A Florida teen is accused of rigging a homecoming queen election, with her mother's help, and she is being charged as an adult. The girl, who just turned 18, and her mother, face multiple felony charges from the October homecoming vote at Tate High School in Pensacola. Here’s how it went down, according to investigators: the teen’s mother was an assistant principal at an elementary school in the same county, so she accessed the school district’s internal system to cast fraudulent votes for her daughter so that she would win.
Problem is, there were 117 votes from the same IP address within a short period of time. That’s when investigators found evidence of unauthorized access to the system linked to the mother’s cellphone and computers at her home. Ultimately, there were 246 votes cast for homecoming court from those devices.
The teen, and her mom, are charged with unlawful use of a two-way communications device; criminal use of personally identifiable information and conspiracy to commit those offenses. They each face a maximum 16-year sentence.