MANKATO — Shawn Scott Deatley decided November’s presidential election was too important to miss, but he said he didn’t realize his decision to vote then would result in a criminal charge nearly a year later.

Deatley, 30, of Mankato is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 26 for a felony charge of being an ineligible voter who knowingly votes.

He had been convicted of a felony charge of third-degree burglary in 2005 and hadn’t had his civil rights restored before the November election, according to the criminal complaint Deatley received in the mail recently.

“I was very surprised,” he said. “I honestly don’t know what to expect. I’m hoping to wait until I go to court so I can talk to the prosecutor and see what can be done.”

After Deatley pleaded guilty to the burglary, he received a stayed sentence. He thought, since his sentence was stayed, he still had a right to vote, he said.

Convicted felons, even those with stayed sentences, lose their right to vote until they complete their probation requirements, said Chris Rovney, assistant Blue Earth County attorney. Deatley finished his probation May 8, six months after the election.

Rovney also said this is the first time he’s ever charged someone for voting as a felon.

“It’s very, very rare,” he said. “Most people are good about that.”

If Deatley already had been registered to vote, he would have been turned away before he ever got to the voting booth, said Patty O’Connor, Blue Earth County elections director. Lists of convicted felons are sent to county voting officials to be compared to voting lists. Anyone convicted of a felony is flagged on the registration lists signed by voters at the polls.

“The election judges check the list to see if the voter is a felon,” O’Connor said. “If they are, then it is challenged and the election judge asks them about it at the polling place.”

In Deatley’s case, however, he wasn’t a registered voter. He registered the day of the election. So the judges at his polling place didn’t have his name on their voter lists.

O’Connor didn’t discover Deatley had registered and voted until his name showed up on a registration list after the election. She sent the information to the county attorney’s office and a Blue Earth County sheriff’s deputy was asked to investigate.

The deputy checked the state’s voter registration system and got copies of the paperwork showing Deatley had registered and voted. His investigation was completed in July and the charge was filed last week.

O’Connor said posters reminding felons they are not eligible to vote are sent to the county’s probation officers. She asks them to hang the posters in their offices.

She also supports a push to have electronic registration at polling sites so judges can have instant access to a state data base with voter information. With that type of registration system, ineligible voters can be identified as soon as they register.

Deatley said he’s wishing now that he would have been stopped in November. The election was important to him and he wanted to vote, but it wasn’t important enough to face the possibility of having another felony on his record, he said.

“It probably would have still bothered me if they turned me away, but I would have understood,” he said. “I understand rules are rules, but I guess I just didn’t understand what the rules were.”