SAN FRANCISCO --

A San Francisco election worker was sentenced Wednesday for stealing ballots from a polling station that were later found in the pond at the Palace of Fine Arts.

Karl Bradfield Nicholas, 51, of San Francisco left his volunteer's post at the polling place on Knott Court in the Crocker-Amazon neighborhood at 4:15 p.m. Nov. 2, 2010, the day of the election. He had with him multipage ballots, the voter roster, a memory card that recorded the votes cast, a voting machine access key and a poll worker's cell phone, police said.

Nicholas was arrested at his home in the Ingleside early the next morning, and about 75 ballots were found in the lagoon two days after election day.

He pleaded guilty in December to unlawfully carrying away or destroying a poll list and ballots, in violation of the state elections code.

On Wednesday, Judge Anne Bouliane of San Francisco Superior Court sentenced Nicholas to a year in County Jail, but with credit for time served, he was to be released later in the day. He was also placed on three years' probation and ordered to stay out of all San Francisco polling places on election day.

Nicholas must also pay restitution and reveal the location of the missing items that weren't found in the lagoon, prosecutors said.

Nicholas, formerly of Kentfield and San Rafael, has worked as a computer repairman. He has filed lawsuits in which he represented himself, and he has a website in which he rails against the court system.