A dozen people in Alamance County, N.C., 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, reports the New York Times. While election experts 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. “That’s the law,” said Pat Nadolski, the Republican district attorney in Alamance County. “You can’t do it. If we have clear cases, we’re going to prosecute.”

The cases are rare compared with the tens of millions of votes cast in state and national elections. In 2017, at least 11 people nationwide were convicted of illegal voting because they were felons or noncitizens, according to the conservative Heritage Foundation. Others have been convicted of voting twice, filing false registrations or casting a ballot for a family member. The case against the 12 voters in Alamance County is unusual for the sheer number of people charged. Nine of the defendants are black. Civil rights and black leaders have urged the district attorney to drop the prosecution, saying that black voters were being disproportionately punished for an unwitting mistake. African Americans in North Carolina are more likely to be disqualified from voting because of felony convictions; their rate of incarceration is more than four times that of white residents. At a rally on Tuesday, President Trump, who has made baseless claims that millions of people voted illegally in 2016, renewed his calls for laws requiring voters to show photo identification.