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<https://www.peacemakeronline.com/wp- content/uploads/2017/05/Carolyn-McDougal.jpg>

SMITHFIELD, N.C. — Jury selection is under way in Johnston
County where a member of the Dunn City Council will stand trial
for voter fraud.

The case against Carolyn McDougal is being heard in Johnston
County instead of Harnett County because of pretrial publicity.

McDougal is charged with 16 felony counts of absentee ballot
violations stemming from activities during her 1999 re-election
campaign. She is accused of fraudulently receiving absentee
ballots and returning them to the county elections board with
forged signatures.

On Monday, McDougal's attorney tried, but failed, to get the
case dismissed.

The defense said that McDougal is being unfairly singled out and
that a state investigation uncovered more than 100 problems with
ballots in Harnett County.

"To select one person to prosecute in a whole slew of other
people who had committed the exact same violations to me calls
into integrity elections in North Carolina," said Melissa
Siebert of the Southern Rights Voting Project.

McDougal, the town's first black councilwoman, is not expected
to face jail time if convicted. It is expected that she will be
placed on probation and would have to step down from the City
Council.

https://www.wral.com/news/local/story/101254/

Now, That'sSome RealVoter Fraud

Raleigh

Nine years ago, then-Dunn City Councilwoman Carolyn McDougal
faced 16 felony charges of voter fraud.

Prosecutors accused McDougal of fraudulently receiving absentee
ballots and returning them to the county board of elections with
forged signatures.

Four days into her trial, McDougal agreed to a plea deal with
prosecutors. She pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge
and agreed to resign from the Dunn council.

McDougal's case is one of the rare instances of organized voter
fraud - the type orchestrated by a candidate - prosecuted over
the past couple of decades in North Carolina. It could be the
kind of voter fraud that legislative Republicans want to prevent
with legislation requiring a photo ID card when voting.

It's not.

In fact, the photo ID legislation now making its way through the
North Carolina General Assembly would make absentee ballot fraud
easier.

The proposal to require a photo ID to vote is generating some
heated discussion around the Legislative Building these days.

Opponents say the requirement will suppress voter turnout,
especially that of the poor who may not drive and may not have a
photo ID. Some see it as a Republican power play at the expense
of those voters, an attempt to gain electoral advantage.

Supporters say the legislation is intended to address voter
fraud in an era when it has become too easy for anyone to walk
into a polling place and claim to be someone else. They say they
are responding to a growing lack of confidence in the electoral
system.

The rhetoric on both sides seems a bit overblown.

Hardly anyone can function in society today without a photo ID,
and the legislation allows for several types of ID, including a
new voter ID card that will be issued free of charge.

Supporters, though, have a hard time citing any evidence of the
fraud that the bill is designed to stop. Sure, they talk about
voters who went into a polling place only to discover that voter
rolls showed them as having already voted.

Is that fraud, or a poll worker putting a sticker in the wrong
place? More importantly, where are these cases of candidates
organizing massive conspiracies in which large numbers of people
vote in their precinct, then go tramping over to another
precinct to vote in someone else's name?

They don't exist, except in the minds of conspiracy theorists.

In every election, a handful of idiots may vote twice in an
election. That doesn't mean they swayed an election or did so at
the behest of a candidate.

On the other hand, preventing candidates or activists from
getting hold of large numbers of absentee ballots would seem to
be one of the best ways of preventing organized voter fraud.

The legislation makes that kind of fraud much easier, allowing
outside groups to create or fill out forms for absentee ballot
voters.

But why worry about real fraud when you can feed the fantasies
of the conspiracy-minded?

Scott Mooneyham writes for Capitol Press Association in Raleigh.
Contact him at smooneyh@ncinsider.com.

https://www.thepilot.com/opinion/now-thatssome-realvoter- fraud/article_3953e2ae-f302-5e12-8ea1-af9b4727d688.html

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