Former elections director pleads guilty to federal charge

Former Florence County Voter Registration and Elections Director Mike Young has pleaded guilty to charges of converting more than $40,000 in disability benefits from the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board to his own use.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Day said Young, who made his plea in federal court Monday morning, has agreed to pay restitution of $40,587.54.

Young, 54, said he decided to change his plea after discussions between the federal public defender and Day’s office.

“I never, ever took or profited from a single cent that I was not entitled to,” he said in a telephone interview Monday.

Young will be sentenced after probation officers prepare a presentence report, which will include sentencing guidelines.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said Young collected retirement benefits based on claims that he had been unable to earn income from February 2006 to August 2007, when he served as assistant and then interim county elections director.

Young previously pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The maximum penalty for Young’s charge is a fine of $250,000 and 10 years in prison. The sentencing guidelines likely will be lower in this case, however, because of factors including the amount of money involved, Day said.

Steve Love, who had served as a technician and programs the county’s voting machines, is serving as the county’s interim director of voter registration and elections.

Young was indicted April 23, at a point less than two months before the June 10 Democratic and Republican primaries.

The elections commission voted at that time to retain Young as director, but in late May suspended Young without pay. On July 10, the commission dismissed Young from his job.

The federal investigation began based on an anonymous complaint attached to a Morning News profile of Young from Aug. 13, 2007, Day said.

Young spent 23 years working for the railroad — including Southern Railroad in Columbia and Amtrak in Florence — and became general chairman of the Amtrak clerks union before taking early retirement in 1996, he said in an interview last year.

Young stopped receiving an annuity from the railroad after notifying the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board of his $60,000-a-year elections director job, which exceeded the earnings limitation for disability benefits, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office press release.

The board, instead of the Social Security Administration, offers retirement, disability, survivor, unemployment and sickness benefits to railroad workers and their families.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office also stated that Young ran a voting machine consulting business during the time he claimed the benefits. Young worked as interim elections director through a contract with his consulting firm, Southern Terminal LLC.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office press release Young failed to report his earnings as interim director, which exceeded the railroad board’s limitation for disability benefits.

The press release also stated that Young, in an interview with railroad board and FBI special agents, “initially attempted to deny that he had been working but when confronted with his employment records admitted that he defrauded (the board) of disability annuity funds and that he knew his actions were illegal and a crime.”

Young first served as a Florence County poll worker in 1985 and became a precinct clerk in 1988. He worked as the county’s election equipment technician from 2001 to 2006.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board’s Office of the Inspector General.