[Where do states stand on voting rights for felons? Here’s a breakdown.] 
 
 Ms. Mason, who was sentenced to 60 months in jail for tax fraud and was released in early 2016, has said that she didn’t know that she wasn’t allowed to vote in that year’s presidential election. She cast a provisional ballot at her local church after being told that her name could not be found on the rolls. The ballot was never counted. 
 
 “Crystal’s name was purged from the rolls when she went to prison, but Crystal did not know that,” Ms. Grinter said in an interview on Tuesday. 
 
 Whether felons can vote varies state by state, and has become a contentious issue. More than six million Americans have been stripped of their voting rights because of felony disenfranchisement laws, according to the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organization that works on criminal justice reform. 
 
 Two months ago, a petition was started online to have all charges against Ms. Mason, who is black, thrown out. In the petition her photo is placed next to a photo of Terri Lynn Rote, a white woman who was convicted of voter fraud in Iowa for trying to vote for President Trump twice. Ms. Rote was sentenced to two years’ probation and a $750 fine. The petition has over 38,000 signatures. 
 
 As she prepared to appeal the rejection of her motion for a new trial, Ms. Mason said she had high hopes. 
 
 “I showed my kids that no matter what you can get out and get your life in order,” said Ms. Mason. “But sometimes, regardless of whatever your past is, you are still going to be beat up for it.” ||||| A judge sentenced a Rendon woman to five years in prison Wednesday for voting illegally in the 2016 presidential election while she was on supervised release from a 2011 fraud conviction. 
 
 Crystal Mason, 43, waived her right to a jury trial and chose to have state District Judge Ruben Gonzalez assess her sentence. 
 
 J. Warren St. John, her defense attorney, said after the verdict that an appeal had already been filed and that he is hopeful his client will soon be released on bond. 
 
 "I find it amazing that the government feels she made this up," St. John told the court. "She was never told that she couldn't vote, and she voted in good faith. Why would she risk going back to prison for something that is not going to change her life?" 
 
 
 
 
 
 Premium content for only $0.99 For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today. 
 
 According to a report released in 2016 compiled by the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice reform advocacy group, more than 6 million felons in the United States and nearly 500,000 in Texas were ineligible to vote in 2016. 
 
 During her testimony, Mason — who served just shy of three years in federal prison — told the court that she was assigned a provisional ballot after she arrived at her usual polling place and discovered that her name was not on the voter roll. 
 
 Gonzalez, who questioned Mason during her testimony, asked why she did not thoroughly read the documents she was given at the time. 
 
 The form you are required to sign to get the provisional ballot is called an affidavit, Gonzales told Mason. "There's a legal connotation to that, right?" Gonzales asked. 
 
 Mason responded that she was never told by the federal court, her supervision officer, the election workers or U.S. District Judge John McBryde, the sentencing judge in her fraud case, that she would not be able to vote in elections until she finished serving her sentence, supervised release included. She also said she did not carefully read the form because an election official was helping her. 
 
 During cross-examination by Tarrant County prosecutor Matt Smid, Mason was reminded that she had jeopardized her freedom in the past by violating federal tax laws. 
 
 Sacrificing her freedom to vote was not something she would knowingly do, Mason told Gonzales. 
 
 "I inflated returns," Mason said. "I was trying to get more money back for my clients. I admitted that. I owned up to that. I took accountability for that. I would never do that again. I was happy enough to come home and see my daughter graduate. My son is about to graduate. Why would I jeopardize that? Not to vote. ... I didn't even want to go vote." 
 
 Mason was taken to jail after the conclusion of her trial on Wednesday as a chorus of small children leaving the courtroom waved and said, "Bye-bye, Big Mama." 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK In a jailhouse interview with the Star-Telegram, Rosa Ortega said she has lost custody of her children and will likely be deported when her eight-year sentence is up. 
 
 Improper tax refunds 
 
 Mason, who was known as Crystal Mason-Hobbs at the time, pleaded guilty to fraud in 2011. As part of her plea agreement, she was ordered to pay $4.2 million in restitution, according to court documents. 
 
 The fraud charge stemmed from a tax preparation business Mason and her ex-husband, Sanford Taylor Hobbs III, owned and operated in Everman in which they submitted inflated tax refunds to the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of clients. 
 
