Crystal Mason, a woman imprisoned for five years after casting a provisional ballot, being charged with a felony and convicted of voting fraud in an hourslong trial, has had her conviction overturned on appeal.
In 2022, Texas's highest criminal court told a lower appellate court it had to reconsider a ruling upholding Mason's conviction. On Thursday, that court said there was not sufficient evidence Mason knew she was ineligible to vote. Justice Wade Birdwell wrote for the court in its Thursday ruling: "We conclude that the quantum of the evidence presented in this case is insufficient to support the conclusion that Mason actually realized that she voted knowing that she was ineligible to do so and, therefore, insufficient to support her conviction for illegal voting."
Meanwhile, a Republican official in Georgia who cast illegal votes nine times received a very different treatment from the courts.
Pritchard must pay a $5,000 fine and $375.14 in investigative costs incurred by the court. Boggs also ordered that Pritchard "be publicly reprimanded for his conduct" by the State Election Board, which sought the sanctions against him.
There must be something that set apart Crystal Mason and Brian Pritchard somehow in the eyes of the law. Is it because she's from Texas?
