Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had Hervis Rogers arrested for allegedly voting illegally during the March 2020 “Super Tuesday” primary because Rogers was still on parole, Houston Public Media reports.  Paxton is having him held in jail with bail set at $100,000.

Rogers became something of a folk hero after he waited more than six hours to vote at Texas Southern University at 1 a.m., becoming the last Texas voter to cast a ballot in the primary.  In 1995, Rogers was convicted of burglary and intent to commit theft, and he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.  He was paroled in 2004, with his parole scheduled to end in May 2020.

Although Rogers voted in Harris County, lives in Harris County and was arrested in Harris County–Harris County is home to the city of Houston, a Democratic stronghold–Paxton is prosecuting Rogers in Montgomery County, a suburb of Houston that has an 83% white population in which more than 70% of voters went to Donald Trump.

While Texas makes it illegal for anyone on parole to vote, laws in other states allow people who would be legal to vote in an upcoming general election vote in the preceding primary.  For example, in many states, someone who will turn 18 prior to or on the date of a general election will be able to vote in the primary even though they are younger than 18 when the primary occurs.

“Mr. Rogers is being held in jail on an extremely high bail amount that he cannot afford for what amounts to simply attempting to fulfill his civic duty. This is not justice,” said ACLU of Texas legal director Andre Segura.

Paxton has made it his mission as state attorney general to crack down on illegal voting.  Data from his office shows Texas has prosecuted 130 people for illegal voting between 2005 and 2018.