 Mason later divorced her husband, who received a similar sentence after he also pleaded guilty. Mason testified Wednesday that she has remade herself since her release from prison, including getting a degree in a new field and getting a new job. 
 
 She had gone to vote at her mother's insistence and brought her driver's license as identification, according to her testimony. When poll workers could not find her name on the list of registered voters, Mason said, she obtained a provisional ballot and was coached through the process by a worker. 
 
 Mason testified that she did not remember the form saying anything about people on supervised release being prohibited from voting. 
 
 To register to vote in Texas, a person must be 18 and a U.S. citizen and cannot be a convicted felon or have been declared mentally incapacitated by a court. In Texas, convicted felons can have their voting privileges restored after fully completing their sentences. 
 
 The Tarrant County case of Rosa Maria Ortega, a 37-year-old Grand Prairie mother of four who had a green card, drew national attention. Convicted of voting illegally, she received a sentence of eight years in prison for voting in the 2012 general election and the 2014 Republican primary runoff. 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK In this short video, find out who can register to vote, where to register, which documents are needed and when you must register by to vote in the next election. 
 
 This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives. ||||| The same judge who originally sentenced her to five years prison for casting an illegal ballot while being a felon under supervision has denied Crystal Mason's motion for a new trial. 
 
 Mason, of Rendon south of Fort Worth, was convicted on March 28 and sentenced to a five-year prison stint by State District Judge Ruben Gonzalez. 
 
 Gonzalez denied her petition late Monday in a 16-page ruling. 
 
 Since her conviction, Mason has been at the center of controversial arguments about the existence of white privilege and voter suppression efforts, with more than 38,000 signatures on a petition to have all charges against her dropped, numerous news stories and editorials and a deluge of social media posts in support of and against the sentence imposed in her case. 
 
 SIGN UP 
 
 Help us deliver journalism that makes a difference in our community. Our journalism takes a lot of time, effort, and hard work to produce. If you read and enjoy our journalism, please consider subscribing today. SUBSCRIBE TODAY 
 
 Crystal Mason, center, convicted for illegal voting and sentenced to 5 years in prison, during a break in Ruben Gonzalez's court, State District Court 432 at Tim Curry Justice Center in Fort Worth, Texas, Friday, May 25, 2018. Max Faulkner mfaulkner@star-telegram.com 
 
 Mason's attorney, Alison Grinter, said that she and other groups who thought the prison sentence was harsh were disappointed. Obviously, it was an uphill struggle to get the judge who made the initial ruling to change his mind. 
 
 But no one is more disappointed than Mason, Grinter said. 
 
 Prosecutor Matt Smid, Assistant Criminal District Attorney -- Chief of White Collar Crime/Public Integrity Unit, gives his closing arguments during a hearing in Ruben Gonzalez's court, State District Court 432 at Tim Curry Justice Center in Fort Worth, Texas, Friday, May 25, 2018. The hearing was for Crystal Mason, who was convicted for illegal voting and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Max Faulkner mfaulkner@star-telegram.com 
 
 "She's one step closer to going to prison for a vote that didn't even count," Grinter said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to get this case before fresh eyes in the appellate court and have a better outcome." 
 
 The Tarrant County district attorney's office vigorously opposed the new trial motion during a March 25 hearing and in a brief in support of the state's position. 
 
 Matt Smid, the prosecutor trying Mason's case, argued in his court filing that the judge does not have the authority to consider a friend of the court brief from the Texas Civil Rights Project and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Texas. 
 
 The civil rights groups' brief states that the law that convicted Mason is trumped by a 2002 federal statute that gives an individual who believes that he or she has voting privileges the right to cast a provisional ballot in a federal election, shifting the burden of proof to the state. 
 
 Smid never argued that the two non-profits' attorneys were incorrect, only that the assertions in the brief cannot be considered because they were not submitted by the deadline and because they were not raised by Mason's attorneys. 
 
 Grinter argued that the judge could consider points stated by the attorneys with the Texas Civil Rights Project and ACLU. The argument that the federal government has provided a pathway for voters unsure about their eligibility to vote provides a new perspective the judge can use to evaluate Grinter's arguments, according to her brief. 
 
