From the Chicago Tribune:
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Beth Keathley was so close to becoming a permanent U.S. resident that she could already feel its benefits showering over her: a Social Security number, a cheery new house in central Illinois, an official state identification card. Citizenship would not be far behind.
On the day the Filipino immigrant took part in her first U.S. election last year, she proudly sported an “I voted” lapel pin on her uniform when she showed up for her cleaning shift at a hospital.
But Keathley, who has lived in the U.S. on a marriage visa since 2003, was not a citizen when she voted. When she told an immigration officer about it, she was charged with breaking the law. She lost her job.
A non-US citizen busted for voting illegally (while not a US citizen)? I’d bet dimes-to-nickels that she voted a straight Democratic ticket.
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If the woman was making all of the right (and legal) steps towards legal citizenship in the United States, then she should have known that Immigration laws prohibit non-citizens from registering to vote. And surely she knew that she was not yet a citizen (she was “counting down the days”, remember?)…
I’m not sure how one could “accidentally” vote…
I hope it doesn’t ultimately cost her potential citizenship, but there should be a price and penalty for breaking the law. Which she did.
I’m sure her husband, the American citizen, knew it was illegal. She got busted breaking the law.
Left by Anonymous on December 3rd, 2007 at 8:09 pm