A Massachusetts man pleaded
guilty Monday to illegally voting in both the 2008 and 2012 New Hampshire
primaries. Lorin Schneider was charged with one felony count and two
misdemeanor counts of “wrongful voting” under New Hampshire law for travelling from
Massachusetts to New Hampshire to cast votes in both primaries.
Schneider, a registered
Massachusetts Democrat, had once lived in New Hampshire, but moved out of the
state 20 years ago. New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Steve LaBonte said,
“it’s unclear at what date he had moved away, but he continued to vote using
his old address.” Schneider kept his New Hampshire driver’s license and used it
at the polls.
LaBonte called
Schneider’s actions a, “serious crime.” He also emphasized that, “in the 2012
election, we were a swing state. We take it seriously.”
As referenced in an
earlier post,
this is not the first instance of recorded illegal voting in New Hampshire this
year. In that case, a Democrat political activist voted (or was "voted" by someone else) in New Hampshire in
2012 despite no longer living there.
According to his statements
to state officials, Schneider voted, “because he wanted to vote in the first in
the nation primary, and he felt that his vote counted up here in New Hampshire.
According to him, Democrats always win in New Hampshire.”
Schneider was fined
$5,000 and given a suspended prison term of one to three years. He has also
lost his right to vote in New Hampshire, a right he never had in the first
place based on his residency.
No comments:
Post a Comment