Texas woman five–year sentence there was voter fraud thrown The appeals court said Thursday it plans to step up its efforts to promote voting rights.
“If anything, now that I’ve been acquitted, we’re increasing it. There will be no stopping,” Crystal Mason said in a statement to NBC News on Friday.
“To stop now would mean my story would lack legs, impact and longevity,” he said. “It’s more than a passion, I consider it my duty.”
He was a Mason He was sentenced to prison in 2018 for voting illegally in the 2016 election, but testified that he did not know he was ineligible to vote after his 2011 tax fraud conviction. When officials determined she was ineligible to vote, her ballot was ultimately not counted.
His work attracted national attention and appellate court eventually overturned his sentence. Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Wade Birdwell wrote in his ruling Thursday that “finding Mason not credible — and disbelieving his objection to actual knowledge — is insufficient evidence of guilt.”
In 2021, Mason founded Crystal Mason The Fight, a nonprofit she described as “a testament to what black and brown people face, not just voter suppression, but oppression in general.”
Mason said the organization has helped him “become an advocate for voter education, voter registration and voting rights in general.”
Now that he’s been exonerated, Mason said he’s even more inspired to move forward.
“More than 90% of my family members are now deputy registrars,” Mason said. “In both local and national elections, we are in the streets, in the communities educating, knocking on doors and ensuring that people exercise their rights.”
During an interview on MSNBC Friday, Mason said his message to Americans is to “know your rights.” He emphasized that he did not want his story to scare voters, but to “encourage you to go to the polls.”
Mason, who was released from prison on appeal, said Thursday that the acquittal was still sinking in.
“I was overwhelmed with joy,” he said. “And now that I’m talking about it, it reminds me that I’m actually free, I’m not facing prison anymore.”