Donald Trump has made a whole lot of noise about voter fraud in last year’s presidential election. The fact that he lost the popular vote continues to drive him absolutely nuts and, though he’s already been in the White House for almost 100 days, he continues to talk about how millions of people cast illegal votes. Well, he’s right. Not about the millions, but there is proof that some people voted illegally and most of them seem to have been for him. In North Carolina, for instance, a woman admitted that she cast an illegal vote for Trump in the presidential election, in order to fulfill her mother’s dying wish. The state prosecutor, a Republican, announced that she is not going to be charged for this crime. Big surprise, huh?
District Attorney David Learner, chief prosecutor for Catawba, Burke and Caldwell counties, announced his decision Wednesday not to pursue the case, which had been referred to him by the State Board of Elections.
Learner, a Republican, withheld the name of the voter but said she had cast the improper vote for Trump last November “out of sheer ignorance” of the law and while “grieving the loss of her mother.”
Anyone who has ever lost a parent can totally understand a child being overcome with grief. And people cope with death and dying in many different ways. But let’s not forget one small thing in this scenario—this is against the law. And can you imagine if this were a Clinton voter? Or if this woman were an immigrant? They’d have tried to put her away for life.
The voter said her 89-year-old mother was an enthusiastic Trump supporter who felt the Republican presidential candidate could “save our country.” The mother donated to Trump’s campaign and stayed glued to Fox News to watch his debates and follow the presidential election.
The mother also suffered from a serious heart condition. In late October, the daughter says she asked her mother to fill out an absentee voter request – just in case her health kept her from making it to the polls in November. The mother agreed, but added: “If anything happens to me, you have my power of attorney, and you be sure to vote for Donald Trump.”
The next day the mother suffered a massive stroke and died three days later, her daughter said, in a statement included in Learner’s release.
It was on November 3 that the woman took the power of attorney form to an early voting site and cast a vote for Trump using her mother’s name. The vote, it seems, didn’t have much impact on the outcome. Trump carried Catawba County by almost 70 percent of the vote. Still, and let’s keep coming back to this fact: this was illegal. But apparently, it doesn’t matter to District Attorney David Learner.
“It makes no difference who the vote was cast for,” he said in his statement. “This office consistently demonstrates compassion in dealing with first-time, non-violent offenders.
“She made a mistake out of sheer ignorance without any intent to defraud or commit a crime. She was grieving the loss of her mother and believed that the power of attorney allowed her to cast this vote.”
This demonstrates the sheer hypocrisy of Republicans. If this had been a Clinton voter and especially if this had made a difference in the election, there most certainly would have been no grace or compassion for this woman. Perhaps the Trump supporters should take some of the advice they were so famous for shouting on the campaign trail and “Lock her up!”