NY Times - Illegal Voting Gets Texas Woman 8 Years in Prison, and Certain Deportation

[TomCADem]

Somewhat sad story about a woman brought to the U.S. as an infant who thought she was legally permitted to vote. The irony is that she is a registered Republican who voted for the person who decided to single her out as an example of voting fraud by "illegals."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/us/illegal-voting-gets-texas-woman-8-years-in-prison-and-certain-deportation.html

Despite repeated statements by Republican political leaders that American elections are rife with illegal voting, credible reports of fraud have been hard to find and convictions rarer still. That may help explain the unusually heavy penalty imposed on Rosa Maria Ortega, 37, a permanent resident and a mother of four who lives outside Dallas. On Thursday, a Fort Worth judge sentenced her to eight years in prison — and almost certainly deportation later — after she voted illegally in elections in 2012 and 2014.

The sentence for Ms. Ortega, who was brought to this country by her mother as an infant, “shows how serious Texas is about keeping its elections secure,” Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, said in a statement. Her lawyer called it an egregious overreaction, made to score political points, against someone who wrongly believed she was eligible to vote.

* * *

Far-right websites have seized on Ms. Ortega’s conviction as proof that Mr. Trump is right about rampant fraud and efforts by Democrats to steal the November election. There is, however, at least one flaw in that story: Ms. Ortega was a registered Republican.

“She voted for Mitt Romney over Barack Obama in the 2012 election. In 2014 she voted for our current attorney general, Ken Paxton,” Mr. Birdsall said. “And guess what? He’s the one responsible for prosecuting her.”

[meadowlander]

1. 1 down, 2,999,999 to go.

Sure glad my tax dollars are keeping this person in prison for eight years.

[yeoman6987]

2. She made a mistake when she put not a citizen on her driver's license application

Well besides voting repug.

[dalton99a]

3. Spying for Russia gets you a high-paying job in the White House

[Hortensis]

4. People who elect major criminals to high office

and support appointments of other criminals are chortling over 8 years in a Texas prison for this conservative mother who undoubtedly "feels" American (but of course improving the story by claiming she was a Democrat instead of a Republican).

Deplorable? This vicious, politically motivated punitiveness is extremely despicable.