An appeals court in Texas overturned the conviction of Crystal Mason, a Black woman who cast a provision ballot in the 2016 election because she mistakenly voted while under federal supervision for a 2012 tax fraud conviction, negating a five-year prison sentence, the ACLU of Texas reports.
Mason, who was not legally allowed to vote in Texas although she would be eligible for the GOP presidential nomination, claims she did not receive the letter from the county attorney’s office informing her she was ineligible because she was in jail when it was mailed. Even though more than 12,000 people had voted using provisional ballots in 2014 and 2016 with more than 85% being ruled invalid or ineligible, Mason, a Black woman, was the only person prosecuted.
Critics said Mason’s punishment fell out of line with other similar cases, particularly various Donald Trump voters who were arrested after submitting multiple ballots, including a man who forged his dead mother’s signature; he was only sentenced to probation.