Texas appeals court overturns voter fraud conviction for woman on probation

A Texas appeals court has overturned a Fort Worth woman’s voter fraud conviction and five-year prison term for casting an illegal provisional ballot.

Crystal Mason did not know that being on probation for a previous felony conviction left her ineligible to vote in 2016, the Second District Court of Appeals in Fort Worth ruled on Thursday.

Appearing near tears at times, Mason said during a Friday news conference that it has been a long seven years since the voting charge. “I’ve been out for six years on an appeal bond, one foot in one foot out, not knowing if I was going back to prison,” Mason said.

“When I got the news… I was just overwhelmed in joy, it’s been a long journey,” Mason said. “I cried and hollered when I got the news.”

Prosecutors maintained that Mason read and signed an affidavit accompanying the provisional ballot affirming that she had “fully completed” her sentence if convicted of a felony.

Justice Wade Birdwell wrote that having read these words on the affidavit didn’t prove Mason knowingly cast the provisional ballot illegally.

“Even if she had read them, they are not sufficient… to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she actually knew that being on supervised release after having served her entire federal sentence of incarceration made her ineligible to vote by casting a provisional ballot,” the decision said.

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