Tough sentence for a crime that to some does not exist.  The ObserverOnline reports

A Belleville man, one of the final defendants in a long-running Essex
County voter fraud case, has been sentenced to five years in state
prison for submitting fraudulent absentee ballots while working for the
2007 campaign of Teresa Ruiz for the New Jersey Senate in the 29th
District.

John Fernandez, 61, learned his fate Dec. 20 while appearing before
Superior Court Judge Robert C. Billmeier in Mercer County, N.J. Attorney
General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced.

Fernandez, found guilty after a jury trial in Mercer County this past
September, worked for the Essex County Department of Economic
Development. He was ordered to forfeit his job and has been permanently
barred from public employment in New Jersey.