As a convicted felon, Polston is prohibited from voting. But according to the Oklahoma Voter Portal, Polston voted in this year's June primary and the August primary runoff.
The district attorney's office filed two felony charges against Polston today for voting while ineligible, as first reported by The Oklahoman newspaper.
Oklahoma Department of Correction records show Polston was returned to Mabel Bassett Correctional Facility on Thursday evening. She had previously spent about 10 weeks at Mabel Bassett before she was released earlier this year with a GPS monitoring device.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond said he notified federal officials that Polston has been removed from the GPS monitoring program because of the voting charges.
"I objected to Defendant Polston being released from [the Department of Corrections] on the GPS monitoring program earlier this year, and commend DOC's decision to terminate her program at this time," Cleveland County District Attorney Jennifer Austin said in a press release.
Public pushback on Polston's early release from prison prompted Oklahoma lawmakers to change the GPS monitoring program, which lets people convicted of certain crimes serve their sentences outside prison under GPS surveillance. The new law doesn't allow the program to include people convicted of seriously injuring another person while driving drunk, like Polston was.
After the law change, Oklahoma officials moved to return Polston to prison, and Polston filed a lawsuit arguing it would be illegal to retroactively apply the new law to her case.
Earlier this year, a grand jury considered whether Polston's early release and treatment in the Cleveland County Detention Center were influenced by her husband's longtime friendship with and campaign support for Gov. Kevin Stitt. The grand jury found no evidence of wrongdoing but said "rank political favoritism" played a role in how Polston's case was handled.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
