Lightning Strikes Voters at Ballot Box
Tuesday, June 25, 2013 at 11:33AM 
Voter Fraud Lightning StrikesCritics of voter ID and other laws cracking down on voter fraud claim they're unnecessary because fraud is nonexistent. For instance, Brennan Center attorneys Michael Waldman and Justin Levitt claimed last year: "A person casting two votes risks jail time and a fine for minimal gain. Proven voter fraud, statistically, happens about as often as death by lightning strike."
Well, lightning is suddenly all over Cincinnati, Ohio. The Hamilton County Board of Elections is investigating 19 possible cases of alleged voter fraud that occurred when Ohio was a focal point of the 2012 presidential election. A total of 19 voters and nine witnesses are part of the probe.
Time: 02:42
Democrat Melowese Richardson has been an official poll worker for the last quarter century and registered thousands of people to vote last year.
She candidly admitted to Cincinnati's Channel 9 this week that she voted twice in the last election.
This is how Channel 9′s website summarized the case:
According to county documents, Richardson's absentee ballot was accepted on Nov. 1, 2012 along with her signature. On Nov. 11, she told an official she also voted at a precinct because she was afraid her absentee ballot would not be counted in time.
"There's absolutely no intent on my part to commit voter fraud," said Richardson. . . .
According to Board of Election records, her name appeared on an absentee ballot list prior to Election Day. The board's report states poll workers should have updated the signature poll book by flagging "absentee voter" next to the names of those who appeared on the list. Upon investigation it was found that none of the voters who appeared on the list were flagged, which included Richardson. The staff could not locate that supplemental list when asked.
The board's documents also state that Richardson was allegedly disruptive and hid things from other poll workers on Election Day after another female worker reported she was intimidated by Richardson. . . .
During the investigation it was also discovered that her granddaughter, India
Richardson, who was a first time voter in the 2012 election, cast two ballots in November.
Richardson insists she has done nothing wrong and promises to contest the charges: "I'll fight it for Mr. Obama and for Mr. Obama's right to sit as president of the United States."
But, of course, as you know there is no voter fraud. Pay no attention to that lightning coming out of Ohio!
D.K. Dickey
NEWS FLASH! ~ STORY FOLLOW-UP ~ NEWS FLASH!
Mellowese with her attorney Bill Gallagher.
Story Credit: Cincinatti.com - Kimbell Perry
A former Hamilton County poll worker was convicted Tuesday, May 28, 2013 of illegal voting and could go to prison for up to six years for it.
"I'll fight it for Mr. Obama and for Mr. Obama's right to sit as president of the United States."
Melowese Richardson, 58, of Madisonville 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, who was in court last week but asked to speak to her pastor before she agreed to be convicted rather than take the case to trial, was quiet during the hearing.
Her penmanship and familiarity led to her conviction.
“They noticed a bunch of absentee ballots coming from the same place with the same handwriting,” Assistant Prosecutor Bill Anderson said. Other Board of Elections workers then recognized Richardson’s handwriting.
She’s the third person in Hamilton County to be convicted this year for illegal voting.
UNFAIR! - Where are REPUBLICAN poll workers who stuffed ballot boxes?
No One? Hmmn...
Richardson wasn’t offered diversion because she had eight counts of illegal voting against her and because she asked what authorities were going to do to her for illegal voting. She’ll find that out July 9 when Ruehlman sentences her.
