Free Republic

When I met with Crystal Mason recently at her home in Rendon, Texas, we sat on a wide couch that served as the center of her domain, with plenty of space for children, grandchildren, nephews, and nieces. Their photographs filled the house. Mason’s mother called to her from another room, needing advice; later, her eight-month-old grandson, Carter, joined us on the couch after waking up from an afternoon nap. For hours that day, Mason spoke candidly about the illegal-voting case that has consumed her life for half a decade. With us was one of her lawyers, Alison Grinter Allen. If...

On Monday, a Texas civil rights attorney launched a clemency petition for National Security Agency whistleblower Reality Winner in Dallas. The attorney, Alison Grinter, encountered Winner through Crystal Mason, a Texas mother who served time alongside Winner in a Fort Worth federal prison after receiving a five-year sentence for “illegal voting” in the 2016 presidential election. Mason and Winner became friends in the facility’s newsroom, where they spent long hours watching TV news and debating current events. After hearing about Winner from Mason, Grinter began corresponding with the whistleblower’s mother, Billie Winner-Davis, on Twitter. Last year, the two women drove...

FORT WORTH, Texas — A woman in Texas was sentenced to return to prison Thursday, because she voted in the 2016 election. She used her real name and identification, but her criminal past made voting a crime. Crystal Mason still remembers the day she was arrested for voting in the last presidential election. "My mom kept nagging, 'Go vote, go vote, go vote, go vote' and I was just like OK, I did what she said," Mason said. The 43-year-old was on supervised release for tax fraud when she cast her ballot. In Texas, that's against the law.