Ex-Ohio poll worker gets 5 years for illegal votes
CINCINNATI (AP) — A former Ohio poll worker has been sentenced to five years in prison for casting illegal ballots in other people’s names, including a woman in a coma.
Melowese Richardson of Madisonville was sentenced today in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, two months after she pleaded guilty no contest to four counts of illegal voting.
Prosecutors dropped four other charges as part of a plea agreement. The 58-year-old Richardson had faced up to 12 years in prison if she had been convicted of all eight original charges.
County Prosecutor Eric Deters said in a March statement announcing Richardson’s indictment that “every vote is important and every voter and candidate needs to have faith in our system.”