Nearly a decade after authorities said Crystal Mason voted illegally in Tarrant County the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a lower court's decision to acquit her of criminal wrongdoing.
Crystal Mason was charged with illegal voting after she cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 election. Mason, who was on supervised release for federal tax evasion at the time and thus ineligible to vote, has maintained that she did not know she was ineligible. Her ballot was never counted.
Mason was convicted of voter fraud in 2018 and sentenced to five years. She appealed twice to the Second Court of Criminal Appeals, the latter attempt being approved by the court and her conviction overturned in 2023.
While it looked for several months like that would be the end of the case, Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells announced in 2024 that his office was filing its own appeal, challenging the decision to overturn the conviction to the highest possible court.
Now Mason's attorneys say her decade-long battle to defend her innocence is over.
The ACLU and Texas Civil Rights Project, which have represented Mason through her appeals, announced in a news release Thursday that the court changed its mind and is upholding the acquittal without hearing arguments.
“In all these years, I never lost my faith that justice would be done,” Mason said in the news release. “I am so happy my nightmare is over and I can move on.”
Prosecutors argued Mason cast her provision ballot knowing she was ineligible to vote, an important detail after an amendment to the law under which she was prosecuted. The 2021 amendment requires that state's attorneys show evidence proving the person knew they weren't eligible.
In a news release reacting to Thursday's decision, Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells' office said the court left "the reversal of her conviction in place without deciding the merits of the state's arguments."
“A lawful vote should never be canceled out by an unlawful one," Sorrells said in the release sent by his office. "Voters deserve confidence that our elections are fair and that the law will be enforced. Our responsibility has not changed: enforce the law fairly, protect the integrity of our elections, and pursue justice without fear or favor.”
The prosecution previously said Mason was informed via mail that she had been removed from voter rolls in Tarrant County and had to sign an acknowledgement of voting restrictions in the state before casting the provisional ballot.
The amendment to the law under which she was convicted says a signature on a provisional ballot cannot be used as corroboration that a person knew they were voting illegally, though.
In 2023, when the Second Court of Criminal Appeals was hearing arguments, prosecutors asserted that the mailed notification Mason received was corroboration enough. When asked if they had any proof Mason received or read the notification, they said they did not.
That detail was one key in the decision to acquit her.
The case, which became a flashpoint in the debate about voter fraud and voting access, has been contentious in Tarrant County, coming up on several occasions during public comment at Tarrant County Commissioners Court meetings – the commissioners court acting not as a court of law but a legislative body for a county in Texas.
In 2024, after Sorrells announced his office would attempt to reverse the aquittal, Mason's supporters called on county leaders to accept the court's decision to reverse her conviction.
Sorrells, in a briefing to the commissioners court during that May 2024, said he wouldn't do that.
"I want would-be illegal voters to know that we’re watching,” Sorrells told the commissioners.
Mason's supporters said it was a waste of taxpayer dollars and accused Sorrells of picking which accused offenders would be prosecuted – one pointing to Mansfield school district board hopeful Angel Hildago's run for office because he was not registered to vote in Mansfield ISD elections before the deadline.
Now that her conviction is officially overturned, Mason says she hopes her story will encourage others to vote.
"I hope people who hear my story are encouraged to make their voices heard and to get out and vote," Mason said in the news release from her attorneys. "If the right to vote weren’t so important, they wouldn’t be trying to take it away."
James Hartley is the Fort Worth breaking news reporter and producer for KERA News. Got a tip? Email James Hartley at jhartley@kera.org.
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