Louisiana Official Probed for Keeping Private Voting Machine

MARRERO, Louisiana – A Louisiana official is now under investigation after authorities seized a private voting machine in his office.

Jefferson Parish Registrar of Voters Dennis DiMarco is being investigated for having a private voting machine in his office, which he said was purely for the convenience of important individuals who did not have time to wait in early voting lines.

“It’s really a convenience for those whose time is, for lack of a better word, maybe more valuable than others,” DiMarco told WWL-TV.

“This was not a way of allowing a fraudulent vote or anything like that,” DiMarco continued. “It was merely a convenience for people that we feel and the law allows the privilege to go to the head of the line.”

The voting machine, which has since been seized by the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office, was reportedly located in DiMarco’s private conference room at his office.

High-profile local attorney Robert Evans actually admitted that he had just used the machine to vote in the 2016 presidential election and found it troubling, therefore reported to the Secretary of State’s office.

“His office staff said he keeps two actual machines to himself, next to his office, so they escorted me to a secret room, next to his office, where there are two machines that are not available to the public,” Evans told WWL-TV.

“That causes great concern,” Evans continued. “How he uses these machines when the court’s closed and the people aren’t around?”

Tom Schedler, the Louisiana Secretary of State, sent a letter to DiMarco about the voting machine after he received a complaint about the issue.

“Action is necessary to preserve the integrity of early voting and to promote confidence within the general public regarding the voting process,” Schedler said in the letter to DiMarco upon seizing the voting machine, along with the list of signatures of individuals who had voted using it.

DiMarco insists the private voting machine is “not a big issue” because his office has handed the machine over to the Secretary of State’s office.

Meanwhile, early voting in the heavily pro-Donald Trump state has shattered previous records, with early votes up by 67 percent just within the first three days, as Breitbart Texas reported.

John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.