The Penalty For Voter Fraud

CBS News in Cleveland posted an article yesterday about Melowese Richardson of Madisonville, Ohio, a former Ohio poll worker who was convicted of voter fraud after having voting multiple times for various family members. After serving less than a year of her five-year sentence, Ms. Richardson has been released from prison and put on five years probation.

The article reports:

Melowese Richardson of Madisonville was released Tuesday after her attorney says she gave him permission to reveal that she has bipolar disorder.

Her attorney, David Singleton, shared Richardson’s medical records with Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters.

After reviewing the case, Deters asked Judge Robert Ruehlman to allow Richardson to be released.

The article further reports:

The 59-year-old Richardson previously told a TV station that she had voted multiple times for President Barack Obama on behalf of herself and family members. She had said she had no intent to commit voter fraud.

There are two things here that I simply don’t understand. First of all, what in the world does bipolar disorder have to do with committing voter fraud? Second of all, how can a poll worker not know that voting multiple times is committing voter fraud?

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What Voter Fraud ?

I will repeat this for the sake of anyone who has not been reading this blog for a while–I don’t think President Obama was reelected because of voter fraud. However, I do think that voter fraud is a problem in this country and we need to do a better job of keeping our elections honest.

The Corner at National Review posted a story today about voter fraud in Ohio. It seems that one of the poll workers Hamilton County, Ohio, may have voted six times. That seems a little excessive to me.

The article reports:

Three other absentee ballots in the names of different people were submitted to the Board of Elections from Richardson’s address on Nov. 1. Officials say the handwriting on those ballots is similar and that they were all received together, on the same day that Richardson’s absentee ballot arrived at the office. Richardson maintains that some of the other voters live at her house.

Attempts by Fox News to reach Richardson were unsuccessful, but she claimed to the local station that the votes were “absolutely legal votes.”

It gets better. The article concludes:

The local news report below includes an interview with Richardson, who is set to appear before Ohio’s Hamilton County Board of Elections on Friday, as well as footage from the testimony of five other Ohio voters accused of voting, or attempting to vote, twice. One individual revealed she was unaware that it was illegal to vote twice, while several reported confusion caused by absentee ballots. 

The article includes a video:


Please watch the video. It is amazing. It is scary to think these people vote at all–they don’t seem to know how voting works.Enhanced by Zemanta