The Tarrant County District Attorney's Office says they are appealing last month's ruling by a Texas appeals court that overturned a woman's 2018 conviction for illegal voting.
Crystal Mason was on probation for a felony conviction in 2016 when she voted in an election using a provisional ballot. She was convicted two years later of voter fraud and sentenced to five years behind bars because state law only allows felons to vote if they have fully finished their sentence, including any parole or supervision requirements.
Mason said she did not know that being on probation for a previous felony conviction left her ineligible to vote. Prosecutors maintained that she read and signed an affidavit accompanying her provisional ballot affirming that she had “fully completed” her sentence.
Justice Wade Birdwell wrote in March 2024 that having read these words on the affidavit didn't prove Mason knowingly cast the provisional ballot illegally in 2016.
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"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.”
Birdwell then overturned Mason's conviction.
On Thursday, the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to reverse Birdwell's ruling.
"The trial court's guilty verdict should be affirmed," the district attorney's office said in a statement. "She was convicted based on testimony from the election judge and poll clerk that she read the provisional voter affidavit affirmed that she provided accurate information, signed the affidavit, and testified that the affidavit language was clearly understandable to mean that a convicted felon, such as herself, was ineligible to vote."
The DA's office added that Birdwell "failed to give proper deference to the trial court's guilty verdict and reweighed the evidence in favor of Mason."
"The Second Court of Appeals misapplied the sufficiency standard of review by not viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court's verdict – in contravention to binding precedent from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. 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," the DA's office wrote. "This office requests that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals grant review in this case, reverse the Second Court of Appeals’ decision, and affirm the trial court’s guilty verdict."
The ACLU of Texas said Mason "faced five years in prison for submitting a provisional ballot in 2016 that was never counted as a vote. She was convicted of illegal voting despite believing she was fulfilling her civic duty and not realizing the state considered her ineligible to vote."
“It is disappointing that the state has chosen to request further review of Ms. Mason's case, but we are confident that justice will ultimately prevail. The court of appeals' decision was well-reasoned and correct. It is time to give Ms. Mason peace with her family," said Tommy Buser-Clancy, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas.
It's not immediately clear when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will hear the case.
