Montgomery County poll worker acquitted of 2024 election misconduct
A Montgomery County man accused of interfering in ballot counting during the 2024 election has been acquitted at trial.
Democrat Joey Norris, 46, was charged with felony election misconduct in June, more than a year after he was ordered removed from absentee ballot counting in November 2024 over disputes with Republican County Auditor Jill Ozuna.
Joey Norris and defense attorney Gina Messamer pose for a photo at the Montgomery County Courthouse.
The case went to trial last week, and the jury returned a not-guilty verdict Oct. 8. It was yet another loss for Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird in her office's attempts to prosecute election misconduct.
The complaint against Norris alleges that while working as an election official, he "did act in a manner that hindered the fair, orderly, and efficient administration of the election and counting of the absentee ballots on election day."
In pretrial filings, defense attorney Gina Messamer argued the state was seeking to criminalize routine disagreements about election procedures.
"The charge against Mr. Norris is based on nothing more than his verbal conduct as a member of the Absentee Board," she wrote. "The government essentially complains that Mr. Norris cared too much about following the rules."
Why was Norris charged?
According to Messamer, Norris repeatedly disagreed with Ozuna on how to handle provisionally rejected ballots, but did not shout or raise his voice. Ozuna eventually ordered Norris removed from the room, and he left voluntarily, according to his attorney.
Bird's office prosecuted the case as she continues to make election misconduct cases a major focus, but with limited successful prosecutions. Bird has charged at least eight people with voting as non-citizens, of whom one has been convicted and three acquitted at trial.
Norris' case adds another acquittal to that list, which was pointed out by Bird's election challenger, Nate Willems, in an Oct. 9 debate on Iowa Press.
Bird spokeswoman Jen Green said the case was investigated by law enforcement and referred to the attorney general for prosecution.
"Although we are disappointed with the verdict, we respect the jury’s decision.”
Attorney alleges politicization
Messamer, after the verdict, noted the string of acquittals in election cases and said in an email that "the AG's office is spending a lot of taxpayer money harassing innocent people."
She questioned Bird's broader push to prosecution election fraud, as well as her motivations in Norris' specific case.
"The Trump administration and AG Brenna Bird have tried to scare the public about election misconduct," she said. "But as it turns out, there isn’t actually any. It’s a complete boogeyman. … I never had a question that Joey would be acquitted, because all he had done was try to follow the rulebook. It is ridiculous to criminally prosecute election workers who are volunteering their time and trying to do things right."
"This case is particularly troubling because it appears to be politically motivated. The timing is very suspicious," she continued. "The charge against Joey was filed over a year and a half after the election, only one week after FBI Director Kash Patel visited AG Brenna Bird. No one from law enforcement or the AG’s office ever talked to the witnesses — or to Joey to get his side of the story — before filing the charge. This came completely out of nowhere and was entirely unsupported."
Green, in response, said Messamer's accusations of bias are "absurd, baseless, and absolutely ridiculous."
