Forged signatures on absentee ballot applications that led to criminal charges against a Centerline nursing home employee has resulted in a guilty plea and jail time, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced. Last year, Trenae Myesha Rainey, 28, was charged with the following in Macomb County’s 37th District Court:
- three counts of election law forgery, five-year felonies; and
- three counts of forging signature on absentee ballot applications, five-year felonies.
Wednesday afternoon before District Court Judge Michael Chupa, Rainey pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of making a false statement in an absentee ballot application. Because the convictions were for misdemeanors, the Court had the authority to do an immediate sentencing. Judge Chupa sentenced Rainey to two years’ probation, with the first 45 days to be served in the Macomb County Jail.
In October 2020, the Centerline Clerk contacted the Michigan Bureau of Elections after a stack of roughly two dozen absentee voter applications were dropped off for processing. While crosschecking the signatures on the applications with voter signatures in the Qualified Voter File, the clerk noticed the signatures did not match. A team of Department of Attorney General investigators began examining the matter in November 2020. The applications came from an assisted-living facility in the area — Father Murray Nursing Home. It was further determined the applications were for residents who had not yet told staff if they wished to vote in the 2020 General Election. Instead, investigators determined Rainey, who worked at the nursing home, did not contact the residents as set by procedure and instead filled out the applications and forged the residents’ signature to each application. She then turned the applications over to another employee who was instructed to deliver the applications to the Centerline Clerk. Ultimately, the Department charged her on three of the applications.
