Attorneys appealing Crystal Mason illegal voting case look to new Texas election law
Attorneys for Crystal Mason are looking to a new Texas election law as they appeal to have her illegal voting conviction reversed.
Mason was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of voter fraud in Tarrant County. The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and other legal representatives in December filed a case in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Mason submitted a provisional ballot during the 2016 election while on federally supervised release. Mason said she was not aware she wasn’t permitted to vote, and her ballot was not counted. In March 2018 she was convicted for illegal voting, a conviction that was upheld by the Second District Appeals Court in September 2019.
In a court filing this month, Mason’s attorneys argue an election law passed in September includes a measure that warrants a reversal of Mason’s conviction.
Senate Bill 1, which went into effect on Dec. 2, “clarifies that submitting a provisional ballot is not sufficient evidence to demonstrate that an individual knew they were ineligible to vote,” Mason’s attorneys said in the Tuesday court filing. “This clarification of the law undermines the State’s theory that Ms. Mason knew she was ineligible to vote. The relevant provision of SB 1 is expressly retroactive and applies to Ms. Mason’s case. It alone compels reversal of Ms. Mason’s conviction.”
“As we previously briefed the court, we think Ms. Mason’s conviction is wrong for a variety of reasons and the latest filing, we wanted to apprise the court of two recent developments, one being a provision on SB 1 that supports our arguments that Ms. Mason’s conviction should be overturned,” said Tommy Buser-Clancy, one of Mason’s attorneys.
The Texas law states that “a person may not be convicted solely upon the fact that the person signed a provisional ballot affidavit...unless corroborated by other evidence that the person knowingly committed the offense.”
The lawyers also reference a bipartisan House resolution expressing the chamber’s belief that “no Texan should be prosecuted for the offense of illegal voting if the person voted or attempted to vote based on a mistaken, honest belief that the person was in fact eligible to vote.”
The attorneys also point out that the Texas election law reduces the penalty for illegal voting, though that part of the law wouldn’t be retroactive to Mason’s case. Gov. Greg Abbott charged lawmakers with increasing that penalty to a second-degree felony, but the session ended without the task completed.
The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office in a statement shared on Twitter argued Mason’s case wasn’t one of mistaken voting. According to the statement, she received written and verbal notification she was ineligible to vote.
“Even under the new law, she is guilty,” the statement reads. “She wasn’t convicted simply for casting a provisional ballot; she was convicted for casting a provisional ballot when she knew she was ineligible to vote. Knowledge of ineligibility is key.”
