The national ACLU is throwing its support behind Crystal Mason, the Fort Worth woman facing a renewed effort from Tarrant County to prosecute her for alleged voter fraud.
Mason was convicted and then acquitted of voting illegally. On Wednesday, civil rights attorneys filed a new plea to keep her out of prison.
In a brief filed to the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals today, the civil rights group argued, “the scant and inconclusive evidence in this case is not sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Mason knew she was ineligible to vote.”
“I’ve been very worried, facing five years in prison,” said Mason.
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It was the latest development in a case that started in 2016. Court documents said after being convicted of a felony, Mason was out of prison on supervised release and ineligible to vote under state law.
Mason went to a polling place to vote in 2016’s November general election, and when poll workers couldn’t find her registration, she was given a provisional ballot to fill out.
That ballot wasn’t counted – but Mason was charged with voter fraud, convicted in 2018, and sentenced to five years in prison. Mason maintains she never knew she couldn’t vote.
“I had no idea that the state of Texas had considered me ineligible to vote,” said Mason. “I would have never done anything to jeopardize leaving my family, my kids, my grandkids.”
In March, the Second Court of Appeals acquitted Mason. Trial documents said Mason told a poll worker she didn’t know why her name wasn’t on the voter rolls and that she provided her ID when trying to vote in 2016.
The Tarrant County District Attorney announced he was asking the state’s highest appeals court to convict Mason again in May.
“I want would-be illegal voters to know that we’re watching,” said Phil Sorrells, the Tarrant DA. “And that we’ll follow the law and will prosecute illegal voting.”
Advocates told NBC 5 they believed the Crystal Mason case would have a wider impact on the community.
“A lot of people can read through the lines and understand that it is voter suppression,” said Rene Martinez, president of LULAC Council 100.
Activists said the county’s persistence in prosecuting Mason could discourage people from voting legally in vulnerable communities, including people who have questions about their criminal histories or citizenship status.
“It’s a message of scaring people, of threatening people with going to jail,” said Martinez. “And unfortunately, they’re not going to be successful.”
NBC 5 reached out to the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office for a response to the ACLU brief and to advocates' concerns about the Mason case leading to voter suppression.
“The State has filed its brief with the Court of Criminal Appeals setting forth how, under the appropriate legal sufficiency standards of review, the evidence supports Crystal Mason’s conviction for illegal voting,” the district attorney's office responded. “Testimony from the election judge and the poll worker about Mason’s actions at the polling place combined with her own testimony establishes that she read and understood the affidavit on the day she voted, regardless of her protestations to the contrary, and that she had actual knowledge of her ineligibility to vote based on her status as a convicted felon. We await the court’s decision.”
