Little-Known Law Allows Some Texas Prisoners to Vote
Texas has an estimated 455,000 current and former felons. But no one knows if any of them voted in the November 2024 elections, nor even if any knew that they could. That is thanks to a little-known provision of state law that allows those appealing their first criminal conviction to continue casting ballots. As University of Texas at Austin School of Law Prof. Charles Press said, “I think people are scared to vote if they have a felony conviction because they’re not quite sure what will happen.”
Former state prisoner Crystal Mason was arrested and convicted of illegally registering and voting in the 2016 election, though her conviction was tossed in March 2024. As PLN reported, the state Court of Appeals found no evidence that intended to break the law banning felons from voting. [See: PLN, Sep. 2024, p.13.] But Mason isn’t yet out of the woods; Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells filed an appeal in April 2024 to reverse her acquittal, and the state Court of Criminal Appeals agreed on August 21, 2024, to hear it. See: In re Mason, 2024 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 602.
Since the state Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) maintains no in-prison polling stations, prisoners incarcerated on their first convictions who also have pending appeals must vote by mail. The process involves mailing a ballot request to the county, where they lived prior to incarceration. It’s tricky, too, given uncertain delays in a TDCJ prison mailroom and the chance that a criminal charge for illegal voting could result if a ballot happens to go out after an appeal is denied. Press said that many non-incarcerated Texans don’t realize “that people inside of prisons can, and often are, politically engaged and care about voting.”
Additional source: Texas Tribune
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