A New Hampshire teen votes under his father’s name.

LONDONDERRY, N.H. (AP) – Mark Lacasse couldn’t wait to vote for President Bush in the New Hampshire primary. Too bad he’s only 17.

The Londonderry High School senior faces criminal charges that he improperly voted in the Jan. 27 GOP presidential primary in the school’s gym, using his father’s name. His dad was out of town at the time.

Police issued a warrant for Lacasse’s arrest last weekend, a few days after he hosted one of 141 statewide Bush get-out-the-vote campaign parties in his living room and showed photos from the president’s recent visit to Nashua. The party was aimed at getting young voters to the polls.

Lacasse, who declined to comment, faces charges of wrongful voting, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. He has a hearing scheduled for April 20 in Derry District Court.

John Michels, town elections moderator, chalks the flawed vote “more to the foolishness of youth, as opposed to any great evil intent.” But police say they aren’t taking the case lightly.

“While this looks like a childish prank, which it may well be, it’s a crime because it goes to the very heart of our democracy,” Londonderry Police Capt. William Hart said.

Michels says a school official alerted him to the botched ballot after reportedly overhearing Lacasse tell classmates he had voted in place of his dad. Michels eventually confronted the student, who admitted he voted.

Part of a senior government class at Londonderry High, Lacasse was one of several students allowed to hit the gym that day to vote provided they were eligible. But at 17, Lacasse remained a year short of that status. “I think he saw nothing wrong in what he did,” Michels said. “At that point, though, I’m required under law to file a report with the police.”

Michels said election officials are forbidden to require identification before handing out a ballot.

“As an election official, if I think he’s voting improperly I can challenge his vote, and he can just claim he’s registered here, write out an affidavit and then go vote,” Michels said. “But because of the election reforms largely spurred on by what had happened years ago in the South . . . election officials are, more or less, the bad guys and have to bend over backward to let people vote. While I may want to see his ID, it’s not one of the options I have.”