Ex-poll worker sentenced to five years for illegal voting
Source: Columbus Dispatch
CINCINNATI — A former Ohio poll worker today was sentenced to five years in prison for voting illegally on behalf of other people, including a comatose relative.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Ruehlman handed down the sentence to Melowese Richardson, 58, of Madisonville, two months after she pleaded no contest to four counts of illegal voting and subsequently was found guilty.
As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped four other charges; Richardson had faced up to 12 years in prison if she had been convicted of all eight original charges.
Richardson previously told a local TV station that she had voted multiple times for President Barack Obama on behalf of herself and family members, calling the ballots she cast “absolutely legal” and saying that “there was no intent on my part to commit any voter fraud.”
Read more: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/07/17/ex-poll-worker-illegal-voting-sentenced-five-years.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)
DallasNE
(7,403 posts)A fellow poll worker turned her in. The system worked. Since this was an inside job none of the laws Republicans have enacted would have had any impact in preventing the voter fraud -- certainly not an ID law.
No Vested Interest
(5,167 posts)tea-party types did all kinds of research on names, addresses and signatures on absentee ballot requests and turned them in to the local board of elections.
She voted for a relative who's been a coma for 8-10 years.
She also voted absentee for several other relatives/friends and in a plea deal - no contest- faces no time for those counts.
No doubt the woman broke the elections laws, and she is being made an example of what not to do re voting.
I do believe the crime is serious, but wonder how much good it's going to do for this woman to spend five yrs in jail, at taxpayers expense. She obviously is not the sharpest pencil in the box; she is not young, and is nonviolent. The same prosecutor who worked to have her jailed has let many a more affluent, suburban drug type off with a slap on the wrist. Politics is playing a part in this affair.
They also prosecuted and publicly humiliated virtually on a daily basis a nun who was guilty of submitting the absentee ballot of another nun who had died after ordering the absentee ballot. I think the nun got probation and public service.
DallasNE
(7,403 posts)None of the new laws proposed for ID, etc. would have prevented this.
The woman probably had a public defender for an attorney and all they ever do is plea deals. That is why the prosecution always overcharges then accept the deal they are looking for, but that is another story.
The election office should be checking the signature on the absentee ballot request with the signature card on file as a protection against this type of fraud. Has the election office explained how they missed this?
No Vested Interest
(5,167 posts)The proposed laws for ID, etc. are not the subject of the OP.
This was not a one-time offense for the defendant; she had voted more than once in previous elections.
Another reason the judge threw the book at her was because she had some other criminal offenses in her past.
Obviously the election office should have caught the incorrect signatures, but it's understandable that in the midst of a presidential election with hundreds?or thousands? of absentee ballot requests coming in daily in the last six weeks the system can not keep up with volume. The Board of Elections does not have a large number of trained workers, nor does it have unlimited money to spend to ensure complete compliance. We all know that state and county budgets are being squeezed now more than ever, and it is happening as a result of our Republican state and county administrations.
Fair elections depend on honesty of those involved, voters and administrators.
For any other information re this case, go to cincinnati.com. It is a front-page article.
tblue
(16,350 posts)she's not black.
Didn't Ann Coulter vote illegally too? Lied about her address or something?
Bay Boy
(1,689 posts)...even cross your mind? What difference does it make?
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)... the GOP is working like hell to repackage old Jim Crow laws.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)having potentially been a member of ACORN previously.
brett_jv
(1,245 posts)That's because 'some people say' that she was ...
tblue
(16,350 posts)???
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)DallasNE
(7,403 posts)A voter ID law would not have prevented it because it was an inside job.
BlueEye
(449 posts)Huh? Petty voter fraud and we're drawing comparisons to a totalitarian regime? Just more antics from the Republican gestapo that has a death grip on local politics in Hamilton County, Ohio.
The one who really needs to be investigated is Secretary of State John Husted for his efforts at voter suppression. You should have seen the lines on election day. Fortunately voters were persistent and the state still went Blue.
Crabby Appleton
(5,231 posts)Not the judge
leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)rdharma
(6,057 posts)Yup! Looks like it. Rare inside job that justifies more voter ID restrictions?
davidn3600
(6,342 posts)Voter ID though had nothing to do with this.
This woman was a poll worker who was signing for ballots for friends and family and casting those ballots. One of the people she cast a ballot for has been in a coma for many years.
That's how she got caught because the handwriting for the signatures was the same.
christx30
(6,241 posts)with the local TV station. She seemed really pleased with herself. Said some really creepy things near the end of the interview about Obama. She was a little too worshipful. I don't really have anything against Obama (I voted for him, and I think he's a decent guy), but he is just a politician. “I’ll fight it for Mr. Obama and Mr. Obama’s right to sit as president of the United States."
