A number of A-list rappers together with Drake and 50 Cent turned victims of id theft after they had been wrongfully registered to vote utilizing the identical handle in Texas in what state officers say is an apparent prank.
Particulars of the artists together with Drake, 50 Cent, Chris Brown, Trey Songz, and The Recreation had been all entered into kinds utilizing the identical house handle in Katy, a metropolis west of Houston. Regardless of this, residents of the neighborhood the place they had been registered acknowledged they’d not seen any of the celebrities in the neighborhood.
Data from the Harris County Tax Assessor’s Workplace point out that the lads had been registered to vote on August 15, a day when Drake was performing in California, roughly 1,500 miles away, as reported by the New York Submit.
The identical particular person accomplished all registration purposes for the celebrities, but none voted in final 12 months’s elections, indicating no prevalence of voter fraud.
“These individuals are both committing excessive misdemeanors or felonies,” mentioned Randall Erben, a regulation professor on the College of Texas at Austin, referring to whoever registered the celebrities to vote. “This isn’t playing around.”
State regulation permits solely a partner, mum or dad, or little one appearing as an agent to finish voter registration kinds on behalf of another person, implying that the identical particular person couldn’t have legally submitted kinds for all 5 celebrities.
Federal regulation permits individuals to register to vote in Texas with out a driver’s license quantity, ID, or Social Safety quantity if they supply full authorized names and beginning dates, data simply accessible on-line for celebrities.
The prankster who used the main points of the 5 artists checked a field indicating they lacked a supplementary type of ID on every registration.
Offering a false or solid voter utility kind is taken into account a third-degree felony whereas appearing as another person’s agent is a Class A misdemeanor. Class A misdemeanors may end up in as much as a 12 months in jail and a $4,000 positive. The person who accomplished the purposes signed the papers, which learn: “I perceive that giving false data to acquire a voter registration is perjury and a criminal offense underneath state and federal regulation. Conviction of this crime could end in imprisonment as much as one 12 months in jail, a positive as much as $4,000, or each.”
Underscoring the gravity of voting rights, Harris County Lawyer Christian Menefee mentioned such points ought to by no means be trivialized as a mere prank.
“Drake and 50 Cent didn’t do these voter registrations, and whoever did commit a criminal offense,” he mentioned.
