She was sentenced to prison for voting. Her story is part of a Republican effort to intimidate others

American psyche: a new series exploring the angst at the heart of the American election

Since being convicted, Mason has remained out of prison on an appeal bond for several years, trying to get her life back on track. She’s lost multiple jobs and had trouble getting new ones because of the bad publicity from her case, and nearly lost her home to foreclosure. The last few years of waiting had felt like having “one foot in, one foot out”, she said. Her kids and her mother said that some nights she would come home and cry.

The vast majority of people who can’t vote because of a felony – about 75% – are not in prison – but they are an easy target for perceived voter fraud. Since they are branded criminals, there’s little public sympathy for their cases; those charged often have little interest in speaking out publicly. “I’m the sole breadwinner in my family. I can’t do this,” they told her. “I don’t want to go back to prison.”Mason wasn’t especially political in 2016: she voted because her mother was nagging her to. Until recently, she compared voting to taking a shower after playing outside before you go to bed. “It’s just something you’re supposed to do.”

It was only after she left that Jarrod Streibich, a high school teenager volunteering in his first election, said he remembered that Mason had recently returned home from federal prison for a tax felony. “The voting system in America is second to none. It is sacred to Americans, and she has violated the sanctity of this process,” Matthew Smid, the prosecutor during Mason’s case,. “We respectfully request that this court send a message to illegal voters that if you’re going to violate the sanctity of this system, it will not be tolerated and will pay the consequences.”

So on 28 March 2018, Mason and her entire family showed up at the criminal courthouse in downtown Fort Worth. Mason’s lawyer had assured her that it would be an “open and closed” case and so Mason had only taken one day off from her new job .Photograph: Max Faulkner/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service/Getty ImagesBut when Diederich and Streibich took the stand, things went south.

Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Nova Peris lashes Craig Foster’s Gaza stance as she quits republican movementOlympian Nova Peris has hit out at her Australian Republican Movement co-chair Craig Foster, claiming his leadership is stoking anti-Semitism, after suddenly stepping down from the role over their different stances on the war in Gaza.
Source: SkyNewsAust - 🏆 7. / 78 Read more »

She helps hoarders clean their homes, and she has some advice for youWith 7 million social media followers, Brogan Ingram knows a thing or two about cleaning messy homes.
Source: theage - 🏆 8. / 77 Read more »

She helps hoarders clean their homes, and she has some advice for youWith 7 million social media followers, Brogan Ingram knows a thing or two about cleaning messy homes.
Source: smh - 🏆 6. / 80 Read more »

She was in Trump’s Maga ‘cult’ – now she’s fighting far-right extremismPenny Swan defected from the rightwing group that captured the local Republican party – and she won’t be voting for Trump
Source: GuardianAus - 🏆 1. / 98 Read more »

When Taylah learnt she was having quads, she received a DM from a strangerWhen members of multiple birth clubs learn a local family is joining them in the chaos of having twins, triplets or even more new arrivals, they mobilise.
Source: smh - 🏆 6. / 80 Read more »

When Taylah learnt she was having quads, she received a DM from a strangerWhen members of multiple birth clubs learn a local family is joining them in the chaos of having twins, triplets or even more new arrivals, they mobilise.
Source: theage - 🏆 8. / 77 Read more »