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0000017a-3b40-d913-abfe-bf44a4f90000Howard Wilkinson joined the WVXU news team as the politics reporter and columnist in April 2012 , after 30 years of covering local, state and national politics for The Cincinnati Enquirer. On this page, you will find his weekly column, Politically Speaking; the Monday morning political chats with News Director Maryanne Zeleznik and other news coverage by Wilkinson. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Wilkinson has covered every Ohio gubernatorial race since 1974, as well as 16 presidential nominating conventions. Along with politics, Wilkinson also covered the 2001 Cincinnati race riots, the Lucasville prison riot in 1993, the Air Canada plane crash at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in 1983, and the 1997 Ohio River flooding. And, given his passion for baseball, you might even find some stories about the Cincinnati Reds here from time to time.

Three more indicted in vote fraud investigation

Three more persons have been indicted by a Hamilton County grand jury on charges of illegally voting in the November 2012 election, bringing the number charged with vote fraud up to six so far.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters announced the indictments Tuesday, saying, if convicted, they face the possibility of up to 18 months in prison.

They were among six cases referred to the prosecutor by the Hamilton County Board of Elections so far in a widespread investigation of vote fraud in last fall’s election.

The three indicted Tuesday are:

-    Margaret Allen, 64, a Florida resident who is charged with attempting to vote here last fall by absentee ballot, although she has allegedly not been a resident of Ohio since 2009.

-    Ernestine Strickland, 84, who is charged with registering to vote and voting by absentee ballot, even though she is allegedly a resident of Tennessee and has never lived in Ohio.

-    Andre Wilson, 39, who allegedly voted by absentee ballot by using a fictitious Ohio address.
Earlier three other voters were charged with illegal voting.

Marguerite Kloos, a nun of the Sisters of Charity, entered a guilty plea to a charge of casting an absentee ballot for another nun who had died before the board of elections had mailed out absentee ballots. She was sentenced to a diversion program for at least a year and will do no prison time.

Another, Melowese Richardson, who worked the polling place at the Madisonville Recreation Center on election day last fall, is charged with eight counts of illegal voting, including casting two ballots under her own name. She is due in court Thursday.

Russell Glossop, a 75-year-old man from Symmes Township, is charged with one count of illegal voting for filling out and mailing in an absentee ballot for his wife after she had passed away. He is also seeking a diversion program and is scheduled to appear in court next week.

The board of election will meet May 15 to discuss the possibility of referring more cases to the prosecutor.
 

Howard Wilkinson is in his 50th year of covering politics on the local, state and national levels.