Dai Thao faces charges for unlawfully assisting an elderly voter

St. Paul City Council member Dai Thao is facing three criminal charges in connection with an incident at the polls in the November election.

A criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court says that Thao approached a woman at her St. Paul home, drove her to the polls at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in St. Paul, and then filled out her ballot for her, after indicating where his name was on the ballot.

Election judges reported the incident to Ramsey County elections officials, and election manager Joe Mansky filed a complaint with St. Paul police. State law prohibits candidates from directly assisting voters, and Thao was running for mayor at the time.

Since Thao was a city council member, the matter was turned over to the Hennepin County Sheriff for investigation, to avoid a conflict of interest. The results of the investigation were turned over to the Dakota County attorney for a charging decision — Thao's former campaign manager was an employee of the Ramsey County attorney's office.

Thao faces a gross misdemeanor charge for unlawfully marking a ballot, and misdemeanor charges for polling place misconduct and unlawfully assisting a voter. It's the second time he's been under criminal investigation, following bribery probe last year. He was not charged in that incident.

Thao issued a statement through his attorney, former federal prosecutor Joe Dixon, saying Thao did help an elderly Hmong woman vote. But Thao says in the statement that the charges were unfair and he was only trying to assist a disabled neighbor who did not speak English.

"I'm an Eagle Scout and community organizer. My whole life has been about helping people, and my adult life has been about breaking down the barriers that keep people from making government respond to their needs by casting their votes," Thao said.

He's scheduled to be in court on the charges March 6.