A year ago this week, Hudson resident Grace Gato was spending her days caring for her terminally ill mother while trying to balance family, work and personal pursuits.
One of her mother's final requests, Gato said recently, was to get an absentee ballot "so she could vote one last time." But she died before she was able to cast the ballot, triggering a series of events that led to Gato being charged with one count of wrongful voting, a Class A misdemeanor offense.
According to Attorney General John Formella and Election Law Unit chief Brendan O'Donnell, the complaint accuses Gato of submitting an absentee ballot application for the Nov. 5, 2024, state election "using the name of her recently deceased mother," and that Gato "separately applied for, and cast," an absentee ballot in her own name for the same election.
Upon learning that Hudson Police had a warrant for her arrest, Gato said she turned herself in at police headquarters last week, where she was booked on the charge and released on personal recognizance bail. She is scheduled to appear in Nashua district court on Monday, Nov. 3, for arraignment.
Gato, a writer, journalist, and full-time caregiver from the Los Angeles area who has lived in Hudson for about a decade, said she never submitted an absentee ballot "using the name of her recently deceased mother."
Instead, after her mother passed, Gato wanted to pay tribute to her mother's "passion (for) civic engagement" and her desire to "vote one last time."
Gato said she decided to fulfill that desire by obtaining an absentee ballot and burying it with her mother "as a symbolic way to honor her (mother's) last wish."
Gato went to Town Hall to request a ballot for that purpose, she said, noting that the clerk who she spoke with "was short with me ... she said the ballot would be mailed." But the ballot "never arrived," Gato said. She said she never followed up because the family changed their plans and had her mother cremated in her native California.
Why it took investigators so long to issue an arrest warrant for Gato isn't known. But for Gato, it comes at a difficult time -- two days after the first anniversary of her mother's death, Gato said. She's also in the midst of selling her home and moving, as well as "managing ongoing family court disputes" over the custody of her son.
That, and the hostility she said she faced from a clerk at Town Hall, "has made this (ordeal) especially painful."
Hudson Town Clerk Michelle Brewster said Monday that she and Town Administrator Roy Sorenson are "well aware of the allegations" against Gato and that the case is under investigation by the AG's Office.
Because it's a pending criminal matter, Brewster said she is "not able to comment on the case."
She did say that town officials "are cooperating with the Department of Justice ... " and that to the best of our knowledge," the alleged incident "had no impact on the 2024 election."
Sorenson didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
To Gato, having the charge lodged against her "feels targeted and cruel, especially given the timing. The stress has been immense, and this criminal charge feels like an unnecessary and vindictive blow during one of the hardest chapters of my life," she added.