Crystal Mason speaks out on illegal voting acquittal
FORT WORTH, Texas - The woman who was convicted of casting an illegal vote in 2016 is speaking out after her acquittal was upheld by the state’s highest appeals court.
Tarrant County Illegal Voting Case
The backstory:
Crystal Mason’s illegal voting case became the focus of election fraud in Texas.
In 2016, she was on probation and not legally allowed to vote. But she claimed she didn’t know that at the time and no one at the Tarrant County Election Administration told her, even though her registration application noted it.
She was then convicted of voter fraud in 2018 and sentenced to five years in prison.
Her attorneys appealed and the Fort Worth Court of Appeals overturned that conviction in 2024. Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells went to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals seeking to have her conviction reinstated.
Last week, the state’s highest appeals court ruled five to four in Mason’s favor, calling her uncounted provisional ballot an honest mistake.
Court leaves Crystal Mason’s illegal voting acquittal in place
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed an appeal in a long-running Tarrant County voter fraud case, leaving Fort Worth resident Crystal Mason acquitted after she was previously convicted of illegally voting in 2016.
What they're saying:
Mason spoke to the media outside the Tarrant County Courthouse on Monday while surrounded by her legal team and supporters.
"I just want to thank everybody – thank everybody for their support," she said. "Just thinking about the whole ordeal, I’m trying to keep it together because I kept saying, ‘God, why me?"
Mason explained that in 2016 she was working to get her life back on track after spending time in jail. She was trying to be a productive member of society by voting.
"It was hard. And I had to stand and just ask God, ‘What do I do? How do I get through this?’ He kept saying, ‘Trust me. Victory is the outcome,’" she said.
"What they did was take this woman’s life and hung it in the balance for eight years. Her life, her parents, her children, her grandchildren, can you imagine? So, today I say thanks be to God and know this justice has not been realized for Crystal Mason until you go to the polls and vote out that district attorney, the county commissioners, and might I say the county judge who supported this type of activity," said Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons.
The other side:
Sorrells shared a statement last week after the appeals court ruling was announced. He said he still believes a lawful vote should never be canceled out by an unlawful one, and voters deserve confidence in the election system.
"Illegal voting remains a crime in Texas," he said. "If there is evidence that someone knowingly violates our election laws in Tarrant County, we will investigate it and, when the evidence supports it, prosecute it."
The Source: Information in this story comes from statements Crystal Mason made to reporters during a news conference on Monday, as well as a statement from Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells and past news coverage.