I agree with your reasoning, but what a screwed up situation.
Our nation is nothing without fair elections.
It would seem the legislature had it’s head in a strange place on the day these rules were ratified. That’s for sure.
I should say that the judge didn’t completely throw the book at her, but there wasn’t a whole lot more he could have done. I think he could have imposed an additional $1,000 in fines (the statutory maximum is $5,000) and he might have been able to impose more community service and other conditions, though there may be additional guidelines he has to follow that aren’t in the part of the statute I read.
You’re right that it’s a crazy situation. The worst thing is that no state other than Georgia actually verifies the citizenship of registered voters. Arizona had a law that required one to present proof of citizenship in order to register to vote, but that was struck down by a federal court which held that the Arizona law was preempted by the National Voter Registration Act.
Georgia has survived by using a less “burdensome” system - it checks voter registration against DMV records which show whether one produced proof of citizenship or mere legal residence when obtaining a Georgia drivers’ license. Now, I don’t know what they do with voters who have no driver’s license, but it’s better than nothing. That law has been challenged as violating the Voting Rights Act, but last I heard it has yet to be struck down.
It’s absurd that there is really very little stopping non-citizens from registering to vote in most states. Technically it would be a crime, but who’s going to catch them? There is hardly any difference anymore between being a citizen and being a permanent resident alien. I am hard pressed to think of more than a couple things that the former can do that the latter cannot.