In a weird instance of synchronicity, two Maryland women are accused of voting illegally in the 2012 presidential election on behalf of their dead mothers.
Elsie Virginia Schildt of Frederick County allegedly filled out an absentee ballot in her mother’s name. Linda Earlette Wells of Montgomery County is accused of casting a fraudulent provisional ballot after reactivating her mother’s dormant voter registration.
Neither vote was counted, so it’s unlikely to inspire a trend. But both women could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of violating a process so “essential to our democratic society,” in the words of State Prosecutor Emmet C. Davitt.
Why anyone in Maryland would bother with voter fraud in a presidential election is a mystery to me. We’re not exactly a battleground. Perhaps these were tributes to the deceased?
