Texas: Woman Sentenced for Voter Fraud Is Acquitted

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Facts

• A Texas appeals court has thrown out a five-year prison sentence that was handed down to a Texas woman, Crystal Mason, over casting an ineligible ballot in the 2016 election.¹
• Mason was serving the end of a tax felony sentence on probation, but she claimed she didn't know she was ineligible to vote while serving the sentence. Prosecutors argued that the necessary information was included on the ballot.²
• Since she wasn't on the voter registry at the time, she filled out a provisional ballot, though it was later rejected and never counted.³
• During her appeals process in 2020, Texas's Second Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that whether she was aware or not was 'irrelevant to the prosecution.'⁴
• After that ruling, the state's highest appeals court ordered the lower court to review the case again and 'evaluate the sufficiency of the evidence under the correct interpretation of the statute.'⁵
• The case has relied upon testimony from the poll worker who reviewed the affidavit signed by Mason regarding information about felons. The court's final ruling said there wasn't enough evidence to prove she 'actually realized' she couldn't vote.¹

Sources: ¹Guardian, ²CNN, ³NPR Online News, ⁴New York Times and ⁵The Hill.

Narratives

• Democratic narrative, as provided by MSNBC. This is a win for voting rights, particularly for Black voters whom Republican-led states wish to make voting harder. Several Republicans have been convicted of far more egregious voter fraud, including a Georgia GOP vice chairman who voted nine times — but unlike Mason, he was given no prison sentence, only a $5K fine. The party that claims to care about voter fraud is letting its own members off the hook while giving criminals from their team a slap on the wrist.
• Republican narrative, as provided by Townhall. While Democrats will try and spin this into a civil rights issue, the truth is that Ms. Mason only completed three of her five years in prison, the following two of which she was still a convicted felon and couldn't vote. Mason, who upon her release swore not to lie about her felon status, was part of a growing problem in Texas, which continued years later when the state prosecuted over 30 cases in 2018.

Predictions