The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office stated that a Texas prosecutor on Thursday appealed a recent ruling that overturned Crystal Mason’s illegal voting conviction from 2018.
The DA office stated that the guilty verdict from the trial court should be upheld, emphasizing the importance of protecting the ballot box from those who commit voting fraud.
The announcement of the appeal comes a month after the Second Court of Appeals reversed the conviction and said there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mason knew she was acting illegally by casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election.
At the time of the 2016 presidential election, she was on supervised release for federal tax evasion, making her ineligible to vote.
In its recent decision, the court stated that there was not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mason was aware that being on supervised release, even after serving her entire incarceration sentence, made her ineligible to vote by casting a provisional ballot.
Mason was charged and convicted under a statute that specifies that a person “commits an offense if the person … votes or attempts to vote in an election in which the person knows the person is not eligible to vote,” according to court documents.
The case has gained national attention due to its involvement in legal battles over the past few years.
Tommy Buser-Clancy, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement, “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.
