Thread: Texas court upholds conviction of woman sentenced to 8 years in prison for voter frau

Texas court upholds conviction of woman sentenced to 8 years in prison for voter fraud



By Kaitlyn Schallhorn | Fox News



Rosa Maria Ortega was sentenced to 8 years in prison for voter fraud. (Dallas County Jail)



An appeals court upheld last year’s conviction of a Texas woman who officials said voted illegally multiple times, Attorney General Ken Paxton said Tuesday.
Rosa Maria Ortega, a green card holder, is a permanent resident who lives in the Dallas area. On voter registration forms, Ortega marked she was a U.S. citizen – allowing her to vote “illegally for more than 10 years,” Paxton’s office said.
The mother of four was sentenced to eight years in prison with parole eligibility in less than one year. She was also fined $5,000. The Texas 2nd Court of Appeals upheld the conviction Tuesday.
The attorney general’s office said it had offered Ortega a lesser punishment so she could avoid prison – just two years of community supervision – but she declined and chose a jury trial instead.


TRUMP DISMANTLES VOTER FRAUD COMMISSION: HERE'S WHAT THE CONTROVERSIAL GROUP DID



“This case underscores the importance that Texans place on the institution of voting and the hallowed principle that every citizen’s vote must count,” Paxton said in a statement. “We will hold those accountable who falsely claim eligibility and purposely subvert the election process in Texas.”
Ortega had said she was confused by the voter registration forms and made a mistake when she marked that she was a U.S. citizen on the paperwork.
“All my life since I worked, I always on my knowledge thought I was a U.S. citizen because I never knew the difference of U.S. citizen and U.S. resident,” Ortega said, according to KDFW-TV. “And the point is if I knew, everything would’ve been the correct way.”
Clark Birdsall, her attorney, told The Washington Post the only options on the form was “citizen” or “noncitizen.”


“She doesn’t know. She’s got this [green] card that says ‘resident’ on it, so she doesn’t mark that she’s not a citizen. She had no ulterior motive beyond what she thought, mistakenly, was her civic duty,” Birdsall said.
But prosecutors didn’t buy the defense. They said she initially marked she was not a U.S. citizen on a voter registration form when she moved from Dallas County to Tarrant County in 2014 and was informed she would not be eligible to vote. When she applied again, she indicated she was a U.S. citizen, according to Paxton’s office.
Records show Ortega was a registered Republican, and she cast a ballot for Paxton in 2014. She voted in four elections in Dallas County after she registered to vote in 2002. She voted five other times between 2004 and 2014, the attorney general’s office said.
Voter fraud became a hot-button issue after President Trump made an unsubstantiated claim that he would have won the popular vote in the 2016 election if millions of people had not illegally voted.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tex...or-voter-fraud

Serve time, loose the Green Card...deport when time served.

If she has family here...deport them too.

WELL WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THEM THAT DID THIS ARE THEY GOING TO GET AWAY WITH IT

Originally Posted by southBronx

WELL WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THEM THAT DID THIS ARE THEY GOING TO GET AWAY WITH IT

No, of course not, just the one lonely Republican voter.

"The mother of four was sentenced to eight years in prison with parole eligibility in less than one year."

Trump dismantles voter fraud commission: Here's what the controversial group did


By Kaitlyn Schallhorn, | Fox News

Trump voter fraud commission: Some refusing to cooperate

President Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission sent a letter to all 50 states, requesting full voter-data roll, to further investigate alleged voter fraud during the 2016 presidential election. Some state officials are already refusing to cooperate






President Trump dismantled his controversial voter fraud commission as the group faced lawsuits, oppositions from states and fighting among its members.


On social media, Trump accused “Democrat States” of refusing to turn over information requested by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity – tasked with investigating alleged voter fraud in the 2016 election – because “they know that many people are voting illegally.”


“System is rigged,” Trump said, calling for more stringent voter ID laws.


A June 2017 letter addressed to states from the commission asked for “publicly available voter roll data.” However, the letter also requested a lot of specific details, including: parts of Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and information regarding felony convictions or military status.


Officials plan to erase the information already collected by the commission, White House Director of Technology Charles Herndon said in a declaration submitted to federal court.


The commission was also hit with a bevy of legal obstacles by organizations and state lawmakers regarding its practices.
What was the commission?

Trump created the commission through an executive order in May. It was expected to investigate instances of alleged voter fraud in the 2016 election.

President Donald Trump speaks at the first meeting of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity co-chaired by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (L) and Vice President Mike Pence (R). (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)





Vice President Mike Pence chaired the commission with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach serving as its vice chair.


Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, a Democrat on the commission, sued the group in federal court. He alleged, in part, that it violated federal law by refusing to provide him documents made available to other members.


Dunlap also blamed Kobach and his allies for “stonewalling” progress on the commission.
Why did Trump create it in the first place?

