Charleston, W.Va. — Secretary of State Mac Warner has announced the conviction of a former Morgantown resident who admitted to falsifying signatures in an effort to become a candidate for the Morgantown City Council in 2019.

Timothy Aaron Metz was the subject of an investigation after Morgantown election officials alerted the Secretary of State's Office that Metz may have falsified his candidate certificate of announcement, which in Morgantown requires signatures of a certain number of City residents. The investigation found 21 signatures on Metz's nominating petitions were fraudulent, including the signature of one deceased person.

In March, Metz withdrew from the Morgantown City election admitting that he "cut corners" in collecting the required signatures to get his name on the ballot. In September, Metz was indicted for election fraud by the Monongalia County grand jury.

Today before Monongalia County Circuit Court Judge Philip Gaujot, Metz pled guilty to one felony count of falsely filing a certification of nomination.

In return for the felony guilty plea, Monongalia County Prosecuting Attorney Perri DeChristopher and the court agreed to a pre-trial diversion and placed Metz under supervised probation for a period of 24 months.

"Election fraud at any level of government will never be tolerated in West Virginia," said Secretary of State Mac Warner. "Our office will continue to work closely with local election officials and county prosecutors to make sure election improprieties are properly investigated and those people found guilty are held accountable."

Warner said the situation with Metz was discovered by an alert election worker for the City of Morgantown. Warner thanked the City officials for quick action and working closely with the Secretary of State and Prosecuting Attorney DeChristopher on the matter.