Although widespread voter fraud is a fallacy, it still happens occasionally. In Itasca County, Minnesota, the Sheriff’s Office has charged Danielle Christine Miller, 50, “with two counts of absentee voting — intentionally making or signing a false certificate and absentee voting —casting an illegal vote or aiding another, which are both felonies.”
She said she filled out her mom’s [Rose Maria Javorina] absentee ballot and signed her mom’s name on the envelope. She admitted her mom was an avid Donald Trump supporter and had wanted to vote for Trump, but she died before the absentee ballots were received.
Miller also admitted she filled out her own absentee ballot and signed her mom’s signature as the witness to her ballot.
This anecdote reflects that the processes in place to validate absentee ballots work!
The Itasca County Auditor, upon receiving the ballots, contacted the Itasca County Sheriff’s Office on Oct. 9 regarding possible voter fraud. The ballot envelopes hadn’t been opened, but were flagged for fraud based on the sealed signature envelopes, charges state.
The sheriff’s office compared both signature envelopes — they were both filled out in black ink and appeared to be similar, charges state. The sheriff’s office compared the signatures on the envelope to the driver’s license signature of Miller, and noted “they appeared to be very similar and appeared to match each other.”
Notice this is two felonies. It is doubtful that Miller will be sentenced to prison time because she is probably not Black (and this is Minnesota).
For comparison, in Texas Crystal Mason, a Black woman, received “a five-year prison sentence for casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election while on supervised release for federal tax evasion.”
A Texas court “formally acquitted of the felony voting charge” earlier this year.
Mason’s case dates back to 2016 when, after discovering she was not on the voter roll, she submitted a provisional ballot in the presidential election on the advice of a poll worker. Her ballot was rejected because she was not eligible to participate in elections while still on supervised release for a federal tax fraud conviction. She was arrested a few months later.
We need standardized processes and laws for voting in federal elections.
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The stakes in November have never been more urgent, nor the choices more extreme.
Remember: you are not voting for one person. You are voting for a team.
I’m voting for Team America not Team Russia-Hungary-North Korea.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com