At least 16 St. Louis area Democrats have been found guilty of election crimes in the last year and a half!
Sheila Thomas hugs her Defense Attorney Paul Sims. Thomas was convicted of conspiracy and vote fraud and faced up to five years in prison for each charge.
Nov. 18 2004: Nine precinct committeemen appear before a federal grand jury probing vote fraud during the Nov. 2 election.
December 2004: In St. Louis Six volunteers pleaded guilty in December of dozens of election law violations for filling out the cards with names of the dead and other bogus information. One still faces charges.
January 21, 2005: Kelvin Ellis, a top administrator at East St. Louis City Hall, was indicted for plotting to kill a witness in the year long East St. Louis, Illinois federal vote fraud investigation.
February 10, 2005: In St. Louis Nonaresa Montgomery was found guilty by a jury of perjury in a trial in St. Louis Circuit Court in the St. Louis vote fraud trial.
March 22, 2005: Precinct committeemen Leroy Scott Jr., 46; Lillie Nichols, 51; Terrance R. Stith, 43; and his wife, precinct worker Sandra Stith, 54; plead guilty to one count each of vote-buying.
March 23, 2005: The chairman of the East St. Louis Democratic Central Committee and councilman Charles Powell Jr. is charged with conspiracy to commit election fraud. Charged with conspiracy as well as election fraud are East St. Louis City Hall employees Jesse Lewis, Sheila Thomas, Kelvin Ellis, and Yvette Johnson.
June 29, 2005: All five defendants are convicted on all counts.
That comes out to 16 different Democrats convicted of election violations since the 2004 election in the St. Louis area!
One democrat, Kelvin Ellis, was convicted of attempted murder of a government witness and also for voter fraud. The East St. Louis director of regulatory affairs, conspired to discredit, then murder, a federal witness because she had threatened to expose a prostitution ring Ellis was running out of City Hall.
But with all of this scandal, the ACLU and Missouri Democrats are challenging the new Missouri Voter ID Law.
John Stephenson has the outrageous news from today.
Update: Missouri Democrats are forced to pay fine, again:
The Federal Election Commission has imposed a $20,000 fine on the Missouri Democratic Party for violating federal campaign finance laws during the 2002 election.
The fine – part of a negotiated settlement – comes less than a year after the party paid a separate $110,000 fine to resolve similar allegations from the 2000 election.
This story didn’t make many headlines!
