White woman votes twice = $750 fine. Black woman votes while in probation = 5 years in jail

[Johan]

Iowa woman who tried to vote for Donald Trump twice gets two years probation and $750 fine


The Trump supporter said she believed President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claims the election was rigged

A woman who was charged with attempting to vote for Donald Trump twice last year has been sentenced to two years of probation and a $750 (£580) fine.

Terri Lynn Rote, who is 56 and lives in Des Moines, was arrested in October last year after going to an early voting site in Des Moines in Iowa to cast a second vote for Mr Trump in the US presidential election.

The Trump supporter previously told police she cast two absentee ballots before the election because she believed President Trump’s unsubstantiated claims the election was rigged and her first ballot would be changed to a vote for his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton.

Ms Rote, who was arrested while trying to cast the second ballot, pleaded guilty to election misconduct last month.

After she was charged she said she was not initially planning to vote twice but instead said it was “a spur-of-the-moment thing” when she walked by the satellite voting location.
“I don’t know what came over me,” she told the Washington Post at the time.

She also said she had been a supporter of Mr Trump since the early days of his campaign after Republican candidate Mike Huckabee dropped out of the primary race.

In a sentencing order posted on Tuesday, district court Judge Robert Hanson said the felony election misconduct conviction will be erased from Ms Rote's record once she finishes probation and coughs up the fine.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ce-two-years-probation-750-fine-a7900886.html

Texas woman jailed for five years for voting while on probation


Crystal Mason, 43, cast ballot for Democrat Hillary Clinton
Texas Republican leaders search for rare convictions

A Texas woman has been sentenced to five years in prison for attempting to vote in the 2016 presidential election when she was ineligible because she was on probation.

Crystal Mason, 43, will appeal the punishment handed down this week in Fort Worth, according to her attorney. The sentence was handed down despite the fact that Mason’s provisional ballot was not ultimately counted.

At the time of the 2016 election Mason was on probation, having served nearly three years of a five-year sentence for defrauding the federal government. A former tax preparer, in 2011 she was accused of illegally inflating refunds for clients. She was convicted the following year.
Mason was put on a three-year term of supervised release and had to pay $4.2m in restitution, according to court documents.

She testified that she did not know people convicted of felonies could not vote until they had completed their sentences, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. She had gone to vote at her mother’s encouragement, she told the paper, and was not told when released from federal prison that she could not do so.

Mason testified that when she voted in November 2016, she signed a provisional ballot affidavit stating that she had not been convicted of a felony. Prosecutors said she signed the form with the intent to vote illegally. Mason’s attorney called it a mistake, made as she was guided by an election worker.

[...]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/01/texas-woman-jailed-five-years-voting-probation

One got a slap on the wrist, one got a quite harsh sentence. But I guess some here will argue that people who vote for Hillary should all be put in jail

 

[Rey C.]

While I believe there are severe disparities in sentencing in the U.S. when race, gender and wealth are looked at, in this case, these women were charged with different offenses.

As well, Mason's plea of ignorance really doesn't hold water: she signed a provisional ballot affidavit stating that she had not been convicted of a felony.

 

[Jack Davenport]

Poor Johan. You Might want to run to your buddy for a hug.

 

[Johan]

While I believe there are severe disparities in sentencing in the U.S. when race, gender and wealth are looked at, in this case, these women were charged with different offenses.

As well, Mason's plea of ignorance really doesn't hold water: she signed a provisional ballot affidavit stating that she had not been convicted of a felony.

Ok, fair enough. But the other woman knew it was illegal to vote twice and yet she still tried to.

 

[Jack Davenport]

Huge difference in a felon voting and a registered voter breaking election law.

 

[Rey C.]

Ok, fair enough. But the other woman knew it was illegal to vote twice and yet she still tried to.

No argument there. They each broke separate laws. And I think that both knew they were breaking the law. It's just that I can't say that there's an unfairness issue unless I know what the statutory penalties are for the crimes... or did the White woman get the absolute minimum, while the Black woman got the absolute maximum? I don't know.

 

[Jack Davenport]

If both incidences happened in the same state You Might have an equal protection argument. But their registration status are different so I don’t think it applies. As usual, Johan is grasping at straws.

 

[georges]

As usual, Johan is grasping at straws.

He always does

 

[~~whimsy~~]

Voting with a felony whilst on probation.

Johan, I don't know exactly how they shoot over there in France. But over here in the states we have the lights on and eyes opened when shooting. Try it sometime. You might get a hit :tongue: