Imagine That: Voter-Fraud Allegations Against Hamilton County, Ohio Woman Who May Have Voted Six Times

UPDATE: The post has been revised from its original presentation to reflect the fact that the Cincinnati Enquirer covered the story but chose not to identify the person involved, even though her name is a matter of public record.

On Wednesday, local Cincinnati TV station WCPO did a report (HT John Fund at National Review via Doug Powers at Michelle Malkin's blog) on how "The Hamilton County Board of Elections is investigating 19 possible cases of alleged voter fraud" (Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County).

The most potentially outrageous case involves Melowese Richardson, who "admits to voting twice in the last election." Even though "she has worked the polls since 1988," she offered a hopelessly lame excuse for the multiple vote. She may also have voted four additional times under others' names, and also appears to have helped her granddaughter vote twice. Excerpts concerning Ms. Richardson's alleged voter fraud, which the left insists never, ever happens, follow the jump (bolds are mine throughout this post):

... On Nov. 11, she told an official she also voted at a precinct because she was afraid her absentee ballot would not be counted in time.

... According to BOE records, her name appeared on an absentee ballot list prior to Election Day. The board's report states poll workers should have updated the signature poll book by flagging "absentee voter" next to the names of those who appeared on the list. Upon investigation it was found that none of the voters who appeared on the list were flagged, which included Richardson. The staff could not locate that supplemental list when asked.

Richardson voted at the Madisonville Recreation Center where she worked as a paid worker on Election Day.

... "I, after registering thousands of people, certainly wanted my vote to count. So, I voted. I voted at the poll," she said.

The board's documents also state that Richardson was allegedly disruptive and hid things from other poll workers on Election Day after another female worker reported she was intimated by Richardson.

... During the investigation it was also discovered that her granddaughter, India Richardson, who was a first time voter in the 2012 election, cast two ballots in November.

We're not done yet. Ms. Richardson may have voted four additional times, bringing her total (excluding the granddaughter) to six:

Another claim is absentee ballots for Montez Richardson, Joseph Jones and Markus Barron all came from Richardson's Whetsel Avenue address were received by the board the same time as Richardson's and the handwriting on all four of them was similar.

One has to wonder how many such instances of potentially phantom voters such as these the Board of Elections failed to flag.

Finally, I can't overlook Ms. Richardson's stated motivation as she attempts to defend herself:

... Richardson's case will be heard on Feb. 22 and she says it's far from over.

"Absolutely. Absolutely, I'll fight it for Mr. Obama and for Mr. Obama's right to sit as president of the United States."

Apparently by any means necessary.

Fund describes the relevance in the opening of his National Review post:

Critics of voter ID and other laws cracking down on voter fraud claim they’re unnecessary because fraud is nonexistent. For instance, Brennan Center attorneys Michael Waldman and Justin Levitt claimed last year: “A person casting two votes risks jail time and a fine for minimal gain. Proven voter fraud, statistically, happens about as often as death by lightning strike.”

Well, lightning is suddenly all over Cincinnati, Ohio.

The entire state of Ohio had one death from a lightning strike last year.

A large PDF tedicously detailing all of the alleged lightning strikes -- er, possible instances of voter fraud, is here.

A search at the Cincinnati Enquirer on Ms. Richardson's first name returned no results. Although I have since learned, thanks to a NewsBusters commenter, that the local newspaper of record did a story, that item named no names and apparently doesn't care enough about ballot integrity to name Ms. Richardson, even though the underlying documents involved are matters of public record. I'll bet that if there was such a compendium of alleged offenses in neighboring suburban counties, the Enquirer would have named names.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.