Texas court declines appeal in Crystal Mason voting case

Court declines to hear appeal without explanation

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declined Thursday to hear a prosecutor’s appeal in the case of Crystal Mason, ending nearly a decade of litigation over a provisional ballot that was never counted in the 2016 presidential election. The 5-4 decision lets Mason’s 2024 acquittal stand.

Mason was on supervised release for a federal tax felony when she went to her polling place on election day in November 2016. Officials could not find her on the rolls and offered her a provisional ballot, a safeguard required by federal law. She cast the ballot; it was never counted.

Texas, like many states, prohibits people with felony convictions from voting while on probation or supervised release. Mason signed an affidavit attesting she was eligible to vote. Federal probation officials testified at her 2018 trial that they never told her she could not vote. Mason has consistently maintained she did not actually read the language on the affidavit and was never told she could not cast a ballot. Poll workers testified at trial that they had Mason swear the affidavit contents were true; Mason has disputed that testimony.

A judge convicted her in 2018 and sentenced her to five years in prison.

The Guardian reported that the case triggered outrage because Mason consistently maintained it was an innocent mistake and because of the severity of her sentence. The Guardian also reported that as Donald Trump sought to escalate claims about voter fraud after the 2016 race, many observers also characterized the prosecution as a local effort to make an example of Mason.

Because the conviction violated her supervised release, she returned to federal prison for 10 months. During that period, she nearly lost her home to foreclosure and her teenage daughter was entrusted with running her household. Her college-age son left a football scholarship to return home and help with costs around the home. Mason has three children and also raised four of her brother’s children. She has 10 grandchildren.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals acquitted her in 2024. The local prosecutor handling the case, Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells, appealed the acquittal. The court initially agreed to hear it but reversed course Thursday, declining to take it up. It did not explain the reversal.

“After 10 long years of fighting, I am overwhelmed with joy and gratitude. It’s hard to put into words how excited I am right now. This journey has been long, exhausting, and emotional, but God has carried me through it all,” Mason, 51, said in a text message.

Thomas Buser-Clancy, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which helped represent Mason, framed the outcome in broader terms.

“Civic participation without fear of imprisonment is a cherished right that is critical to our system of democracy,” Buser-Clancy said. “The highest criminal court in Texas affirmed that right by letting the lower court’s acquittal stand. Ms. Mason has spent nearly a decade defending her rights in Texas and today we see that her efforts have been successful not only in defending her own freedom, but also in protecting the ability of Texans across the state to participate in our democracy without fear.”

Another Mason attorney, Alison Grinter, said the ruling was significant given the upcoming midterm elections.

“This really is a great day for Texas voters who can finally celebrate their right to go to the polls unafraid and undeterred by partisan intimidation and scare tactics,” Grinter said.

Four justices on the court wrote dissenting opinions, saying they believed the evidence at trial was sufficient to show Mason knew she was ineligible when she cast the ballot. In a dissent joined by Judge Gina Parker, Judge Lee Finley argued that the provisional voter affidavit, combined with additional state evidence, should have sustained the conviction.

“The evidence presented by the State at Appellant’s trial for illegal voting was sufficient to show that Appellant ‘actually knew’ that she was ineligible to vote,” Finley wrote. “The provisional voter affidavit, corroborated by the additional evidence presented by the State, leaves no doubt whatsoever that the trier of fact was presented with sufficient evidence to sustain Appellant’s conviction. This is not a close case.”

A spokesperson for Sorrells did not return a request for comment.

Mason was not particularly political before 2016, but since her conviction she has become much more politically engaged. In 2022, she opened a rally for Beto O’Rourke and worked to educate voters about their rights. Recently, she said, the wife of the current Tarrant County district attorney, Phil Sorrells, knocked on her door and asked whether she would consider voting for him this year.

“The irony of that moment is something I will never forget,” Mason said.