Many Texans charged with or convicted of crimes can still vote

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After Crystal Mason voted in the 2016 presidential election in Tarrant County while on probation for tax fraud, she became a national figure in an ongoing conflict between voting rights advocates and hardline officials. illegal voting.

Mason was sentenced to five years in prison for provisionally voting illegally in that election, even though she says she didn’t realize her criminal status made her ineligible to vote. A legal battle to convict her is ongoing. But experts say the high-profile political storm surrounding her case also continues to deter eligible Texas voters who have been arrested, convicted of misdemeanors or have completed their criminal sentences from voting — even if they are allowed to legally participate in the elections. “People think they lose their right to vote simply because they’ve been arrested,” said Bob Libal, a Texas criminal justice attorney who works nationally to restore voting rights to people with convictions.

Texas law prevents convicted felons who are still serving their sentences, including any periods of parole, community supervision and probation, from voting. But Texans are still allowed to vote if they have been convicted of a felony (even if they are currently serving a sentence) or are in prison awaiting trial for any crime. And, under a little-known election law, Texas felons who actively appeal their convictions I can legally voteeven if they are in prison.

In this election cycle, there is perhaps no more well-known example of someone retaining their right to vote after being charged or convicted of a crime than the Republican presidential nominee. Former President Donald Trump will still be able to vote in Florida even though he was convicted of 34 state murder charges in New York, making him the first convicted felon to run for president.

That’s because Florida, where Trump maintains a residence, is subject to the laws of the state where the conviction occurred, and New York’s law only blocks people convicted of felonies from voting while incarcerated. Trump’s sentencing has been delayed until after the election.

In Texas, about 55,000 people are being held in county jails awaiting trial and are eligible to vote, according to data from the Texas Jail Standards Commission. That doesn’t mean it’s easy for them to vote.

Only Dallas and Harris counties have Election Day polling places open to people in prison. And while incarcerated people can apply to vote by mail early under Texas law, the application for a mail-in ballot must be in by Oct. 25. This deadline leaves those who were arrested after that date and before Election Day without any avenue of expression. a ballot.

Accessing a vote-by-mail application while in prison is not straightforward. In some counties, advocacy groups visit the jail to distribute the forms. In other counties, people don’t even realize they can ask for the form. The Secretary of State’s Office does not track how many people in prison apply for a mail-in ballot.

“A lot of people have this narrative that once you have a criminal record, you can’t vote,” said Jasmine Ross, who works for the Colorado Coalition for Criminal Justice Reform. “That’s true in some states, but we don’t practice permanent copyrightlessness here.”

Harris County was first in the state to create a jail voting program in 2021. Election officials installed voting machines in the county jail, with the polling station open to the general public, a legal requirement. Prison staff transport inmates who choose to vote to the polling station throughout election day.

Phillip Bosquez, chief deputy with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, said inmates do not need ID to vote. They simply show their wristband, which contains their name and date of birth, to an election official, then vote.

“I’m glad we were the first in Texas to do it,” Bosquez said. “And I think it can be replicated without a huge drain on the system.”

Texas lawmakers last year filed a bill that would ban polling stations from prisons, but the legislation was never enforced. The author of the bill, Rep. Valoree SwansonR-Spring, did not respond to questions about why he took the bill.

Colorado, meanwhile, became the first state this year to pass a law requiring counties to offer a polling place in jail. The new law also requires prisons to set up a place to drop off mail-in ballots.

Advocates say laws like Colorado’s will help incarcerated people make a better transition back into their communities and reduce recidivism rates.

“It makes people feel like they’re participating and getting involved in their community,” Ross said. “The most consistent feedback is that it’s a way for them to think differently about how they can do better and contribute to their communities.”

Research found that people who had their voting rights restored after incarceration were less likely to be rearrested compared to people who were barred from voting.

Other states have also taken steps to restore voting rights. In 2023, Minnesota and New Mexico restored the right to vote for people on probation or parole. And in 2020, Washington, DC passed a law allowing people incarcerated for a felony conviction to vote.

But the varying rules in different places only add to the confusion that can prevent people with criminal charges or convictions from voting, even if they are legally allowed to do so.

“One of the challenges is that there is an extremely confusing patchwork of laws across the country when it comes to voting rights for people with felony convictions,” Libal said.

In March, a Texas appeals court overturned Mason’s convictionacquitting her of the felony charge and seemingly ending the eight-year saga. The court said there was no evidence Mason knew she was ineligible to vote, a condition that must be met to convict someone of voting illegally in Texas.

The following month, however, Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells announced that he wanted Mason’s conviction reinstated. Sorrell’s office argued that Mason was fully convicted, pointing to testimony from election staff who said Mason signed an affidavit asking people to swear that “if I am a felon, I have served my full sentence, including any term of incarceration, parole, supervision, probation, or I have been pardoned.”

“I want potential illegal voters to know we’re watching,” Sorrell told county commissioners during a May briefing about why the case resurfaced.

Attorneys for the state and Mason filed briefs with the Court of Criminal Appeals. Mason’s attorneys argue the court should reaffirm Mason’s decision to acquit, arguing she had no idea she was ineligible to vote. A final decision in Mason’s case could take months, said Savannah Kumar, an attorney representing her.

“It’s important to note that the highest criminal court in Texas has already made clear that innocent mistakes are not enough to land Texans in prison,” Kumar said.