Hervis Rogers waited in the rain six hours the night of March 3, 2020, to vote in the Democratic primary. He was the last in line and left the precinct police place at Texas Southern University in Houston after midnight. More than a year later he was arrested for voting. Now a judge in Montgomery County has dropped the charges.
Rogers, who was on parole at the time for a felony burglary conviction says he didn't know he was ineligible to vote under Texas law. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ordered the arrest and tweeted "Hervis is a felon rightly barred from voting under TX law. I prosecute voter fraud everywhere we find it!"
Rogers made the news after the election for waiting for so many hours, telling reporters he "every vote counts."
ACLU of Texas attorney Nicole DeBorde says Rogers had at least $200,000 in bonds to post and he had to, for a period of time drive or have rides found to a county where he did not live to confront accusations of voter fraud. "He had to endure the possibility that he could face life in prison for the types of crimes they were alleging."
Rogers is now 62 and could have gotten 20 years for voter fraud. That would have been tantamount to a life sentence.
Paxton had the case moved from Harris to Montgomery County. "It was our contention that the advantage was that Montgomery County was thought by the AG to be a more conservative county with a less diverse population." The judge who dismissed the case said Paxton could not prosecute these sorts of cases.
DeBorde says the dismissal was a huge relief. "At the time of these charges he was working two jobs, a productive member of society and doing the best he could to rejoin the world and work hard to earn a living and to spend his time doing positive things. This stress was almost more than he could bear."
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