Ex-poll worker sentenced to prison for illegal voting
Jul. 17, 2013 1:02 PM
'Voter' was in a coma: Poll worker Melowese Richardson admitted she voted three times for someone who had been in a coma for years.
Written by
Kimball Perry
Melowese Richardson could go to prison after being convicted of voter fraud.
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Melowese Richardson could go to prison after being convicted of voter fraud. / The Enquirer/Carrie Cochran
As a Hamilton County poll worker, Melowese Richardson helped people exercise a precious right.
Today, because she voted illegally in the name of others, including one who was in a coma, she was sentenced five years in prison. Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Ruehlman could have imposed the maximum prison sentence of six years after Richardson was convicted in May of four counts of illegal voting in exchange for prosecutors dropping four other charges.
Three of her four convictions involved voting for a relative who has been in a coma since 2003. Richardson was a Hamilton County poll worker since 1998 but that ended when she was indicted.
Fellow election workers recognized her handwriting on ballots from the same address, information that helped lead to her convictions. Richardson, 58, of Madisonville, admitted she voted illegally in 2008, 2011 and 2012 elections:
http://news.cincinnati.com/art.....oting?nclick_check=1