VIDALIA — Though an appeals court considered it too harsh, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the five years hard labor sentence a Ferriday woman was given for a voter fraud conviction in 2006.

Williams was convicted on charges of filing a false public document after she filled out the absentee ballot for Maude Lee Williams, who was not listed on the rolls of handicapped voters who qualified for voting assistance.

Judge Sharon Marchman sentenced Henrietta Williams to five years hard labor.

All but 18 months of that sentence were suspended, and Williams was also sentenced to five years probation, barred from working polls in the future and ordered to pay court costs and other fines.

An appeals court upheld the conviction but questioned if the sentence was too harsh. The attorney general’s office appealed that decision.