People keep saying that vote fraud is not a problem in America, but apparently it continues to be in the metro-east.

Two Cahokia women face felony charges involving the mishandling of absentee ballots for the election in November. Both are accused of taking the ballot of an unrelated person and putting it in the mail for the November election.

And Kevin Wiggins, already on probation for vote fraud in a municipal race in Cahokia, is charged with a misdemeanor for circulating petitions for Curtis McCall Jr., a third-party candidate for St. Clair County Board.

Illinois has made elections accessible through early voting and broader access to absentee ballots, but in the process it has created more opportunities for overzealous campaign workers to skew elections.

Voting is one of our most precious rights. Anyone who would tamper with that process should be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Repeat offenders are particularly offensive and deserve harsh punishment.