XPost: alt.niggers, alt.politics.elections, alt.politics.democrats   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: Davecross@kremlin.ru   
      
   April 3, 2021   
   On Election Day 2016, Crystal Mason went to vote after her   
   mother insisted that she make her voice heard in the   
   presidential election. When her name didn’t appear on official   
   voting rolls at her polling place in Tarrant County, Texas, she   
   filled out a provisional ballot, not thinking anything of it.   
      
   Ms. Mason’s ballot was never officially counted or tallied   
   because she was ineligible to vote: She was on supervised   
   release after serving five years for tax fraud. Nonetheless,   
   that ballot has wrangled her into a lengthy appeals process   
   after a state district court sentenced her to five years in   
   prison for illegal voting, as she was a felon on probation when   
   she cast her ballot.   
      
   Ms. Mason maintains that she didn’t know she was ineligible to   
   vote.   
      
   “This is very overwhelming, waking up every day knowing that   
   prison is on the line, trying to maintain a smile on your face   
   in front of your kids and you don’t know the outcome,” Ms. Mason   
   said in a phone interview. “Your future is in someone else’s   
   hands because of a simple error.”   
      
   Her case is now headed for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals,   
   the highest state court for criminal cases, whose judges said on   
   Wednesday that they had decided to hear it. Ms. Mason   
   unsuccessfully asked for a new trial and lost her case in an   
   appellate court.   
      
   This new appeal is the last chance for Ms. Mason, 46, who is out   
   on appeal bond, to avoid prison. If her case has to advance to   
   the federal court system, Ms. Mason would have to appeal from a   
   cell.   
      
   Alison Grinter, one of Ms. Mason’s lawyers, said the federal   
   government made it clear in the Help America Vote Act of 2002   
   that provisional ballots should not be criminalized because they   
   represent “an offer to vote — they’re not a vote in themselves.”   
      
   She said that Ms. Mason didn’t know she was ineligible and was   
   still convicted, and that Texas’ election laws stipulate that a   
   person must knowingly vote illegally to be guilty of a crime.   
      
   “Crystal never wanted to be a voting rights advocate,” Ms.   
   Grinter said Thursday. “She didn’t want to be a political   
   football here. She just wanted to be a mom and a grandmother and   
   put her life on track, but she’s really taken it and run with   
   it, and she refuses to be intimidated.”   
      
   A Tarrant County grand jury indicted Ms. Mason for a violation   
   of the Texas election laws, a spokeswoman for the Tarrant County   
   Criminal District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.   
      
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   “Our office offered Mason the option of probation in this case,   
   which she refused,” the statement said. “Mason waived a trial by   
   jury and chose to proceed to trial before the trial judge.”   
      
   In March 2018, Judge Ruben Gonzalez of Texas’ 432nd District   
   Court found Ms. Mason guilty of a second-degree felony for   
   illegally voting.   
      
   According to Tommy Buser-Clancy, a lawyer at the American Civil   
   Liberties Union of Texas, Ms. Mason should never have never been   
   convicted. If there is ambiguity in someone’s eligibility, the   
   provisional ballot system is there to account for it, he said.   
      
   “That’s very scary,” he said of Ms. Mason’s conviction, “and it   
   guts the entire purpose of the provisional ballot system.”   
      
   If her eligibility was incorrect, he said, “that should be the   
   end of the story.”   
      
   The appeals court’s decision could set an important precedent   
   for the future of how the public interprets voting, especially   
   if they’re confused, according to Joseph R. Fishkin, a law   
   professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He said he hoped   
   that the court establishes a principle not to “criminalize   
   people for being confused about the complexities of the   
   interaction between the criminal law and election law.”   
      
   Professor Fishkin said that he and many other law experts   
   believe that if the court upholds Ms. Mason’s conviction, the   
   state would be in direct conflict with the federal Help America   
   Vote Act.   
      
   “It’s very important for basic fairness and for participation   
   around the country that people are confident that when they act   
   in good faith and aren’t trying to pull a fast one, that you’re   
   not going to start charging them for crimes,” Professor Fishkin   
   said Thursday. “If this case stands, that’s obviously   
   concerning, because a lot of people who may not understand the   
   details of their status or who is allowed to vote will be   
   deterred from voting.”   
      
   Across the United States, 5.2 million Americans cannot vote   
   because of a prior felony conviction, according to the   
   Sentencing Project, a research organization dedicated to crime   
   and punishment.   
      
   The office of the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, said that   
   531 election fraud offenses have been prosecuted since 2004. The   
   outcomes of those cases were not immediately available. At least   
   72 percent of Mr. Paxton’s voter fraud cases have targeted   
   people of color, according to The Houston Chronicle.   
      
   Ms. Mason’s cause has received support from the Cato Institute,   
   a libertarian think tank. Clark Neily, a senior vice president   
   for criminal justice at the institute, said the case represented   
   an example of excessive criminalization.   
      
   “It’s putting people in a position where they can commit a   
   criminal offense without even knowing that they’re in violation   
   of any law,” he said.   
      
   Celina Stewart, chief counsel at the League of Women Voters,   
   which has filed supporting briefs on Ms. Mason’s behalf, said   
   her case sent “a very clear message” that people with felony   
   convictions should be cautious.   
      
   “She’s being made an example, and the example is that you don’t   
   want returning citizens, Black people, Black women to vote,” she   
   said. “That’s an egregious narrative, and we have to push back   
   on that because that’s not how democracy works.”   
      
   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/us/texas-provisional-ballot-   
   appeal.html   
      
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