 Defense attorney Alison Grinter is seen during a hearing in Ruben Gonzalez's court, State District Court 432 at Tim Curry Justice Center in Fort Worth, Texas, Friday, May 25, 2018. The hearing was for Crystal Mason, who was convicted for illegal voting and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Max Faulkner mfaulkner@star-telegram.com 
 
 Rebecca Stevens, one of the Texas Civil Rights Project attorneys who worked on the brief, said the federal law worked in Mason's case. Mason tried to vote and the state did not count that vote after determining that she was ineligible. But the sentence handed down was unfair, Stevens said. 
 
 "Of the prosecutions we've seen engaging in election misconduct, the sentence that Mason received is far more aggressive," Stevens said. "The problem with that, at least anecdotally, is that people of color are being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, versus an election official actually forging signatures who got probation." 
 
 In the end, the judge agreed with the state. Grinter said she will file an appeal with the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth. Grinter also said the ruling dovetails with a U. S. Supreme Court ruling upholding Ohio's purging of its voter rolls. 
 
 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that states could kick people off voter rolls if they have not recently voted and did not answer a notice from election officials, according to a New York Times story. 
 
 "Those who are working to suppress voting need to prove that in-person voting fraud is a real thing," Grinter said. "And they use cases like this to do that. It's sad those kinds of efforts have to stand on the backs of people like Crystal." ||||| A woman sentenced to five years in prison for voting illegally in 2016 is one of more than 500,000 in Texas and 6 million nationally who have relinquished their right to vote because of felony convictions. 
 
 Individuals who have been convicted of felonies in Texas cannot vote until their sentences have been cleared, and that includes people on probation and parole, according to a report released in 2016 by The Sentencing Project, a criminal justice reform advocacy group. 
 
 Crystal Mason, 43, of Rendon was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday because she voted as a convicted felon on a previous fraud charge. She will appeal her sentence, her attorney said. 
 
 She claimed during testimony Wednesday that she was not aware that Texas felons were prohibited from voting until they finished their sentences. 
 
 
 
 
 
 FLASH SALE: Only $0.99 per month Save on your first 3 months of digital access. Hurry! This offer won't last long. SAVE NOW 
 
 Mason testified that when she showed up to vote in November 2016, an election worker walked her through the process of filling out a provisional ballot. Mason testified the worker told her that the vote would either be counted or not counted and guided her through filling out the paperwork. It's not clear if Mason told the election worker that she was a convicted felon. 
 
 After election officials sent her case to the Tarrant County district attorney's office, Mason was arrested by Tarrant County sheriff's deputies while visiting her supervision officer in February 2017. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The laws that regulate felons who wish to regain their right to vote are so complex and varied, that election officials in many states have trouble keeping up with them, said Marc Mauer, executive director for The Sentencing Project. 
 
 "There is a great deal of misinformation even among elections officials in every state," said Mauer, who added that he has studied this issue for 20 years. "People are assured that they have the right to vote by elections officials and often they are operating on erroneous information." 
 
 'Needs to be perspective' 
 
 In every state, the rate that African-American felons are disenfranchised is disproportionate to the rate of disenfranchisement in other ethnic groups, Mauer said. 
 
 "These policies particularly impact African-American communities because of the high rate they are supervised in the criminal justice system," Mauer said. "African-Americans are disenfranchised at an average of four times the rate of others in nearly every state." 
 
 Lengthy penalties for illegal voting are increasingly being challenged, according to Mauer. 
 
 "People who have voted illegally can be prosecuted but there needs to be perspective," Mauer said. "It's not as though there is massive voting fraud going on and the courts need to be punitive. " 
 
 Mauer said that during the past 20 years, he has heard of only about a dozen or so cases of voting fraud cases coming to trial across the country. 
 
 "And there is no evidence that one year or even one month in jail would not accomplish the same thing as eight years or five years," Mauer said. 
 
 Mason could be subject to additional time in prison depending on how a federal judge rules on her original 2011 case, according to Natalia M. Cornelio, Criminal Justice Reform Director Texas Civil Rights Project. 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK In a jailhouse interview on Monday, Rosa Ortega says she has lost custody of her children and will likely be deported when her eight-year sentence is up 
 
 "The federal judge can sentence her to up to two years for violating supervised release," said Cornelio, a former federal public defender. "The guidelines will be higher because the conviction is a felony. But the judge has discretion to decide ultimately what, if any, sentence to give." 
 
