Elections Texas mother of 4 sentenced to 8 years for voting as a legal permanent resident

[surrealworlds]

Seems like an excessive sentence but she did the crime so have fun doing the time.

 

[SBJJ]

Seems just a teeny tiny weeny bit excessive to me

 

[HIMBOB]

So I'm guessing after legal costs, prison costs and supporting payments for her kids the tax payer will spend about $500,000 on this.

Can't imagine many see value there.

Much higher if you consider the likely effect on future tax receipts from her kids who probably aren't going to be the best patriots after seeing their mum get screwed like this.

 

[Ruprecht]

8 years? Over here that's the sort of sentence you get for 13 million dollars worth of corporate fraud, or importing 95kg of cocaine.
For over a hundred counts of electoral fraud you might get 11 months.

 

[HIMBOB]

It shouldn't be possible to vote if you're not eligible. Is there not a voting registrar they check names off against?

Thats more of a first world thing, like in Australia.

 

[Fawlty]

For an isolated case like this? I don't think even a day of jail is appropriate.

 

[Blowing Dixie]

This boggles my mind. What kind of fucked up voting system does the US have that allows people to vote despite being ineligible to?

 

[tonni]

You Americans and your insane punishments.

8 fucking years....wtf is wrong with this country?!

Shame she didn't qualify for the affluenza defense.

Ethan Couch, ‘Affluenza Teen’ Who Killed 4 While Driving Drunk, Is Freed

.... after 770 days.

Insane.

 

[IamStryker]

Seems a bit harsh.

 

[Rvd Slmr]

Is committing voter fraud as simple as checking a box? I thought they needed a SSN to register.

It shouldn't be possible to vote if you're not eligible. Is there not a voting registrar they check names off against?

This boggles my mind. What kind of fucked up voting system does the US have that allows people to vote despite being ineligible to?

Yeah, this is all very confusing to me. I have counted votes in France on two occasions and it doesn't seem that hard to have a list of registered voters for each polling station.

 

[uppercutbus]

So this is a thread about a law being broken and a person being punished for it?

Thanks. Guess this is a rare thing.

I think this is the narrative they should be talking about:

Immigrant Who Cast Illegal Ballot Gets 8 Years, Election Chief Who Illegally Destroyed 50,000 Ballots Still Free
https://hubpages.com/politics/Immig...Illegally-Destroyed-50-000-Ballots-Still-Free

^ Debbie Wasserman Schultz should be in prison right now along with her Pakistan spy team. Brenda Snipes and all the Democrats in Broward County and Palm Beach County government offices are corrupt. Next election the authorities should be watching all the election places.

It kind of shows you we have some incredibly corrupt people in our society that are enabled by the system and the law does not apply to them.

 

[Gluteus Swag]

Also, lol at 8 years. Here in my city in Canada a guy was sentenced to only 3 years for his role in the murder of two convenience store clerks.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmo...clerks-killings-teenager-sentencing-1.4928643

The United States could learn a thing or two from many other Western countries when it comes to preventing grossly disproportionate prison sentences for relatively minor offenses. The example in the OP would almost certainly violate s. 12 of Canada's Constitution Act for example.

Similarly, many other Western countries could learn from the United States when it comes to not giving ridiculously low punishments for severe crimes.

 

[WTF2008]

A lawful permanent resident can falsely believe that her lawful status gives her the right to vote - or a parolee can falsely believe that completion of her sentence restores her right to vote - and they get massive prison sentences. Republican lawmakers can pass policies that they know will take away the right to vote for millions and serve no empirical anti-fraud purpose, and they get money, fame, and political support.

A Texas appeals court upheld the conviction of green card holder Rosa Maria Ortega for voter fraud on Wednesday, cementing a sentence of eight years in jail and a likely deportation.

Ortega, a mother of four, reportedly thought she was able to vote because she was a permanent resident. She voted five times between 2004 and 2014 — once for the attorney general, Ken Paxton, who later prosecuted her, according to her attorney. She also reportedly served as a poll worker.

"She doesn't know. She's got this [green] card that says 'resident' on it, so she doesn’t mark that she's not a citizen,” her attorney told the Washington Post said. "She had no ulterior motive beyond what she thought, mistakenly, was her civic duty."

Prosecutors said that Ortega had correctly told authorities she was a resident alien on a driver's license form, while incorrectly checking the U.S. citizen box for the purpose of voting, undercutting her claims that it was an innocent mistake.

Fact check: Republicans claim voter fraud is a huge problem
OCT. 22, 201801:05
Republicans have claimed that the nation is rife with voter fraud, but credible examples are harder to find, and the handful of cases like Ortega's that are uncovered have faced tough prosecutions and stiff penalties in recent years. Earlier this year, a former felon was sent back to jail for voting illegally while on supervised release from prison.

"This case underscores the importance that Texans place on the institution of voting, and the hallowed principle that every citizen’s vote must count," Paxton said in a statement celebrating the ruling. "We will hold those accountable who falsely claim eligibility and purposely subvert the election process in Texas."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/el...2YtPQSAbz-fYvhetz3gTTGUWWF-LthjiFG8BFYp7KIQbs​

That's ridiculous if the story is true as laid out.
There's no way she should spend a day in jail.

 

[WTF2008]

But chances are that's not the whole story.

 

[EradiatedHaggis]

I think this is the narrative they should be talking about:

Immigrant Who Cast Illegal Ballot Gets 8 Years, Election Chief Who Illegally Destroyed 50,000 Ballots Still Free
https://hubpages.com/politics/Immig...Illegally-Destroyed-50-000-Ballots-Still-Free

^ Debbie Wasserman Schultz should be in prison right now along with her Pakistan spy team. Brenda Snipes and all the Democrats in Broward County and Palm Beach County government offices are corrupt. Next election the authorities should be watching all the election places.

It kind of shows you we have some incredibly corrupt people in our society that are enabled by the system and the law does not apply to them.

I can agree with that, 100%.

 

[Ruprecht]

But chances are that's not the whole story.

Apparently it's not that unusual in Texas. In the same article it mentions another woman (also a mother of 7) who was sentenced to 5 years for voting after being let out of prison earlier this year.

 

[Mr Holmes]

Good, illegal voting is a huge problem and we need to throw the book when we can

 

[Rematch]

I'm a PR in Canada. I don't vote here because they explicitly tell you that you can't when they give you the card.

Do they not do that in the US?

As a PR-turned-citizen, I can tell you that the US government makes it quite clear of the illegality and consequences of voting as non-citizen.

The lady was likely informed by an idiot friend that told her that it would be okay to vote as a PR, which alarmingly is often the case.

 

[ObamaPhoneLady]

Apparently it's not that unusual in Texas. In the same article it mentions another woman (also a mother of 7) who was sentenced to 5 years for voting after being let out of prison earlier this year.

She was voting illegally as a felon though, right?

Don't really see how these two women are related other than both living in Texas and both having more kids than they probably should have.

 

[Sketch]

How did this lady get on the voter rolls?
There must be some mechanism to prevent non-citizens from simply signing up to vote. She would have had to circumvent those mechanisms somehow.

She certainly did and it would have been a democrat who helped her. Democrats have done this forever.