https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/texas-voter-fraud-prison_us_5c01a9afe4b0a173c02305c1
Harsh?
Absolutely ridiculous.
The college rapist in California got 6 months.
If she has been in the US since she was a baby, why does she only have a 6th grade education? It seems that this woman has fallen through the cracks in several ways.
@brantly’s comment is spot-on. The difference in sentencing for various crimes is troubling, to say the least. I actually have a lot more that I would love to say, but I don’t want to start a war of sorts here. Suffice it to say that our punishments for various crimes in our society (or for various people who commit the same crime) are not “fair” in any sense of the word.
I’m assuming this is the Stanford case. The judge did get voted out after the next election, though.
It is frightening to me to see how our justice system is so out of whack. There needs to be some major overhaul. Most of these non violent crimes would probably be better served doing useful community service or receiving education and guidance.
This happens quite a bit. Not that they get 8 years in prison, but usually the person is deported and can never apply for citizenship. We’ve had it happen a few time here when the person thought he/she was a citizen but when it is discovered he/she is not a citizen but has voted, it cannot be undone and that person cannot become a citizen.
The punishment was too harsh, but I do think she should have received some jail time. Unfortunately, there is more illegal voting than is ever discovered.
Another woman in Texas got 5 years for illegal voting. She was a convicted felon - they are allowed to vote in Texas, but they have to be done with parole. She didn’t know this, and no one associated with her parole told her.
She went to vote, found her name wasn’t there and voted on a provisional ballot with the help of a poll worker. So the ballot wasn’t even counted but she was still convicted. The case is being appealed.
https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a23087874/crystal-mason-arrest-voting-illegaly/
Ridiculous waste of public funds prosecuting and jailing these particular people.
I find Ortega’s declared voting history ironic, though.
Just a note: in Texas, juries set sentences. As far as I know, Texas is the only state where juries specify a sentence - or at least one of a very few. In other states, juries are not allowed to consider sentencing factors, and only decide guilt or innocence, leaving sentencing to the judge.
Because of that, it can be especially risky to take a case to a jury in Texas if there is an option to enter a plea. My guess is that the barrier in this case was the felony charge - pleading guilty to any felony, even for probation or a short sentence, probably would have resulted in deportation – so that might be the reason her lawyer chose to risk going to trial, and at least keeping the door open for appeal.
Crystal Mason was sentenced by a judge. She must have chosen a bench trial.
https://www.okayplayer.com/news/texas-judge-sentences-crystal-mason-five-years-illegal-voting.html
she should have taken the plea deal of two years of community service which was the same deal offered to others who had allegations of voter fraud.
The woman mentioned in the OP (Ortega) who is the noncitizen brought to the US as an infant opted for a jury trial and the jury handed down the 8 year sentence. The linked article doesn’t mention any plea offer, and it is she was facing likely deportation even if not imprisoned.
The woman who had the felony conviction and voted provisionally before completing her period of supervised (Mason) release waived her right to a jury trial, had a bench trial before a judge only, and the judge sentenced her to 5 years. She is out on bail pending appeal – I think that her case rests on a legal issue because she only submitted a provisional ballot. By definition, a provisional ballot is cast when there is a question of eligibility – so if everyone who casts a provisional ballot and is later determined to be ineligible could be prosecuted, that would undermine the entire system of provisional ballots - and that system is mandated by federal law. So I think her legal challenge is very appropriate. She didn’t vote; she followed an established process to submit what was, in essence, a request for a determination of her eligibility.
Anyone following the North Carolina election fraud case? Pretty large scale stuff it looks like.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/05/politics/north-carolina-election-fraud/index.html
In the NC 9 election, there are allegations that large numbers of absentee ballots may have been destroyed:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/419979-over-a-thousand-absentee-ballots-possibly-destroyed-in-controversial-north
Looks like the NC 9 election shadiness does not involve individuals voting illegally as much as others who may have changed or destroyed much larger numbers of ballots in order to steal large numbers of otherwise legally cast votes.
^ correct. It’s large scale absentee ballot fraud. Apparently they were collected by one party’s operative, then discarded or filled out or turned in as “needed”.
With limited exceptions for close relatives and postal workers, in NC it’s a felony to collect and turn in a ballots for someone else.
And yet in San Francisco, they are spending big money on a campaign to register non citizens to vote!