OREGON CITY --

, apologized to her family and community this afternoon and said a prescription drug she was taking at the time of the incident clouded her cognitive thinking.

"I apologize first to my husband," said an emotional Swenson, 55, as she sat in her attorney's office. "I totally devastated his life by this. I apologize to my family, to my friends, to my community and everybody else affected by this incident."

left blank to cast additional votes for Republicans.

A Clackamas County grand jury indicted her Wednesday on two counts each of unlawfully altering a cast ballot, unlawfully voting more than once and first-degree official misconduct.

More

, said she will plead not guilty at her Dec. 4 arraignment, possibly invoking a defense based on her mental state at the time of the incident.

"We're not necessarily challenging if she filled out the ballot or not," Short said. "If there are other witnesses, we're not going to challenge that."

Swenson, a lifelong asthmatic, said she was also suffering from a sinus infection, head cold and bronchitis and was "very, very sick" when she went into work Oct. 31. She had been taking prescription

since Oct. 28 to open up the airways in her lungs so she could breathe, she said. The drug is often used as an anit-inflammatory.

"It screws up your cognitive thinking," she said. "Anybody who's been on it knows it affects your thinking."

Swenson said she recalled little of the alleged incident. She remembers sitting with two other elections employees at a back table in the Clackamas County Elections Office when another worker at the table asked what she was doing.

"She pulled the ballot from me," Swenson said. "I was in total shock. It was as if my mind had slipped. It was as if I was at home filling out my own ballot. It was absolutely unfathomable. It was crazy."

Swenson said she is a responsible person and wanted to take the ballot to the supervisor herself. Instead, her colleague, Victoria Pounds of Canby, took the ballot and had a private conversation with a supervisor behind their work table. Pounds is a registered Republican.

"I was asked if I knew anything about it," Swenson said. "I said, obviously I did because she pulled it from my hand. I didn't even know. My mind had slipped."

She was relieved of her job immediately. Crying, she drove herself back to her Beavercreek home "in shock and dismay and a lot of grief."

"I'm really scared and concerned," Swenson said. "I mean, this is so out of character. I just don't have any recollection of the day. I'm dumbfounded. I don't know."

Swenson said she was so absent-minded that she failed to sign her own ballot when she submitted it Oct. 30. A mailing from the Clackamas County Elections Office postmarked Nov. 5 alerted her to the missing signature on her ballot.

She has worked off-and-on as a temporary elections worker for at least 15 years, she said. Nothing like this has ever occurred, and she described her former colleagues as "very professional."

Swenson denied rumors that she was an activist with a Republican agenda. Her husband and daughter are registered Democrats, and her son is a registered Green Party member, she said. "We live in harmony at home," she said.

She also rebutted claims that she is friends with Clackamas County Clerk Sherry Hall, who supervises elections, saying she didn't even know her.

Short said he did not know how many ballots Swenson is accused of altering.

Jeff Manning, spokesman for the state Department of Justice, also declined to specify the number of ballots Swenson is suspected of altering.

Authorities previously said on Nov. 6 -- Election Day -- that six suspect ballots had been identified.

Tampering with ballots and voting more than once are Class C felonies punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $125,000 fine. Official misconduct is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in a jail and a $6,250 fine.

Swenson has has since recovered and received a clean bill of health after visiting her doctor yesterday. But she's still concerned for her health and well-being.

"This is a nightmare," she said. "I wish I'd wake up and realize this thing never happened."

--