Different laws for different states buuuuuuuuuuut ....
Crystal Mason, 43, testified in court that she did not know that she was ineligible to vote due to her 2011 fraud conviction before casting a provisional ballot in the presidential election. In Texas, knowingly voting illegally is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
"A second degree felony for voting illegally? That's outrageous," J. Warren St. John, her defense attorney, told NBC News on Friday. "The punishment does not fit this crime."
Texas' ballot asks voters to certify that they have completed their sentences — including supervision — if they have previously been convicted of a felony. Mason testified in court that she did not read the fine print because an election worker was helping her with the provisional ballot.
"She voted in good faith," St. John said, noting that she accurately filled out her own information and wasn't trying to obscure her identity. "She didn’t intentionally vote illegally and that’s the whole issue."
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.
St. John said that Mason was never told in court, prison, or her halfway house that she couldn't vote until the entirety of her sentence was complete. Her probation officer also testified in court that he had not told her she couldn't vote.
Mason is appealing the judge's ruling, and out on bond pending that appeal. Because the crime is also a violation of her supervised release, she could still be arrested by federal authorities and sentenced to additional federal jail time for violating the terms of her release. St. John said federal court had not yet issued a warrant over the violation, however.
Mason is not the first to receive a severe sentence for voting illegally. A Texas resident and Mexican citizen with a green card, Rosa Maria Ortega, was sentenced to eight years in prison for casting an illegal ballot. Ortega had even served as a poll worker, and she, too, reportedly said she did not know she couldn’t vote.
Still, not everyone gets hard time. A North Carolina prosecutor declined to bring charges against a woman who said she cast an illegal vote for Donald Trump in order to fulfill her mother's dying wish. "She made a mistake out of sheer ignorance without any intent to defraud or commit a crime," the prosecutor said, according to a local report.
"Mason was taken to jail after the conclusion of her trial on Wednesday as a chorus of small children leaving the courtroom said, "Bye-bye, Big Mama." "
An estimated 6.1 million Americans are disenfranchised by a felony conviction, something many states are rethinking as those numbers continue to rise alongside skyrocketing incarceration rates.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/po...-gets-5-years-prison-voting-illegally-n861516
Iowa woman charged with voting twice for Trump pleads guilty...gets 2yrs probation & $750.00 fine
An Iowa woman charged with voting twice for Donald Trump last fall has pleaded guilty to election misconduct.
Court records show Terri Lynn Rote entered a plea on June 27 to the felony charge and a district court judge in Des Moines accepted the plea. Sentencing is set for Aug. 15.
Rote, who is 56 and lives in Des Moines, told police she turned in two absentee ballots before the November election because she believed Trump's unsubstantiated claims that the election was rigged and that her first ballot would be changed to a vote for Hillary Clinton.
She was arrested on Oct. 21 at a satellite voting station in Des Moines attempting to vote the second ballot.
Court documents show attorneys are recommending two years of probation and community service.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/s...d-voting-twice-trump-pleads-guilty/459718001/
Former Colorado GOP chairman sentenced to four years probation, community service in voter fraud case
Steve Curtis was first charged in February after DNA and handwriting analysis linked him to the case, prosecutors say
A former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, Steve Curtis, was sentenced Friday to four years probation and 300 hours of community service stemming from a voter fraud and forgery conviction for signing his ex-wife’s ballot during the 2016 election.
Krista Henery, a spokeswoman for the Weld County District Attorney’s Office, confirmed the sentence to The Denver Post.
Curtis, 58, was charged in February after authorities said they found DNA evidence, and handwriting analysis linked him to the ballot of his ex-wife, Kelly Curtis.
Kelly Curtis moved to Charleston, S.C., in December 2015, according to what Weld County prosecutors say was introduced at trial, and when she called the county’s clerk and recorder to get her mail-in ballot, she was told she had already voted.
Prosecutors say they found that Curtis — who was the state’s GOP chairman in the late 1990s and also worked as a KLZ radio host — forged his ex-wife’s name on her ballot and mailed it in.
Prosecutors and The Greeley Tribune reported that Curtis claimed during the trial that he signed her ballot while he was suffering from a middle-of-the-night diabetic episode and then unknowingly mailed it in the next day.
He was convicted in the case in December.
Prosecutors initially said that Curtis faced up to three years in prison.
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/01/26/steve-curtis-voter-fraud-sentence-probation/
Crystal Mason was sentenced to a five year prison sentence this week, after she tried to vote while on supervised release from federal prison, in Tarrant County, Texas. Tarrant County Jail
Crystal Mason, 43, says she didn't know a felony conviction made her ineligible to cast a ballot in 2016.
