Arrested, Jailed and Charged With a Felony. For Voting.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

GRAHAM, N.C. — Keith Sellars and his daughters were driving home from dinner at a Mexican restaurant last December when he was pulled over for running a red light. The officer ran a background check and came back with bad news for Mr. Sellars. There was a warrant out for his arrest.

His crime: Illegal voting.

“I didn’t know,” said Mr. Sellars, who spent the night in jail before his family paid his $2,500 bond. “I thought I was practicing my right.”

Mr. Sellars, 44, is one of a dozen people in Alamance County in North Carolina who have been charged with voting illegally in the 2016 presidential election. All were on probation or parole for felony convictions, which in North Carolina and many other states disqualifies a person from voting. If convicted, they face up to two years in prison.

While election experts and public officials across the country say there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, local prosecutors and state officials in North Carolina, Texas, Kansas, Idaho and other states have sought to send a tough message by filing criminal charges against the tiny fraction of people who are caught voting illegally.

“That’s the law,” said Pat Nadolski, the Republican district attorney in Alamance County. “You can’t do it. If we have clear cases, we’re going to prosecute.”

The cases are rare compared with the tens of millions of votes cast in state and national elections. In 2017, at least 11 people nationwide were convicted of illegal voting because they were felons or noncitizens, according to a database of voting prosecutions compiled by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Others have been convicted of voting twice, filing false registrations or casting a ballot for a family member.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/arrested-jailed-and-charged-with-a-felony-for-voting/ar-BBLofQV?li=BBnb7Kz

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

1. Once a pennence is paid for a misdeed,

A persons rights should be restored. What's more of a crime in a DEMOCRACY, disenfranchisement by over charging, or trying to exercise inalienable rights? What happened to christian forgiveness? Just a ruse.
We need Restorative Justice.

[MichMan]

3. They are restored once they satisfy their entire sentence

Sounds like they were still on probation or parole

From the attached link;

"In North Carolina, people’s voting rights are automatically restored once they finish every step of their felony sentence, including probation."

"Like other voters across North Carolina, each of the Alamance 12 would have been required to sign a form saying they were eligible to vote and were not serving a felony sentence. But the defendants said they did not remember filling out any forms beyond the ballot."

Should be pretty simple for the state to either produce those affidavits or drop all charges

[unblock]

4. The right to vote has nothing to do with nearly all crimes

Taking away the right to vote doesn't deter crime, doesn't prevent crime, doesn't effectively punish criminals, doesn't restore justice, doesn't accomplish anything positive at all. There is no good reason for it at all.

There are bad reasons, though, such as racism and letting politicians choose who gets to vote in future elections that they themselves will be running for.

There's no excuse to take away the right to vote even from prisoners while in prison.

[unblock]

2. Aside from the fact that disenfranchising Americans is heinous,

It's beyond absurd to imprison people for the government's administrative laziness. If someone's ineligible to vote, just don't let them vote. Happens to people who didn't register or aren't old enough or aren't citizens all the time.

The ballot clerk has a list of voters. If you're not in the list, you don't get a ballot. You don't vote. In case there's a screw up, you vote on a provisional ballot and it's counted or not depending on whether they can later resolve if you're eligible.

No need to make it a crime. Just count the vote or don't.


And again, no government should have the power to choose its voters. It's a recipe for corruption, and America is proving this.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

5. Completely agree.

imho felons in prison should be allowed to vote as well.

[bitterross]

6. This is all about intimidation. Not about love for the law.

This has nothing to do with the Republicans' love for the law. We know they only obey laws they want to obey.

This is about intimidation in order to depress voter turnout. People with a record are more likely to be minorities and vote Democratic. They want to stop them from voting by using fear.