This morning's Albuquerque Journal has the strange story of an Albuquerque man who agreed to plead guilty to a dozen child pornography charges as long as he is allowed to perform his civic duty and vote.

Patrick O'Hara, 66, pleaded guilty Tuesday to 12 counts of sexual exploitation of children either by possession or distribution of child pornography and faces a maximum sentence of 27 years in prison -- although prosecutors agreed to an eight-year cap, the Journal reported.

But O'Hara had an unusual request for state District Judge Charles Brown.

"Prior to your sentencing, can I vote in the June election?" O'Hara asked Brown, telling the judge he was "working on" obtaining an absentee ballot for the June 3 primary election.

The judge OK'd the request, saying sentencing was set for July 16 anyway, the Journal said.

It wasn't clear whether O'Hara would be voting as a Republican or Democrat -- but, hey, it's a free country and it's a secret ballot.

Except that, according to Bernalillo County Deputy Clerk Robert Adams, under state law the right to vote is taken away at the point of conviction, not at sentencing, the Journal reported.

Another felon with an Albuquerque connection has even higher aspirations, the online magazine Slate wrote this week in "Candidate of Conviction."

Keith Russell Judd, who turns 50 later this month, managed to get his name on the ballot in Idaho for that state's presidential primary, offering himself as a Democratic alternative to Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, according to Slate.

Judd says he's pro-choice, opposes No Child Left Behind, wants an end to the war in Iraq, Slate reported.

The only hitch: He's currently serving time in a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas, and won't get out until 2013.

Judd landed in prison after being convicted of making threats on the University of New Mexico campus in 1999, according to published reports last month.

Readers with long memories may remember Judd as a longtime seeker of public office, including a write-in candidacy for mayor of Albuquerque in 1993 and running as a write-in candidate for governor of New Mexico in 1994.

Judd also was a write-in candidate for president in Idaho in 2004, while still behind bars, but this time he actually qualified to be on Idaho's ballot, simply by sending in a notarized form and paying a $1,000 fee, the Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman Review reported last month.

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