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397

Crystal Mason: Texas woman sentenced to five years over voting error acquitted (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

41 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A Texas appeals court has thrown out a five-year prison sentence for Crystal Mason, a Texas woman who was sentenced for trying to cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election that was rejected.

Mason, now 49, attempted to vote in Fort Worth in the 2016 even though she was ineligible because she was still on supervised release – which is like probation – for a tax felony. She has always maintained she had no idea she was ineligible and only tried to cast a ballot because her mother urged her to.

A judge convicted her in a 2018 trial that lasted just a few hours.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Agreed. Felons should be allowed to vote. Pirsoners should be allowed to vote. Just because you committed a crime doesn't mean you shouldn't be allowed to participate in a democratic election. There is, as far as I can remember, nothing in the Constitution that bars felons or the incarcerated from voting.

Not to mention that people in jail waiting for trial who can't afford bail aren't allowed to vote either if the election happens while they're in jail, even though there's been no conviction.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

In Germany there are only a few crimes that take away your voting rights and I am fine with these:

preparation of a war of aggression and high treason against the Federation
treason and disclosure of state secrets with intent to cause damage
attacks against organs and representatives of foreign states
disruption of election process and falsification of election documents
bribing delegates
sabotage against means of defence or intelligence activity endangering national security (provided that a sentence of imprisonment is imposed for at least one year in this case).

source

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

disruption of election process and falsification of election documents

Seems like a good one. We should borrow that.

bribing delegates

I'll have you know it's called lobbying and it's perfectly legal! For some reason.