On Election Day 2016, Crystal Mason went to the polls after her mother insisted she make her voice heard in the presidential election. When her name did not appear on the official ballot papers at her polling station in Tarrant County, Texas, she filled out a provisional ballot without thinking about it.
Mason’s ballot was never officially counted or counted because she was unable to vote: she was released under supervision after serving five years due to tax fraud. The vote nevertheless involved her in a lengthy appeal process after a district court sentenced her to five years in prison for illegal voting, as she was a criminal on probation when she cast her vote.
Mason claims she did not know she was ineligible to vote.
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“It’s very overwhelming. I wake up every day knowing that prison is at stake, trying to keep a smile on your face in front of your children, and you do not know what the result is,” Mason said in said a telephone interview. “Your future is in the hands of someone else because of a simple mistake.”
Her case is on its way to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest state criminal court, whose judges said Wednesday they had decided to hear it. Mason unsuccessfully asked for a new trial and lost her case in an appeals court.
The new appeal is the last chance for Mason, 46, who is on appeal, to avoid jail time. If her case goes to the federal court system, Mason will have to appeal from a cell.
Alison Grinter, one of Mason’s attorneys, said the federal government made it clear in the Help America Vote Act of 2002 that provisional ballots should not be criminalized because it is an offer to vote – it is not a does not vote on its own. ‘
She said Mason did not 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 an advocate for suffrage,” Grinter said Thursday. “She did not want to be a political footballer here. She just wanted to be a mom and a grandma and get her life on track, but she really took it and ran with it and she refuses to be intimidated. ‘
A large jury in Tarrant County has charged Mason with violating Texas election laws, a spokesman for the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
“Our office offered Mason the probationary option in this case, which she refused,” the statement said. “Mason waived a hearing by the jury and chose to stand trial before the trial judge.”
In March 2018, Judge Ruben Gonzalez of the 432nd District Court in Texas found Mason guilty of a second-degree offense for voting illegally.
According to Tommy Buser-Clancy, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Mason should never have been convicted. If there is ambiguity in someone’s suitability, the provisional voting system is there to justify it, he said.
“It’s very narrow, ‘he said of Mason’s conviction,’ and it fully accomplishes the purpose of the provisional voting system. ‘
If her eligibility was wrong, he said, “that should be the end of the story.”
The appellate court’s ruling could set an important precedent for the future of how the public interprets the vote, especially if they are confused, according to Joseph Fishkin, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He said he hoped the court would establish a principle not to “criminalize people because they are confused about the complex interaction between criminal law and electoral law.”
Fishkin said he and many other legal experts believe that if the court upholds Mason’s conviction, the state would be in direct violation of the federal Help America Vote Act.
“It is very important for basic justice and for participation across the country that people are confident that if they act in good faith and do not try fast, they will not be charged with crimes,” Fishkin said. said Thursday. “If this case exists, it is of course worrying, because many people who may not understand the details of their status or who may vote will be prevented from voting.”
Across the United States, 5.2 million Americans could not vote because of a past offense, according to the Sentencing Project, a research organization dedicated to crime and punishment.
The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said 531 election fraud offenses have been prosecuted since 2004. The outcomes of these cases were not immediately available. According to The Houston Chronicle, at least 72% of Paxton’s fraud cases targeted people of color.
Mason’s case 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 is an example of excessive criminalization.
“It puts people in a position where they can commit a criminal offense without even knowing they are violating any law,” he said.
Celina Stewart, chief executive of the League of Women Voters, who has submitted support orders on behalf of Mason, said her case sends a very clear message that people with a belief in the offense should be careful.
“An example is being made of her, and the example is that you do not want returning citizens, black people, black women to vote,” she said. “This is a serious story, and we need to push back on it, because that’s not how democracy works.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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