[EL] More on case with 5-year sentence for double voting (from ELB News and Commentary 7/18/13)
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Thu Jul 18 13:55:58 PDT 2013
Here is a video excerpt of the sentencing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UXe3PdFStc4#at=618
On 7/18/13 1:16 PM, Rob Richie wrote:
> A friend of mine, Bill Collins of Cincinnati, sent me and email about
> the Ohio case involving a five-year prison term for voting on behalf
> of her sister in several recent elections despite her sister being in
> a coma.
>
> I'm no defender of voter fraud, but I question this sentence and the
> apparent behavior of the judge. Bill is copied on this message in case
> anyone has more questions about the case.
>
> As an aside, I'll note has a practice where many people delegate their
> vote to others to cast as a proxy. Voting by mail is not done in
> presidential elections (and only done for parliamentary elections for
> the first time last year), so someone away from home instead gives a
> formal letter to someone allowing them to cast their vote. Turnout in
> presidential races is more than 80%. It just shows how norms can be
> different in different nations. They see absentee voting as
> potentially ripe with fraud, and I assume many Americans wouldn't like
> the idea of this voting-by-proxy.
>
> - Rob Richie
>
> #################
> From: Bill Collins <bcollins1 at cinci.rr.com
> <mailto:bcollins1 at cinci.rr.com>>
> Date: Thursday, July 18, 2013 10:23 AM
>
> Good morning. It is so sad to read about the sentencing of
> Madisonville resident Mae Richardson to a five-year prison term, and
> the outrageous, bullying, racism verbal attack on her by Judge Robert
> Ruehlman at the sentencing hearing. See
> http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130717/NEWS0107/307170089/Illegal-voter-gets-5-year-prison-term?gcheck=1
>
> I hope that individuals in Madisonville will speak out against Judge
> Ruehlman's sentence of Mae and the judge's outrageous behavior in
> court yesterday. Below are the comments I just posted
> onhttp://www.cincinnati.com <http://www.cincinnati.com/>.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Bill Collins
> Phone: (513) 271-4425 <tel:%28513%29%20271-4425>
> - - - - -
>
> This long sentence for Mae Richardson is an outrage.
>
> I know Mae. She is a likeable but prickly and difficult personality.
> She is an eccentric person, for sure, and her bizarre statement
> yesterday at the court sentencing clearly shows that. It's obvious
> that Mae needs professional help.
>
> Judge Ruehlman's mocking treatment of her, in response, was an
> outrage. After all those years on the bench, doesn't Judge Ruehlman
> recognize mental illness? Is he THAT dense as to not see the evidence
> of mental illness standing before him at the bench?
>
> - - - - - - -
> Anybody who knows and observes Mae closely knows that she is a black
> woman who needs psychiatric help, and does not need a bullying,
> self-righteous lecture by a white judge from the bench at the time
> that he is sending her off to jail for five years. The judge has the
> power; Mae has no power. The judge's trashing Mae from the bench as he
> sends her to jail for five years is the worst kind of bullying, and
> yes the worst kind of state-sanctioned racism.
>
> What Mae needs, and has needed for a long time, is some good
> mental-health services. Sending her to a regular prison with other
> female inmates will make her condition worse. PLEASE. The courts
> system needs to stop this outrage, sentence Mae to an appropriate
> sentence and get her some mental-health services. I hope for the best,
> but fear that the system -- if left unchecked -- will destroy Mae
> Richardson.
>
> This is an OUTRAGE! The American people are not cruel people. Melowese
> (Mae) Richardson deserves better and we deserve better than this sort
> of state-sanctioned bullying, cruelty and racism meted out by Hamilton
> County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Ruehlman.
>
> On Thu, Jul 18, 2013 at 11:46 AM, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu
> <mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>> wrote:
>
>
> Melowese Richardson Gets Five Year Term for Illegal Voting
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53138>
>
> Posted on July 18, 2013 8:28 am
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53138> by Rick Hasen
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> See here
> <http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201307171724/NEWS0107/307170089&nclick_check=1>.
> This is a significant sentence for some serious misconduct,
> including voting her sister's vote, who has been in a coma since
> 2003. Although the poll worker accepted a plea deal, she was
> unrepentant:
>
> "I think the board has shown me nothing but total disrespect
> for the 30 years I've served them," she told the judge. "I
> believe in the system and I've done nothing to harm the system
> or cause disgrace to President Obama."
>
> The conservative, outspoken judge responded with scathing
> comments, blasting Richardson for suggesting she was being
> prosecuted because she was a black Democrat helping a black
> Democratic presidential candidate.
>
> "It has nothing to do with race. It has nothing to do with
> politics. It has nothing to do with disrespecting you. You did
> this to yourself," Ruehlman told her.
>
> "You're very selfish, self-centered. I really believe
> President Obama, if he were asked about this today, he would
> be appalled. He would not want anybody to cheat to get elected."
>
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> "Respect for Every Vote and Every Voice"
>
> Rob Richie
> Executive Director
>
> FairVote
> 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 610
> Takoma Park, MD 20912
> www.fairvote.org <http://www.fairvote.org> rr at fairvote.org
> <mailto:rr at fairvote.org>
> (301) 270-4616
>
> Please support FairVote through action and tax-deductible donations --
> see http://fairvote.org/donate. For federal employees, please
> consider a gift to us through the Combined Federal Campaign
> (FairVote's CFC number is 10132.) Thank you!
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
hhttp://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20130718/feae4a56/attachment.html>
View list directory