A lot of these cases (of naive immigrants or Hispanic sounding names at least) get thrown out (as they did in Texas) but you never hear of them (because no one's going to pay attention to 70+ individual cases), so the story gets recycled w/a new tranche of 70+ cases that will get thrown out as well. Note for instance, how GWB tries being cute claiming 70 convictions while his link states charges and not convictions
Im all for enforcement of the law and scrubbing voter rolls. The issues is when these things are weaponized around election time. I don’t know these exact cases but mostly this stuff is usually clerical errors or people not understanding the law.
I will note that most of the "sentences" for these voting fraud crimes -- usually arrived at via an offered plea by the DA -- have been light. Most have been parole and a small fine. There has been an intent to provide education in our state on the matter of illegal voting -- but it foundered. Bobby Higdon (the Trump appointed DA) strongly urged the state to run a public information campaign (also supported by the State Board of Elections, etc.) telling voters what the law is (e.g. Only U.S. citizens can vote, not visa holders, etc.). He (and others) wanted to run the campaign (with straight-forward graphics and voice speaker) in both English and Spanish on appropriate local media across the eastern half of our state. The Democrats claimed his proposed plan was nothing more than voter suppression (despite it not being directly before an election) and refused to let the media information campaign run (which strangely enough they supported two years prior). In regards to scrubbing voter rolls -- there is a federal requirement that voter rolls regularly be scrubbed. Most states do a very poor job of this. Under the Obama administration there came a demand that southern states properly scrub their voting rolls (due to the history of voting rights, etc.). Most states did not want to fund the proper scrubbing of the voting rolls and complained. Eventually the southern states via a Obama DOJ mandate had to move forward with scrubbing the voting rolls and spending the money to see if people who had not voted in more than two years still lived at their addresses. Of course in some states (e.g. Georgia) the GOP discovered this mandated pruning of the voting rolls was a great setup to perform voting suppression by simply being over-enthusiastic about pruning the rolls in Democratic areas in the months before an election. Hence the abuse of the intent. Pruning the voting rolls is not bad -- but there needs to be a common defined procedure for every state to follow -- including cross-checking for people who have moved.
As a summary, it is good to see the Federal DA of the Eastern District of North Carolina, Bobby Higdon, has convicted over 100 immigrants of voting illegally in North Carolina. Most resulting from plea agreements. It started with 19 indictments and kept growing from there. In order to have trust in our election system there must be proper enforcement of those who attempt to vote illegally, vote twice, or commit other election crimes. I will note that both registered Republicans and Democrats have been convicted of these crimes -- so it is not just one party doing it. Fortunately proper enforcement from Bobby Higdon and other DAs has kept the level of fraud low enough that it rarely impacts the results of state and local elections. However there have been instances where illegal voting has impacted local election results due to the low voter turnout.
I dont understand the issue because in my State I have to show ID to vote and they check my info against their list. If I want an absentee voter ballot they still check my name against the list and I get issued one ballot. For the most part it would be hard for me to try and get 2 mail in votes in under my name unless they do not check when the ballot arrives and is counted to cross off my name in the system so no additional vote can be counted in my name. I can see an issue when a first time citizen/voter wants an absentee ballot to make their first votes in an election and identity has to be verified remotely, although I had to go in person and sign up for an absentee ballot when I knew I would be travelling.
100 convictions huh? source? https://www.huffpost.com/entry/robe...ina-illegal-voting_n_5c82d221e4b0ed0a00136103
Aliens are often told they're "citizens" for certain purposes (taxes, aid, etc..) and not for others so I can see how they'd make honest mistakes. I suspect there's unscrupulous parties that want them voting for politics once found out too. Not to mention your usual tard that feels entitled to vote.
In North Carolina you never needed to show a picture id to vote until the November 7, 2023 local elections (first time). There are numerous instances across states of people voting via mail-in ballot and also attempting to vote in person (which is usually easily caught if election officials are doing their jobs). These attempts (when deliberate) are usually done by mailing the ballot close to the final deadline so it arrives at the election office in the 3 day period after the election and then the person voting in person. In North Carolina if they believe you have voted via mail-in ballot (because the election office received it) then they will allow you to vote via a provisional ballot in person. Once the entire situation is sorted out (maybe your name was mis-marked as having voted early or via mail) then the provisional ballot may either count or not.