In Texas, it is illegal to vote before a sentence has been fully served, including parole. The recent arrestee had several months left of his parole when he voted in the primaries last March. According to his lawyers, he thought he was fulfilling his civic duty of voting.
In the meantime, Texas is trying to make these stringent voting rules even tighter. KCBS Political Analyst Marc Sandalow discussed the voting rights issue with KCBS Radio’s Jeff Bell and Holly Quan Monday morning.
"This is clearly a case where Texas officials are trying to intimidate certain voters," said Sandalow.
The man, Hervis Rogers, was so intent on casting a ballot in last year’s presidential primary that he waited seven hours to vote, becoming the last person to do so at his Houston polling place. He caught the attention of a TV crew, and told them that he’d considered leaving multiple times, but stayed because he believed voting was his "civic duty."
It was his second time voting in a primary while on parole.
According to Sandalow, it made him something of a celebrity. That celebrity is what got Rogers caught, leading to his recent arrest, being charged with voter fraud.
"It is illegal to knowingly vote if you haven’t fulfilled your parole yet," said Sandalow. "He could face 40 more years in prison."
It’s unlikely that Rogers will go to prison, said Sandalow, the charge is more likely meant to send a message. And he said it would be difficult to prove that Rogers knowingly committed voter fraud considering he waited in line for so long and did a television interview.
Other states do allow felons to vote while on parole, said Sandalow. These laws are "not insignificant, there are close to 5 million felons who are prevented from voting at this point."
And the demographics are important, he said. More felons are likely to be low-income, people of color, "and these are people who tend to vote democratic," said Sandalow.
"I don’t think there’s anybody who looks at this objectively, who doesn’t think what Texas is doing here is sending a message in hopes to the Republican party, in hopes that this helps them in the coming election," he said.
"There’s a real fight going on right now whether to expand or shrink voting rights," said Sandalow.
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