rote said, according to Iowa Public Radio. The woman told the broadcaster that she feared that her first ballot for Trump would be changed for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee.
The Des Moines Register reported that Rote was booked about 3:40 p.m. Thursday after casting an early ballot at the Polk County Election Office and then again at a county satellite location in Des Moines.
Authorities told the newspaper that Rote was one of three voting fraud suspects in the county reported by the Polk County Auditor's Office. The two other suspects are accused of voting with mail-in ballots and then voting a second time in person, according to police reports.
Those suspects have not been arrested as of Friday, reported the Register. Rote was released on Friday on a $5,000 bond and could serve five years in prison if convicted, Iowa Public Radio said.
"I think in the 25-plus years that I've been doing this job, this maybe the third [time] we've had some irregularity that's resulted in a criminal charge," Polk County Attorney John Sarcone told Iowa Public Radio.
"People aren't voting more than once. And if they do, or attempt to do it, they will get caught because there are safeguards in place....We want everybody to exercise their right to vote, but only once," he added.
Trump has been warning his followers about "rigged polls" in weeks leading up to the election, The Guardian noted. The candidate's adviser Roger Stone plans to lead his own exit polling in 600 precincts in Democratic-leaning cities with high minority populations on Election Day, the Guardian said.
Stone told The Guardian earlier this month that about 1,600 volunteers will conduct exit polling in locations like Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Fort Lauderdale, Charlotte, North Carolina, among others.
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