Texas prosecutor appeals ruling that tossed Crystal Mason’s voting fraud conviction

A Texas prosecutor on Thursday appealed a recent ruling that tossed Crystal Mason’s illegal voting conviction from 2018, the Tarrant County district attorney’s office said in a statement.

“The trial court’s guilty verdict should be affirmed,” the district attorney’s office said. “Voting is a cornerstone of our democracy. This office will protect the ballot box from fraudsters who think our laws don’t apply to them.”

The announcement comes a month after the state’s 2nd 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.

She was on supervised release for federal tax evasion at the time, making her ineligible to vote.

In the decision last month, the court said there was insufficient evidence “to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she actually knew” that being on supervised release even after serving the entirety of her 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 drawn national headlines as it was embroiled in legal battles over the last few years.

Tommy Buser-Clancy, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union 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. The court of appeals’ decision was well reasoned and correct. It is time to give Ms. Mason peace with her family.”