XPost: alt.niggers, talk.politics.guns, houston.politics   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: nigger-lovers@disney.com   
      
   A Houston man who made headlines last year for standing in line   
   six hours to vote at Texas Southern University was charged this   
   week by Attorney General Ken Paxton with casting that ballot   
   illegally while on parole.   
      
   Just a day before Republicans forced a special session of the   
   Texas Legislature to tighten voting restrictions, Hervis Rogers,   
   62, was jailed on $100,000 bail in Montgomery County on two   
   counts of illegal voting, court records show, even though he   
   lives and voted in Harris County. Rogers is due back in court on   
   July 20 in what a legal expert called a “symbolic prosecution.”   
      
   “The argument of voter fraud is very hot right now, the   
   statistics don’t seem to bear out that it is widepsread but this   
   case will certainly stick, I suspect, in people’s memories as a   
   cautionary tale of why you should never consider doing it,”   
   according to criminal defense attorney Christopher Downey, who   
   is not affiliated with this case.   
      
   An indictment filed last month with the Montgomery County   
   District Court claims Rogers was still on parole for a 1995   
   burglary conviction when he voted in both the March 2020   
   Democratic primary and November 2018 general election.   
      
   He had been released from prison in May 2004 after serving nine   
   years of a 25-year sentence, according to the Texas Department   
   of Criminal Justice. He voted in the March elections less than   
   four months before his parole was set to expire on July 1, 2020.   
      
   Texas Election Code states that someone on parole for a felony   
   conviction is ineligible to register as a voter, and that   
   violations of election law may be prosecuted in the county where   
   the alleged crime was committed, or an adjoining county. Because   
   Rogers has three prior convictions between 1986 and 1995 — all   
   for burglary or robbery — he is potentially facing between 25   
   years to life in prison, Downey said.   
      
   The charges against Rogers are "extremely unusual" to Downey,   
   who said in his nearly 30 years in criminal law he’s never come   
   across a voter fraud case. The choice to prosecute in more   
   conservative Montgomery County instead of Harris County, where   
   the alleged fraud occurred, also “reeks of forum shopping” and   
   “strengthens the argument that its a symbolic prosecution,” even   
   if the move is legally sound.   
      
   If Rogers was indeed ineligible, his only point of contention   
   could be that he was unaware of the restrictions on his   
   eligibility, Downey said, though he noted that ignorance of a   
   law does not amount to much of a legal defense.   
      
   “The Hervis case demonstrates why we need to make sure people   
   who have been disenfranchised fully know their rights when it   
   comes to voting, but we also need to change the laws to fully   
   restore voting rights.” said Stephanie Gomez, associate director   
   at Common Cause Texas, a self-described “pro-democracy” group.   
   “There is already a lack of clarity around voting rights   
   restoration for people who have been disenfranchised by the   
   criminal justice system.”   
      
   A House bill introduced by Rep. John Bucy III, D-Austin, to   
   notify convicted felons about restrictions on their eligibility   
   to vote is currently in committee in the Texas Legislature.   
      
   The Harris County Elections Commission said the Harris County   
   Attorney’s Office informed the voter registrar’s office of the   
   allegations against Rogers after the March election, and sent a   
   letter to Rogers giving him 30 days to respond to the charge of   
   ineligibility. He was removed from the voter rolls on April 5   
   after they did not receive a response, the commission said.   
      
   The Office of the Attorney General said more information on   
   Rogers’ arrest was forthcoming, but declined to immediately   
   provide comment.   
      
   “Hervis is right now being held in jail because he can’t pay the   
   extraordinarily high bail, and it’s all for trying to exercise   
   his civic duty, and that is not justice,” said Thomas Buser-   
   Clancy, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union   
   in Texas representing Rogers.   
      
   Buser-Clancy did not offer details on Rogers’ defense, but   
   Rogers has said that he believed he was eligible to vote at the   
   time.   
      
   Rogers was the last person to vote in the March primary at Texas   
   Southern University, waiting over six hours to cast his vote   
   just after 1 a.m.   
      
   “When I first came up, I started turning around. It was a long   
   line,” Rogers said at the time. “Everywhere I went it was a   
   madhouse.”   
      
   His arrest comes as the Texas Legislature debates a   
   controversial voting bill during a special session called by   
   Gov. Greg Abbott, who says the proposed restrictions — which   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)