Crystal Mason, 43, testified in court that she did not know that she was ineligible to vote due to her 2011 fraud conviction before casting a provisional ballot in the presidential election. In Texas, knowingly voting illegally is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
"A second degree felony for voting illegally? That's outrageous," J. Warren St. John, her defense attorney, told NBC News on Friday. "The punishment does not fit this crime."
Texas' ballot asks voters to certify that they have completed their sentences — including supervision — if they have previously been convicted of a felony. Mason testified in court that she did not read the fine print because an election worker was helping her with the provisional ballot.
"She voted in good faith," St. John said, noting that she accurately filled out her own information and wasn't trying to obscure her identity. "She didn’t intentionally vote illegally and that’s the whole issue."
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.
St. John said that Mason was never told in court, prison, or her halfway house that she couldn't vote until the entirety of her sentence was complete. Her probation officer also testified in court that he had not told her she couldn't vote.
Mason is appealing the judge's ruling, and out on bond pending that appeal. Because the crime is also a violation of her supervised release, she could still be arrested by federal authorities and sentenced to additional federal jail time for violating the terms of her release. St. John said federal court had not yet issued a warrant over the violation, however.
Mason is not the first to receive a severe sentence for voting illegally. A Texas resident and Mexican citizen with a green card, Rosa Maria Ortega, was sentenced to eight years in prison for casting an illegal ballot. Ortega had even served as a poll worker, and she, too, reportedly said she did not know she couldn’t vote.
Still, not everyone gets hard time. A North Carolina prosecutor declined to bring charges against a woman who said she cast an illegal vote for Donald Trump in order to fulfill her mother's dying wish. "She made a mistake out of sheer ignorance without any intent to defraud or commit a crime," the prosecutor said, according to a local report.
"Mason was taken to jail after the conclusion of her trial on Wednesday as a chorus of small children leaving the courtroom said, "Bye-bye, Big Mama." "
An estimated 6.1 million Americans are disenfranchised by a felony conviction, something many states are rethinking as those numbers continue to rise alongside skyrocketing incarceration rates.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/po...-gets-5-years-prison-voting-illegally-n861516
Iowa woman charged with voting twice for Trump pleads guilty...gets 2yrs probation & $750.00 fine
An Iowa woman charged with voting twice for Donald Trump last fall has pleaded guilty to election misconduct.
Court records show Terri Lynn Rote entered a plea on June 27 to the felony charge and a district court judge in Des Moines accepted the plea. Sentencing is set for Aug. 15.
Rote, who is 56 and lives in Des Moines, told police she turned in two absentee ballots before the November election because she believed Trump's unsubstantiated claims that the election was rigged and that her first ballot would be changed to a vote for Hillary Clinton.
She was arrested on Oct. 21 at a satellite voting station in Des Moines attempting to vote the second ballot.
Court documents show attorneys are recommending two years of probation and community service.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/s...d-voting-twice-trump-pleads-guilty/459718001/
Former Colorado GOP chairman sentenced to four years probation, community service in voter fraud case
Steve Curtis was first charged in February after DNA and handwriting analysis linked him to the case, prosecutors say
A former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, Steve Curtis, was sentenced Friday to four years probation and 300 hours of community service stemming from a voter fraud and forgery conviction for signing his ex-wife’s ballot during the 2016 election.
Krista Henery, a spokeswoman for the Weld County District Attorney’s Office, confirmed the sentence to The Denver Post.
Curtis, 58, was charged in February after authorities said they found DNA evidence, and handwriting analysis linked him to the ballot of his ex-wife, Kelly Curtis.
Kelly Curtis moved to Charleston, S.C., in December 2015, according to what Weld County prosecutors say was introduced at trial, and when she called the county’s clerk and recorder to get her mail-in ballot, she was told she had already voted.
Prosecutors say they found that Curtis — who was the state’s GOP chairman in the late 1990s and also worked as a KLZ radio host — forged his ex-wife’s name on her ballot and mailed it in.
Prosecutors and The Greeley Tribune reported that Curtis claimed during the trial that he signed her ballot while he was suffering from a middle-of-the-night diabetic episode and then unknowingly mailed it in the next day.
He was convicted in the case in December.
Prosecutors initially said that Curtis faced up to three years in prison.
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/01/26/steve-curtis-voter-fraud-sentence-probation/
the game is fucked up
