A Texas woman, who is not a citizen of the United States, was arrested Friday for having illegally voted in Dallas County — five times.
Rosa Maria Ortega, 35, is presently a resident of the Tarrant County Jail, where she is being held on a $10,000 bond, according to the Dallas-Fort Worth NBC affiliate Channel 5 News, which reported:
Ortega is married to an American and is living legally in this country, but is not a citizen and therefore, not qualified to vote, said Harry White, who supervises public integrity and white collar crime investigations for the Tarrant County District Attorney.
Ortega applied to vote in Tarrant County and acknowledged on the application form that she was not a citizen, White said. The county rejected her application and notified her she was not qualified to vote.
Having learned her lesson that only American citizens may vote in Texas, she re-applied five months later, this time claiming to be a U.S. citizen.
Although Ortega never voted in Tarrant country, records indicate that she did so five times in neighboring Dallas county — the earliest in a 2004 Republican primary, the latest in the 2014 Republican primary.
Her charges — illegal voting — is a second degree felony, punishable by a two to 20 year prison sentence.
A running battle between Republicans and Democrats is centered on voter ID laws. More than 30 states currently have some form of voter ID requirement.
Republicans claim that such laws are necessary as a protection against voter fraud.
Democrats claim stories of voter fraud are overblown and voter ID laws amount to voter suppression.
(via: BizPacReview)
