Monday, August 12, 2013

Former GOP Candidate Convicted of Voter Fraud

In the midst of his 2012 GOP primary campaign for a Massachusetts state House seat, Jack Villamaino changed the party affiliation of nearly 300 people in his town of East Longmeadow. Days later, the same number of absentee ballot requests were dropped off at the town clerk’s office, a list that was almost a “name-for-name match” for those whose registration information Villamaino had altered. 
Earlier this week, Villamaino pleaded guilty to felony charges of stealing ballots and changing the party affiliation of 280 Democrats during his campaign for state representative. A judge sentenced him to a year in jail, only four months of which he'll be forced to serve behind bars. 
The remainder of that sentence will be suspended, and Villamaino will also be required to serve a year of probation. Villamaino's defense attorney had hoped the judge would throw out the felony conviction, while Hampden District Attorney Mark Mastroianni had sought additional felony charges for forgery and perjury.
Another example of Republican projection. Republicans are running around saying the oppressive laws restricting voter access is because they fear voter fraud. Why are they afraid of Democrats performing voter fraud? Because that is what they, the Republicans, do, so they assume Democrats would do the same (that's not to say Democrats never defraud voters, but it seems that most of the stories in the past year have been about the GOP). A similar story happened here in Virginia last year where a Republican campaign operative committed voter fraud.

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