Crystal Mason: A Face of Voter Suppression in Texas
In November 2016, Crystal Mason, a Black woman, was on federal supervised release after serving almost three years in prison for tax fraud. No one had told her that she was not allowed to vote until her supervised release was completed. She thought that she had completed her sentence and was good to go. Crystal had completed school and was fully employed. She had three dependent children. She lost all of that because of an innocent mistake.
When Crystal went to vote in the Presidential election of 2016 in Tarrant County (Fort Worth, TX), although she had voted previously, she was told her name did not appear on the list of registered voters, but that she could cast a provisional ballot. A provisional ballot is cast by a voter whose eligibility to vote cannot be proven, either by their name not appearing on the list of registered voters or if the voter doesn’t possess one of the acceptable forms of identification. It is a cumbersome process to make sure that the provisional ballot is actually counted. The voter is required to visit the voter registrar’s office within six calendar days of the date of the election. If, after the election, administrators determine that the voter who case the provisional ballot was eligible to vote, the ballot will be counted as a regular ballot, according to Ballotpedia. Crystal did not follow up, and her ballot was never counted.
Instead, six months later, Crystal was approached by police with a warrant for her arrest for illegal voting. Crystal thought it was all a terrible mistake. No one had ever told her she was ineligible to vote. She had no intent to vote illegally. At trial, Crystal’s probation officer testified that he had not warned Crystal about her ineligibility to vote while under supervision – “That’s just not something we do”.
The key witness for the State of Texas was Crystal’s next door neighbor, who was white and had worked as an election judge the day Crystal voted, and gave the provisional ballot to Crystal. Crystal was one of three Black families in her neighborhood. The state contended that despite never being told she couldn’t vote, Crystal should have known. It is interesting to note that in 2018, a white, Republican justice of the peace in Tarrant County pled guilty to submitting fake signatures to secure his place on a primary ballot. The same District Attorney’s office who prosecuted Crystal, reached an agreement and agreed to a 5-year probated sentence with that defendant.
Crystal was found guilty and sentenced to five years. She appealed and on March 30, 2020 a 3-panel appellate ruling upheld the conviction. A request for a full-panel review is pending.
Rideshare2Vote was formed to fight voter suppression in all of its forms. Voter suppression is a racist policy designed to silence the votes of Black voters and other powerless people. There are countless Black voters who are fully eligible to vote, even under the onerous voting laws in Texas. R2V proactively reaches out to those voters, schedules their free roundtrip to the polls, helps them with voter ID, helps them navigate the rules of voting, and serves as an ally to them when they vote.
Your support, in the way of volunteering to drive or financial support, sends a message that you stand with Crystal and everyone like her!
