A Texas judge will only receive five years probation after pleading guilty to election fraud while black woman is expected to sit in prison for five years after voting “illegally.”
The Star-Telegram reports Justice of the Peace Russ Casey pleaded guilty Monday (Apr. 22) to tampering with government records. Casey, who was attempting to secure his place on the March 6th primary ballot by signing fake signatures, was also forced to resign. While pleading guilty, he apologized to the Republican party. “I apologize to the citizens of Tarrant County, the Tarrant County Republican Party, my family and friends for the way that I have ended my judicial career,” said Casey. “Today’s proceedings have begun my transition from public to private life. I ask for forgiveness and respect for our privacy as we go through this transition.”
Oh, the irony. The judge was originally sentenced to two years in prison but was later probated to five years. He will serve until the end of the year.
However, this leads to the stark contrast between his punishment and the outcome of 43-year-old Crystal Mason. The mother, who previously served time for a felony, was unaware she wasn’t able to vote in the 2016 election. Mason was very vocal about the fact that no one explicitly told her she was no longer able to vote. “They tell you certain things like you can’t be around a felon, you can’t have a gun,” she said. “No one actually said, ‘Hey, you can’t vote this year.'” She also questioned why she would risk her freedom to vote in an election after recently being released.
“You think I would jeopardize my freedom?” Mason said. “You honestly think I would ever want to leave my babies again? That was the hardest thing in my life to deal with. Who would — as a mother, as a provider — leave their kids over voting?”
Outcomes for voter fraud have been extreme to say the least. Rosa Ortega, who wasn’t a U.S. citizen, was sentenced to eight years in prison for voting. A white woman from Iowa however, was placed on probation for two years after purposely voting for Trump twice in the election.