 Mason pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government in 2011 and received a five-year sentence in prison and served nearly three years. She was placed on a three-year term of supervised release after she got out of prison and was ordered to pay $4.2 million in restitution, according to court documents. 
 
 An innocent mistake? 
 
 The fraud charge stemmed from a tax preparation business Mason and her ex-husband, Sanford Taylor Hobbs III, owned and operated in Everman in which they submitted inflated tax refunds to the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of clients. 
 
 
 
 
 
 "I inflated returns," Moss testified Wednesday in state district court. "I was trying to get money back from my clients." 
 
 Mason later divorced her husband, who received a similar sentence after he also pleaded guilty. Mason testified Wednesday that she has remade herself since her release from prison, including getting a degree in a new field and getting a new job. 
 
 
 
 
 
 But at the insistence of her mother, she tried to vote in the 2016 presidential race and was given a provisional ballot to complete because election workers did not find her name on the voting rolls. 
 
 According to her testimony on Wednesday, Mason signed an affidavit stating that she had not been convicted of a felony, without closely examining the form. 
 
 Prosecutors with the Tarrant County district attorney's office, Matt Smid and Johnny Newbern, argued that Mason signed the form with the intent to vote illegally, or that she should have at least known that she was prohibited from voting. 
 
 Mason's defense attorney, J. Warren St. John, argued that his client made an innocent mistake. 
 
 "This is the issue. The state did not prove she intended to vote fraudulently, " St. John said during his closing argument on Wednesday. "She voted because she had a good faith belief that she could vote." 
 
 Mitch Mitchell: 817-390-7752, @mitchmitchel3 ||||| When Mason voted in 2016, her name was not on the list of registered voters. The election judge offered her the option to vote provisionally after signing an affidavit. The document lists several requirements to vote, including that the voter is not a felon or has served the full sentence. 
 
 
 
 “The affidavit was a stop sign in front of her face,” Smid said. 
 
 Smid said sentencing in such a case depends primarily on what the judge feels is deserved because there are very few cases to use as precedent. The judge had the option to sentence Mason to anywhere between two to 20 years in prison or probation. 
 
 Mason told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that she was never told she was not eligible to vote, and she would not intentionally risk her freedom to vote. 
 
 "I inflated returns," Mason told the Star-Telegram. "I was trying to get more money back for my clients. I admitted that. I owned up to that. I took accountability for that. I would never do that again. I was happy enough to come home and see my daughter graduate. My son is about to graduate. Why would I jeopardize that? Not to vote. ... I didn't even want to go vote." 
 
 Mason’s defense attorney J. Warren St. John told the Star-Telegram an appeal has been filed in Mason’s case in order to allow her to be released on bond.
– Civil rights advocates see this as a tale of two voters. Crystal Mason, who is black, was sentenced to five years in prison for casting a ballot in Tarrant County, Texas, in 2016 while being a felon under supervision. Terri Lynn Rote, who is white, was sentenced to two years’ probation and a $750 fine for trying to vote for President Trump twice in Iowa. On Monday, the judge who sentenced Mason turned down her request for a new trial. “Prison is a lot closer for her today,” Mason’s lawyer told the New York Times. Mason, 43, had been sentenced to 60 months for tax fraud. She served part of her sentence and was released in 2016. She says she didn’t know that being a felon meant she was ineligible to vote. Her name had been purged from the voter rolls, and she was given a provisional ballot, which should have alerted her to her ineligibility, the prosecutor said. The judge had the option of sentencing Mason to anything from probation to 20 years, reported the Dallas Morning News in March. Whether a felon can vote varies by state. For example, as the New York Times notes, in Vermont, a person convicted of murder retains the right to vote, even while in prison. But in Mississippi, a conviction for perjury is enough to void the right to vote. Mason told the Star-Telegram that she was originally sent to jail for inflating returns and took responsibility for her actions. “I would never do that again. I was happy enough to come home and see my daughter graduate. My son is about to graduate. Why would I jeopardize that? Not to vote. ... I didn't even want to go vote.” Mason's attorney is appealing the decision. Mason's case is juxtaposed with Rote's in an online petition calling for charges against Mason to be dropped.