This was
Divernan
(15,480 posts)
BornLooser
(106 posts)I can see this from the cheap seats...s.o.s., different day. More red elephant dung. FAIL.
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)When this story broke right after the 2012 election there were lots of media stories but this is the only one I could find about here conviction 5 months later. Hmmm.
An election worker in Oregon is facing a criminal investigation for allegedly altering multiple ballots to benefit Republican candidates.
In a press release on Monday, Clackamas County spokesperson Tim Heider said that 55-year-old Deanna Swenson had been “relieved of duty immediately after the alleged ballot tampering was discovered.”
Swenson, who was registered as a Republican, was accused of filling in a Republican straight ticket on ballots where voters did not specify a choice.
Contacted by Willamette Week, Swenson tearfully insisted that it was “only the two” ballots that had been altered.
The Oregon Department of Justice began an investigation last week after an elections official reportedly observed ballots being altered.
“At this point, it is unclear how many ballots the employee at issue had access to, or what will be done with those ballots,” the sheriff’s office said on Monday.
At a Monday emergency meeting, officials in Clackamas County announced that the altered ballots would not be counted. Since ballots were anonymous, disenfranchised voters would not be given a chance to re-cast their votes.
Swenson has worked in elections since at least 2000, according to the Clackamas County spokesperson.
Blue Oregon’s Kari Chisholm reported that the Oregon City woman’s Facebook page indicated she “liked” various conservative personalities, candidates and organizations including the Republican National Committee, The Tea Party, Paul Ryan VP, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), Ann Romney and Fox News.
If convicted of a Class C felony for ballot tampering, Swenson could face five years in prison and a fine of up to $125,000.
Watch this video from NWCN, broadcast Nov.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/06/oregon-election-worker-fired-for-altering-ballots-to-republican-straight-ticket/
Apr 25, 2013, 2:52pm PDT
Clackamas election worker gets jail time for election fraud
The former Clackamas County elections employee who was caught marking at least two ballots cast in last fall’s election will spend 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to official misconduct and unlawfully altering a cast ballot.
Deanna Swenson, a temporary, part-time elections employee, had marked ballots that voters had left partially blank, according to Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and Secretary of State Kate Brown. Swenson’s actions did not affect any races.
“Department of Justice investigators and prosecutors took this case from the initial tip through investigation to indictment and guilty plea in less than six months,” said Rosenblum in a release. “Anyone attempting to subvert Oregon’s elections should know from this quick and successful prosecution that such conduct is unacceptable.”
“This prosecution sends a strong message: voter fraud will not be tolerated in Oregon,” added Brown. “We are holding Ms. Swenson accountable for violating the public trust.”
A co-worker saw Swenson altering a ballot last Oct. 31. A Clackamas County grand jury indicted her in December on two counts each of unlawfully altering a cast ballot, unlawfully voting more than once and first degree official misconduct.
Swenson is the 13th person to be prosecuted for voter fraud since Oregon went to all vote-by-mail elections in 2000. During that time frame, 23.8 million ballots were cast in statewide elections in Oregon.
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2013/04/25/clackamas-election-worker-gets.html
okaawhatever
(9,462 posts)this gop worker got 90 days and woman in Nevada who tried to vote twice only got probation. F*ck that.
struggle4progress
(118,352 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,367 posts)In 2006, 2008, and 2010, Bruce voted in person in Fort Bend County and by mail in Pennsylvania in the same general elections. According to his financial disclosure forms, Bruce Fleming also owns a house in Pennsylvania. (He homesteaded a house in Texas and a house in Pennsylvania, but that illegality is a whole ‘nother story.) Bruce felt that owning houses in both states gave him the right to vote in the same elections in both states.
That’s a third degree felony in Texas.
...
Last October, when it was brought to your attention that your Republican County Commissioner candidate was not only caught red-handed in triple voter fraud but was bragging about it, you said that we should back down talking about it until he was convicted.
...
Do you know what has happened to Bruce Fleming since his bragging rights over voting twice were called to a halt? Nothing. Diddle squat. Nada. Just a tap hole without a beer keg around it.
Do you know when the statute of limitations runs on this? In November of this year. But, you knew that, didn’t you?
http://crooksandliars.com/taxonomy/term/42858
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Candidate-voted-twice-in-same-elections-records-3937458.php
Despite the Republicans withdrawing their official support for him before the election, the fraudster damn nearly won against the incumbent: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021968634
