An illegal voting case out of Tarrant County will get another review. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has sent the case of Crystal Mason back to the 2nd Court of Appeals (CCA) for review after finding that Mayson may have cast a provisional ballot in a 2016 election while on Federal Court supervision, and not qualified to vote.
In 2018, Mason was convicted in Tarrant County Court and sentenced to 5 years in prison.
In a ruling today, the CCA found Mason’s case turns on the word “knowingly,” in the Texas law when she voted.
Mason had been convicted of tax fraud in 2011. She served a five-year prison term and was under a three-year supervision when she went to the polls in 2016.
“The election worker checking the registration roll could not find her name, so workers offered to let her complete a provisional ballot, which she agreed to do,” the court’s opinion reads. “She completed the affidavit, just as she had done in 2004, and electronically cast her provisional ballot. The election worker who had checked the registration roll reported a concern about Appellant’s provisional ballot to the election judge for Appellant’s precinct, who happened to be Mason’s neighbor. The election judge then reported the concern to the district attorney’s office. Appellant’s ballot was not counted in the election.”
Mason was subsequently charged with and convicted of illegal voting.
The opinion said “the actor must be aware not only of the circumstances that render conduct unlawful but also of the fact that the conduct violates the Election Code. Appellant argues that she explicitly testified she did not know she was ineligible to vote due to being on federal supervised release and that the State’s only evidence regarding Appellant’s knowledge was based on speculation she had read the provisional ballot affidavit.”
The court found that when it comes to election laws, there is a difference between knowing that one is not supposed to vote and not being aware of the law.
“She didn’t know it was against the rules for her, personally, to vote,” said Alison Grinter, an attorney for Mason. “The Court agrees with us that she would have had to have known in order for it to be illegal.”
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Kevin Yeary wrote “Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court’s verdict, the judge as the trier-of-fact had the evidence needed to rationally support the conviction.”
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