Wisconsin man accused of improperly casting November 2020 election ballot in Illinois

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a Kenosha, Wisconsin, man accused of perjury for allegedly driving to Illinois to cast a ballot in the November 2020 election.

Robert J. Sandy, of Kenosha, is charged in McHenry County with a single count of perjury under the state’s election code, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday. The 50-year-old is accused of signing a ballot application that falsely claimed he lived at a McHenry address for 30 or more days before the election, according to the complaint.

The offense is a felony typically punishable by as many as five years in prison.

Prosecutors in DuPage County filed similar charges against five people in March and another in June, according to news releases.

Reached by phone Thursday, McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally declined to comment on specifics. Kenneally, however, indicated that other investigations were ongoing.

The allegations against Sandy are similar to claims made in a Twitter thread posted from an account using Sandy’s name.

On Nov. 6, 2020, the account tagged U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, a Naperville Democrat, in a post that later resurfaced in January when her opponent unsuccessfully challenged the race’s outcome.

“While I now live in Kenosha, WI, I never felt secure enough with the system, nor with my ability to maintain a life here, to attempt to change my voter registration from IL-14 prior to the election,” the tweet read. “It was also very important to me that I vote for @LaurenUnderwood again.”

The same Twitter user also claimed they “got up early on Tuesday and traversed the 45 miles between my new home and my old one in order to have that privilege.”

Representatives from Underwood’s office could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

The Twitter thread resurfaced when 14th Congressional District candidate Jim Oberweis challenged the race’s outcome.

“To think that a voter drove from his home in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to vote on election day in McHenry County and it was allowed to happen calls into question the integrity of the election,” Oberweis said in a Jan. 4 news release. “We are a nation of rules and laws, they need to be followed and enforced.”

Underwood spokeswoman Andra Belknap dismissed Oberweis’ maneuver at the time as “legal bluster.”

Underwood defeated Oberweis by more than 5,300 votes in November to win a second term.

Now, more than a year after the 2020 election, it’s too late to contest those results, Illinois State Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich said. In any event, one allegedly fraudulent vote wouldn’t be enough to initiate a recount, Dietrich said.

Sandy was not in police custody as of Thursday evening. An attempt to reach him by phone was unsuccessful.