Thread by @DemocracyDocket

On March 3, 2020, Hervis Rogers stepped in line to vote in the 2020 primary at Texas Southern University, a historically Black college in Houston, Texas. After 6 hours of waiting, Rogers cast his ballot at about 1:00 AM.

Now, he's been ARRESTED for voting. THREAD🧵⤵️👇

https://twitter.com/DemocracyDocket/status/1414643568812101640

Rogers was arrested for voting in the 2018 general elections and the 2020 Democratic primaries while on parole for a felony conviction. Rogers had been on parole since 2004 and his parole ended in June 2020. In Texas, people with felony convictions/on parole cannot vote.

Texas Attorney General chose to prosecute Rogers, claiming that Rogers “knowingly” voted while ineligible.

Rogers said he was unaware that he was ineligible to vote while on parole.

In 2007, the #txlege passed a bill that would've required Texas to notify individuals with convictions of their voting eligibility. Then-Governor Rick Perry vetoed the bill.

When Roger voted in 2018 and 2020, he was unknowingly committing a second-degree felony in the state of Texas. Rogers faces up to 40 years in prison for trying to participate in electing a representative government.

Rogers, a Black man, lives in and voted in Harris County—Texas' largest and most diverse county. Paxton is prosecuting Rogers in Montgomery County, next door to Harris. Montgomery is overwhelmingly white and conservative. Paxton is allowed to do this under Texas law.

Rogers, now 62, was arrested and held on a $100,000 bail—all for mistakenly believing that he was eligible to vote. @bailproject posted his bail and the @ACLUTx is helping Rogers fight his case in court.

This is not the first time Paxton has gone after voters who did not know they were ineligible to vote. Crystal Mason, a Black woman, was arrested after she filled out a provisional ballot in 2016 while on supervised release.

Mason did not know that she was ineligible to vote. When she went to her local polling place, her name was not on the rolls so she cast a provisional ballot that was never counted. Yet Mason was convicted of voter fraud and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.

Mason petitioned her case to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals with help from the @ACLU, @ACLUtx, @TXCivilRights and others. In March, the court agreed to hear Mason's appeal.

Rogers's charge comes more than a year after he allegedly cast an illegal ballot. Some accuse Paxton of political theatre for bringing this case in the middle of a special #txlege session that is considering contentious cash bail and voter suppression bills.

Both Rogers's and Mason's cases show how Texas law consistently fails voters and residents by making it harder to vote and disproportionately attacks minority Texans. What Hervis Rogers and Crystal Mason did would NOT be a crime in over 20 other states. But it is in Texas.

Restoration of the Voting Rights Act and federal election reform are needed NOW more than ever. Rampant voter suppression legislation across the country is threatening voting rights and our democracy. Congress needs to act now to pass the #ForThePeopleAct and the John Lewis VRAA.