The untold story of how a US woman was sentenced to six years for voting [View all]

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The untold story of how a US woman was sentenced to six years for voting
The case of Pamela Moses sparked a national outcry – but newly uncovered documents reveal the extent of its injustice

Sam Levine
Tue 27 Dec 2022 02.00 EST


(Guardian UK) It was the morning after Labor Day and Pamela Moses was in a rush.

All summer, the outspoken activist had been feuding with election officials in Memphis, Tennessee. She wanted to get her name on the ballot for Memphis’s 2019 mayoral election, even gathering enough signatures to do so. But officials said she could not run – a prior felony conviction made her ineligible to seek office.

Now, there was a new problem. In late August, the local elections commission sent her a letter saying they were going to cancel her voter registration. Moses was confused – she had been voting for years. That day, she was determined to sort it out.

But what unfolded over just a few hours that day on 3 September 2019 would upend her life. It would lead to a sudden arrest months later at O’Hare airport in Chicago and culminate in a six-year prison sentence for voter fraud.

Her case would go on to touch a nerve in the US and cause a national outcry. While there’s no comprehensive data on voter fraud prosecutions based on race, it was one of several recent examples in which Black defendants like Moses have faced long criminal sentences for voting errors, while white people have faced little punishment for more fraud. Long after the abolition of poll taxes and literacy tests, Black Americans still face significant scrutiny for trying to exercise their right to vote. ..............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/27/pamela-moses-voting-rights-mistake-jail