Ohio Poll Worker Convicted Of Voter Fraud


Cincinnati, OH — A longtime Hamilton County poll worker has been convicted of vote fraud.

Back in February, Melowese Richardson admitted in a TV interview that she voted for Barack Obama twice — by absentee and in-person ballot. At the time, she denied any voter fraud and claimed that she was concerned her ballot wouldn’t be counted. “Yes I voted twice. I, after registering thousands and thousands of people, certainly wanted my vote to count, so I voted. I voted at the polls.”

But it turned that there was a lot more to the story according to authorities including several other allegedly bogus absentee ballots. “… Richardson… pleaded no contest to four counts of illegal voting — including voting three times for a relative who has been in a coma since 2003 — in exchange for prosecutors dropping four other illegal voting charges. Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Ruehlman immediately convicted her, making her a felon. A poll worker from 1998 until being fired this year, Richardson admitted she voted illegally in the 2008, 2011 and 2012 elections.”

Richardson’s case was part of an investigation in Hamilton County, Ohio, over illegal voting which resulted in several other convictions. She is due back in court on July 9 for sentencing and could face up to six years in prison, although serious jail time is unlikely.

As one political website opined succinctly about this case, “Every time someone like Melowese Richardson casts a phony vote, it robs an honest American of his right vote. His legitimate vote is cancelled out by fraud. This is why we should, among other practices, demand that we require just as much ID to vote as it takes to buy alcohol, get on an airplane, or rent a car.”

Last year, the Columbus Dispatch reported that 20% of Ohio’s voter rolls were made up of ineligible voters. Secretary of State Jon Husted contacted US Attorney General Eric Holder about “how to balance seemingly conflicting federal laws so he could pare Ohio’s dirty voter list without removing truly eligible voters.” Holder never responded. According to Husted, “Common sense says that the odds of voter fraud increase the longer these ineligible voters are allowed to populate our rolls.”

[Image via Shutterstock]

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