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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsProsecutor to appeal against Texas woman's acquittal over voting error
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/25/crystal-mason-black-woman-voting-error-acquittalNo paywall link
https://archive.li/W5Kiw
A Texas prosecutor will appeal against a court ruling tossing out a five-year prison sentence for a woman who unintentionally tried to vote while ineligible in the 2016 election, an unexpected move that continues one of the most closely watched voting prosecutions in the US.
Last month, the second court of appeals, which is based in Fort Worth, threw out the 2018 conviction of Crystal Mason, a Black woman who submitted a provisional ballot in 2016 that ultimately went uncounted. Mason was on supervised release for a federal felony at the time she voted and has said she had no idea she was ineligible. The panel said prosecutors had failed to prove Mason actually knew she was ineligible.
But the Tarrant county district attorney, Phil Sorrells, a Republican, announced on Thursday he was appealing to the Texas court of criminal appeals, the highest criminal court in Texas.
Woman in brown shirt stands in front of brown background
The trial courts guilty verdict should be affirmed. Voting is a cornerstone of our democracy. This office will protect the ballot box from fraudsters who think our laws dont apply to them, Sorrells said in a statement. The second court of appeals publication of its opinion creates the very real risk that future sufficiency cases will likewise be wrongly analyzed and decided.
*snip*
Meanwhile, for a white Republican found to have illegally voted 9 FUCKING TIMES: $5k fine and public censure
A Judge Finally Found Fraudulent Votes. Theyre All From a Republican.
https://newrepublic.com/post/180230/georgia-official-vote-illegally?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SF_TNR&utm_source=Twitter
Traurigkeit
(250 posts)can not live without hurting a person. Wonder how his wife and kids are fairing ?
JohnSJ
(92,418 posts)is made. Ideally a state that wont extradite her back to Texas if the appeal is granted
Lovie777
(12,330 posts)bluestarone
(17,055 posts)Texas Democrats have their hands full in that no good state. These monsters running that state need to be KICKED OUT!
Qutzupalotl
(14,331 posts)Sorrells is unable to prove Mason knew she was ineligible, so he is making wild accusations here. A provisional ballot was the right one to cast here, and having it tossed was also correct. I see no reason for Sorrells to appeal.
bluesbassman
(19,379 posts)Voter suppression and intimidation is the endgame.
yellowdogintexas
(22,270 posts)a voter. A provisional vote is always the answer. Usually the vote doesn't get counted.
I do not know how it got to the point that she was arrested. When provisional ballots are screened, we do not know anything a about the voter.
As far as I can tell, the election worker did everything correctly.
Dan
(3,580 posts)Need I say more?
yellowdogintexas
(22,270 posts)not sex, not race, not anything. The ballot board would not have anything other than name and address, plus date of birth.
They would double check the registration records, and if possible find if she was ever dropped from our county files..
The only thing I can think of is that somewhere in the history of her registration, the info was there which said she had not completed her parole requirements. Someone decided to report it and someone else ran with it.
But they still would not have known her race.
Dan
(3,580 posts)Something triggered that she was not a registered voter or ineligible to vote. They would have taken her core information from the provisional ballot to look her up and then forwarded that information to the appropriate authorities.
At some point someone would have made the determination to file charges against her; that is the human element - that human element would have had her personal data available to them.
yellowdogintexas
(22,270 posts)it is not on our registration cards which we receive every 2 years.
Dan
(3,580 posts)Made a determination that her voting was illegal/wrong/whatever, the Supervisor of Elections would have turned the information over to the Director of the Elections Department. Somewhere a decision would have been made to pursue legal action, at that point the information would have been turned over to law enforcement.
Law Enforcement would have run her/his information and determined the appropriate charges if any. The District Attorney for that County would have then made the determination after an investigation of the whys on what to do and whether charges should be filed. That is the human element - and at that time, they had all the information that they needed. If I recall correctly, there was some question about her voting and having been told that she could vote (not sure). The District Attorney could have taken that information and decided whether charges were merited or whether a mistake was made that was not criminal in nature.
The Human Element.
ecstatic
(32,733 posts)psychotic, racist fuck!
surfered
(538 posts)Midnight Writer
(21,803 posts)soldierant
(6,927 posts)A provivional ballot is not a vote. It becomes a votewhen(if) it gets validates and counted. Hers did not. No harm, no foul.
His apparent ignorance of the existence and/or purpose of a provisional ballot should disqualify him from any involvement in electoral litigation. Of cpurse it won't.
A provisional ballot is for people who don't know, or are unable to prove if necessary, that they are eligible to vote. Ms. Mason did exactly what she was supposed to do in her situation.
yellowdogintexas
(22,270 posts)Of course this is being appealed again. Interestingly, a similar incident happened in San Antonio; Rep Castro spoke about it. I do not think that voter was sentenced; there was just a hearing.
The whole thing hinges upon the judge refusing to accept that Ms Brown did not know that she could not vote yet.
And the fact that someone saw the rejected provisional list and decided the denial needed to be investigated.