A Texas Woman Is Facing 5 Years For Voting Crystal Mason, 43, was slapped with a five-year prison sentence for voting in the 2016 presidential election while being on probation. She had recently been released from prison for a 2012 tax fraud conviction after pleading guilty to falsely inflating returns for her clients when her mother convinced her to vote in the election. Still on community supervision at the time of the election but no one, including her probation officer, told her that meant she wasn’t allowed to vote. So she was then charged with illegally casting a ballot in Tarrant County, Tex. and sentenced to five years. “You think I would jeopardize my freedom? You honestly think I would ever want to leave my babies again? That was the hardest thing in my life to deal with. Who would — as a mother, as a provider — leave their kids over voting?” Mason said in a statement.
