Voter fraud in black and white
The battle to save democracy continues.
White man commits intentional voter fraud:
A Marple Township man who illegally registered his dead mother as a Republican and cast a vote on her behalf in the 2020 presidential election has been sentenced to five years of probation, Delaware County prosecutors said.
Bruce Bartman, 70, pleaded guilty to felony counts of perjury and unlawful voting last December after investigators discovered he had successfully cast a mail-in ballot for his mother, who died 12 years ago. He also attempted to obtain a mail-in ballot for his dead mother-in-law, but the request was flagged by state officials.
Bartman used an old driver’s license number to request the mail-in ballot for his mother and sneak through Pennsylvania’s Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors system. He used the ballot to cast a vote for former President Donald Trump on Oct. 28.
Black woman accidentally violates arcane voting rule:
A Texas appeals court on Thursday upheld a five-year prison sentence for a woman who was convicted of illegally voting even though she didn’t know she was ineligible when she went to the polls in 2016. The punishment for the Fort Worth woman, Crystal Mason, stirred national outrage because of its severity, prompting accusations that prosecutors were trying to intimidate Texans from voting.
Four years ago, Mason was on supervised release, similar to probation, for a federal felony conviction related to tax fraud. She didn’t know that Texas prohibits felons from voting until they finish their sentence entirely. Mason voted in the last presidential election at the urging of her mother and cast a provisional ballot when poll workers couldn’t find her name on the voter registration rolls. The ballot was never counted because Mason was not an eligible voter.
During her 2018 trial probation officials testified that they never told Mason she could not vote, but the appeals court said that didn’t matter. Mason was guilty, the court said, because she knew she was on supervised release. “Contrary to Mason’s assertion, the fact that she did not know she was legally ineligible to vote was irrelevant to her prosecution,” Justice Wade Birdwell wrote for a three-judge panel on Texas’ second court of appeals.
Seems fair.
Seems fair?
I know of one convict from Texas who had a 30-year sentence. He was released on parole after 10 years served. The thing about Texas is a convict remains on parole till, till their sentence is completed or in this case 20 more years. During this time, the parolee can not vote also.
In other states, parole lasts for 2 years or so and then they no longer have to report to the parole office. If they do get into trouble, they can be returned to prison to serve the rest of their sentence . . . regardless of color.
Most are allowed to vote.
In this case, there appears to be a difference in purposeful fraud and making a mistake. Texans are asses, what more can I say?
In Texas, Justice is not blind
The “fair” bit was sarcasm.
Eric:
I know and am pitching it too.
But American isn’t a racist country, nosiree.
Joel
I would argue that America is not “a racist country.” But Texas is.
On the other hand, it just may be that some judges are stupid and cruel. I would not be surprised if he decided the same way if the person was white.
The problem is not that the woman is black. the problem is that it happened to anybody.
the problem is we don’t have a Supreme Court that will overturn the conviction’
The problem is us.
and the problem for me, is that if the woman wasn’t black, no one would care.
try not to misunderstand what i am trying to say.
Cob,
Perhaps I misunderstand your thought, but the idea that “if the woman wasn’t black, no one would care” is one of the most racist comments I have ever heard.
Yes, Michael you most certainly misunderstood.
the point i was trying to make is that we need to work to end cruelty to all races. But so far we only care about cruelty if it looks like racism. That’s a problem for me, because I am glad that at least we are fighting some cruelty. i am sad that we can’t bring ourselves to fight all cruelty.
The “racist” trope only serves to divide us. But apparently it’s the best we can do.
now the question is will you continue to misunderstand this.
Your calling me a racist is no different from someone calling a black person a n….r.
But I didn’t call you a racist.
And I have to tell you that if any person suffered the punishment of Crystal Mason it would certainly raise peoples’ ire.
EM
well you said my comment was most racist.
there are thousands of white Crystal Masons every year, but you don’t hear about them.
google “loveland garner body cam” for a place to start. my own introduction to the brutality of american “justice” involved only white victims.
and here is a thought for you: the 3/5 clause did not consider blacks “3/5 of a person.” it only counted the number of slaves and multiplied that by 3/5 for purposes of representation. if they had counted slaves as 5/5 that would have given the slave states MORE power in Congress. on the other hand if they had not counted them at all for purposes of representation, the South would not have joined the union… and thus had NO representation in Congress… which would have been worse for them, but they were too stupid to know that.
racism is a serious problem. stupidity is a bigger problem. cruelty is THE problem.
please understand that i am not suggesting we accept what is happening to Crystal Mason or any black person. on the contrary I think we should raise holy hell about it. but i am also saying we need to raise holy hell when it happens to a white person. right now only “racism” gets people active. cruelty doesn’t even make the news.
meanwhile … well, we’ve been over that [calling everything that moves “racism” has reached the point of being counterproductive. or had; maybe George Floyd’s murder has changed that…for a while.]
note further Calling Floyd’s murder (and similar outrages) “racism” is not “calling everything” racism. calling everything racism is saying “America is a racist country.” on the other hand, the war against racism is the only war against cruelty we have, so I have to accept half a loaf…but i hate to see it failing utterly to solve the real problem, and not only failing to solve the racism problem, but turning counterproductive.
EM
here is a harder problem for you:
google loveland police beat up good samaritan for not talking
note the victim is white, thought he had constitutional rights, and that the problem has no simple answer (though i think i may have a not-simple answer).
Coberly,
In no way, shape, or form is someone calling your comment racist similar to you calling a person that word. However, the insinuation otherwise is a known racist trope, especially when coupled with a dishonest framing, such as “you calling me a racist.”
Similarly, the Loveland situation is a dissimilar (stick to voter fraud and incongruous sentencing) “whataboutism” fallacy.
Perfect is the enemy of good – you don’t get to claim you’re for the elimination of all cruelty if whenever an example is shown, you say “whatabout…” Denying racism exists is a classic racist tactic, especially in such a clear-cut case, thus your sentiment was heinously so.
idriss,
i can see there is no point trying to talk to you. you’ve got it all figured out.
You can lead a horse to water…..