news.cincinnati.com
Two cases of alleged voter fraud in Hamilton County were in court this week, as defense lawyers sought to have their clients placed in a diversion program.
The court actions came at the same time that county elections officials subpoenaed records from nine of Hamilton County’s 11 UPS stores after a registered voter alerted the board that 47 voters had registered via the stores’ mailbox service.
The voter fraud cases against Sister Marguerite Kloos and Russell Glassop could be completed fairly easily. Prosecutors are offering both a chance to go through diversion.
To be admitted to the diversion program, the defendants will have to plead guilty. But the guilty plea is set aside while the defendant is given a year to stay out of trouble. If diversion is successfully completed, the cases will be treated as if the guilty pleas were never formally entered and the cases end. If the defendants fail to complete the diversion program, the guilty pleas would stand and they would be sentenced.
Kloos, 54, of Delhi Township, resigned as the College of Mount St. Joseph’s dean of arts and humanities after she was charged. She told investigators she filled out an absentee ballot for Sister Rose Marie Hewitt, another nun who died a month before last November’s election.
Glassop, 75, of Symmes Township, is accused of voting on behalf of his dead wife. She requested an absentee ballot, but died before the ballot was mailed.
The third defendant, former poll worker Melowese Richardson, likely won’t be offered diversion. She is accused of voting eight times. Richardson, of Madisonville, faces a potential 12 years in prison if convicted.
The Hamilton County Board of Elections voted Tuesday to issue the subpoenas on the UPS stores.
In Ohio, all voters must be registered where they live. The addresses in question aren’t post office boxes. But they’re similar in that people can live anywhere, walk into a store and set up a mail delivery box.
Here’s the problem: If you can live one place and vote in another, people could be voting on tax levies they wouldn’t then have to pay for – and for people who wouldn’t represent them.
The voter, Marlene Kocher, found 47 voters were registered at nine UPS stores. The Board of Elections found 18 of the voters had cast ballots in the November 2012 election.
“The accuracy of our voter rolls is critical to election integrity,” said Kocher, a Green Township resident and member of the tea party-affiliated Ohio Voter Integrity Project.
Board of Elections Director Amy Searcy said two of the 47 voters have since gone online to correct their addresses.
The board’s initial investigation began with about 90 cases, and the vast majority were resolved with no impropriety found. Nearly 422,000 votes were cast countywide in fall.¦ |
