2012 North Carolina – Criminal Conviction – Horatio Johnson

Horatio Johnson was charged with felony election fraud for voting in the November 2008 election despite having pleaded guilty in August of that year to a felony drug charge. Prosecutors allowed Johnson to plead guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor obstruction of justice for his ineligible voting. He was given a 120 days’ suspended sentence and unsupervised probation. Johnson’s attorney argued that his client’s case was an example of why North Carolina needed voter ID laws, since without them, “[a]nyone can vote.”