In the days following his inauguration, Trump called for a “major investigation” into alleged voter fraud in the U.S.
Trump has claimed multiple times that between 3 and 5 million “illegals” voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, thus costing him the popular vote. These claims have not been verified.


However, critics have said the commission was part of a campaign to make it more difficult for lower-income and minority voters to access a ballot box. Others said it was an effort by the Trump administration to distract from the ongoing investigation into Russian collusion in the 2016 election.
Why did Trump decide to disband it?

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the commission “rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense.”


She said the Department of Homeland Security has been asked to review the group’s initial findings and “determine [the] next course of action.”


In his declaration, Herndon said “state voter data will not be transferred to or accessed or utilized by” DHS, Politico noted.
Kobach called the disbanding of the commission a “tactical change” and said DHS can still pursue its own probe into election fraud in a quicker manner.


"The Democrats, both on and off the commission, made very clear that they were not interested in determining the scope and extent of voter fraud and, indeed, they were trying to stop the commission in its tracks," Kobach said. "The Democrats lost their opportunity, lost their seat at the table, by stonewalling."


Several secretaries of state, Republican and Democrat, bucked a request for sensitive data by the commission or said they would only provide limited data.


Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, suggested the commission “go jump in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Even Kobach said his state would only provide some of the data requested by his commission.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tru...sial-group-did

Originally Posted by stoptheinvaders

Why did Trump decide to disband it?

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the commission “rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense.”


She said the Department of Homeland Security has been asked to review the group’s initial findings and “determine [the] next course of action.”

No will to fight, just allow voter fraud to continue.

Turn this over to DHS with open borders Nielsen in charge.

Folded on the first round. Trump's not the fighter he plays on TV.

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

Folded on the first round. Trump's not the fighter he plays on TV.

Yep, he seems to surrender easily under pressure. Honestly, I don't know if it's his way or if he's just taking the advice of the advisers he employed. It would be nice to see him fight harder on border security and immigration issues.

From 2017.

Mexican National Found Guilty of Illegal Voting


Photo: Dallas County Jail
9 Feb 2017
Fort Worth, TX

A Texas jury convicted a Mexican national for the crime of “illegal voting” on Wednesday and was sentenced to eight years in prison. At trial, she claimed she did not know the difference between being a resident and a citizen.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Tarrant County officials put Rosa Maria Ortega to trial for voting in two Texas elections.

Texas legislators enacted the law in 2011 and it became effective on January 1, 2012.Breitbart Texas reported that Ortega would face trial on Monday. The 37-year-old woman was indicted in November 2015.

The Tarrant County indictment stated that she voted in the November 2012 General Election and the May 2014 Primary Run-off, knowing she was not eligible to vote because she is not a U.S. citizen. Ortega had previously applied to vote, but Tarrant County officials rejected her application because she admitted on the form to non-citizen status when asked. She filled out an application five months later and alleged she was a citizen.

A release distributed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday noted that Ortega “cast ballots five times between 2004 and 2014.” The bulk of these instances occurred before Texas began enforcement of its photo voter identification law.

Ortega did not vote in the 2016 General Election.

During the trial, Sergeant Joseph Cadwell with the attorney general’s public integrity unit, testified that Ortega confirmed she was not a citizen but said she would be “marrying her husband” (a U.S. citizen) in the near future.

Sgt. Cadwell, who interviewed Ortega at her home in October 2015 along with Sgt. Wayne Rubio, showed Ortega seven Dallas County forms she had signed. In all, there were five voter registration applications. Two of them had the citizenship box checked “YES”, the others were blank, but all were signed with the affirmation about U.S. citizenship. Ortega also confirmed that she sent a registration application to Tarrant County in October 2014 with the “NO” box checked and received a rejection letter because she said she was not a citizen. She also told the sergeant she had registered for food stamps.

Ortega’s main defense witness at trial was herself. She said she had not pursued being a citizen because she lacked the necessary funds.

The jury took a few hours to find her guilty on both counts.

General Paxton lauded the case’s conclusion Thursday, saying, “This case shows how serious Texas is about keeping its elections secure, and the outcome sends a message that violators of the state’s election law will be prosecuted to the fullest.”

The Ortega case has been prosecuted amid legislative activity in states like Texas and Virginia, which are actively pursuing legal reforms that would require individuals seeking to become registered voters to prove U.S. citizenship as a prerequisite. In Austin, House Bill 1079, authored by Rep. Mike Schofield (R-Houston), and SB 136, submitted by Sen. Van Taylor (R-Plano), would require election clerks to verify citizenship with documents such as passports, birth certificates, and naturalization forms. The Public Interest Legal Foundation recently released a report documenting more than 1,000 cases of voters being removed from Virginia’s rolls for reasons related to citizen eligibility. Similar legislation is under consideration in that state as well. Only one state, Kansas, currently requires prospective voters to prove citizenship.

The offense of “Illegal Voting” in Texas is a felony of the second degree.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/201...llegal-voting/