Texas Woman Receives 5 Year Sentence For Illegal Voting
A Texas woman who cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 election received what many believe to be a harsh sentence for voting illegally.
According to NBC News, Crystal Mason was sentenced to 5 years in prison for illegally voting while on supervised release from federal prison. Mason had pleaded guilty in 2011 to inflating tax returns while working as a tax preparer and was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison, according to her attorney. She had served roughly three years before being released in 2016.
Mason testified that she was unaware that she could not vote before casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election. Mason went on to say that she did not read the fine print on her ballot, because an election worker was helping her with it. In Texas, knowingly voting illegally is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Mason is appealing the judge's ruling, and she is out on bond pending that appeal.