Arrested, jailed, charged with a felony — for voting.

By Jack Healy | SFGate

GRAHAM, N.C. — Keith Sellars and his daughters were driving home from dinner at a Mexican restaurant last December when he was pulled over for running a red light. The officer ran a background check and came back with bad news for Sellars. There was a warrant out for his arrest.

As his girls cried in the back seat, Sellars was handcuffed and taken to jail.

His crime: Illegal voting.

“I didn’t know,” said Sellars, who spent the night in jail before his family paid his $2,500 bond. “I thought I was practicing my right.”

Sellars, 44, is one of a dozen people in Alamance County in North Carolina who have been charged with voting illegally in the 2016 presidential election. All were on probation or parole for felony convictions, which in North Carolina and many other states disqualifies a person from voting. If convicted, they face up to two years in prison.

While election experts and public officials across the country say there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, local prosecutors and state officials in North Carolina, Texas, Kansas, Idaho and other states have sought to send a tough message by filing criminal charges against the tiny fraction of people who are caught voting illegally.

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