One month for each illegal vote: “A Hamilton County judge released a former poll worker sentenced to five years in prison for voter fraud after eight months on Tuesday. “On July, 7, Melowese Richardson, 58, pleaded to four counts of illegal voting in 2009, 2011 and 2012 in the courtroom of Hamilton County Judge Robert P. Ruelman. One count charged her with voting for her sister, who is in a coma. Four other counts were dropped in exchange for Richardson’s plea.”
At the time she was charged, Richardson was in denial that voting twice and casting ballots for other people constituted voter fraud. Hopefully she won’t return to her multiple-voting ways – or her poll worker job.
Absurd and appalling. It is cases like this one that underscore the necessity of local and state elections officials to file affidavits of costs connected to the investigation of these cases. At a certain point, criminal justice professionals lose sight of the impact of these “victimless” crimes. Election officials need to be certain that the record reflects that the taxpayers and voters of that jurisdiction are the victims of the election crime.