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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Sam Levine in New York

A white man got probation for voting fraud. A Black woman faced six years in prison for an error

Five people, their upper bodies concealed by white voting booth partitions with the word
Voting rights advocates say the harsh sentences levied against Black defendants have a chilling effect on voters. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images

In the late summer of 2020, Bruce Bartman went to Pennsylvania’s voter registration website and signed up his mother and mother-in-law to vote. Both women were dead.

A few months later, Bartman, who is white, requested a mail-in ballot for his late mother and cast her vote for Donald Trump. Bartman was arrested that December and charged with perjury and unlawful voting. Months later, he pleaded guilty, admitted he made a “stupid mistake”, was sentenced to five years of probation and barred from serving on a jury or voting for four years.

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