Intimidating voters of color

In our separate-but-unequal criminal “justice” system, Black citizens receive hefty prison sentences for honest voting mistakes while their white counterparts get away with blatant efforts to commit voter fraud.

by Emily Kay

You know how the disgraced, disgraceful, and twice-impeached ex-president continues to spew the Big Lie about voter fraud costing him the 2020 election? And how the countless and widely discredited so-called “audits” of election results are still under consideration in some states?

Well, guess what? Most, if not all voter fraud that officials have uncovered have been by — wait for it — white republicans, with a smattering of unaffiliated voters. Shocking, right? Yeah, not so much.

But here’s the kicker (and one that has essentially flown under the radar of the mainstream media that are more interested in how The Former Guy’s followers are coping with defeat than with reporting on the never-ending injustices people of color suffer daily): only innocent Black citizens are being prosecuted for inadvertent election errors in 2016 and 2020 while white folks across the country get away with actual voter fraud.

Help Pamela Moses and Crystal Mason stay out of prison.

If you had any doubt that we have two so-called criminal justice systems in this country — one that coddles and excuses white citizens’ crimes and another that is non-existent for people of color — consider the cases of Pamela Moses and Crystal Mason.

The two Black women are facing serious prison time for mistaken beliefs about their voting rights as white criminals nationwide skate despite knowingly casting illegal ballots.

Tennessee resident and Black Lives Matter activist Pamela Moses, currently in prison awaiting sentencing, faces a six-year sentence for simply attempting to register to vote despite owning a felony conviction that she readily acknowledged. Tennesseans who commit felonies may forfeit their voting rights, but officials assured Moses she was allowed to register. After registering, police arrested her for voter fraud — even though she did not even vote.

Crystal Mason, of Texas, was not going to vote in the 2016 presidential election until her mother urged her to do so and she submitted a provisional ballot to set a good example for her three children. Now, Mason, who was imprisoned for tax fraud and had no idea she was ineligible because of her felony conviction, has been sentenced to five-plus years for her honest attempt to cast a ballot.

Meanwhile, in MAGA America, life goes on without a care for Republicans caught perpetrating voter fraud.

• Terri Lynn Rote, a white Iowan, was convicted of voter fraud after intentionally trying to vote twice for The Former Guy in 2016. Her punishment: two years of probation and a $750 fine, according to the ACLU.
• How about the white, republican justice of the peace in Texas who pleaded guilty in 2019 to using phony signatures to qualify for a spot on a primary ballot? Russ Casey got five years’ probation for what The Atlantic called an “egregious” act of betrayal of the public trust.
• Then there’s Charles Barnes, who lives in Connecticut and owns a home at The Villages, deep into Gov. DeSantis’ police state formerly known as Florida. He voted in both places in 2020 and when caught told the FBI he just wanted to see if he could get away with double voting, according to ClickOrlando.com. And he pretty much did. Barnes, allied with no political party in 2020, was released from jail on a $2,000 bond — despite a Florida law that bans citizens from voting more than once in an election (what a concept!).
• Barnes was the fourth known resident of The Villages whom officials recently arrested for allegedly violating that same Florida law. The penalty for such a third-degree felony is up to five years in prison. Barnes’ fellow fraudsters, John Rider, Jay Ketch, and Joan Halstead (republicans all), pleaded not guilty to the charges and, if history is a guide, none will face jail time.
• The son of newly elected Republican Virginia governor Glen Youngkin, ineligible to vote because he was too young, nevertheless attempted to do so — twice, 30 minutes apart, according to NBCWashington.com. It’s a crime in Virginia to use false information to vote, but Youngkin’s young kin faces no punishment for multiple efforts at voter fraud and the governor is outraged that you even know about the 17-year-old’s failed attempt to game the election system. After all, the kid “honestly misunderstood Virginia election law and simply asked polling officials if he was eligible to vote,” said a Youngkin spokesperson. Hey, as long as it was an “honest” pursuit of voter fraud.
• Did you hear the one about a white Pennsylvania balloter and his dead mother walking into a voting booth? The punchline: No time for GOP voter Bruce Bartman, who in 2020 cast a ballot in his deceased mother’s name. Bartman pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury and one count of unlawful voting and got five years’ probation, according to The Hill. Well at least he apologized for dragging his dead mom into the ugly politics of the ex-president, blaming his infraction on the toxic right wing’s lies about the 2020 balloting results.
• Bartman was hardly alone in this particular voter-fraud tactic. Google “dead mother votes” and some 914 million (!) results pop up. Recently, Tracy Kay McKee of Scottsdale, AZ, pleaded guilty to sending an early ballot in her dead mother’s name, according to KTAR News. Under her plea deal, McKee got probation, a $1,000 fine, and up to 100 hours of “community restitution” while on probation. In a sentencing hearing set for March 2, McKee could also get up to 90 days in jail, which, considering the other cases of white people committing voter fraud, is hardly likely.

So what can we do about any of these injustices? Help free Pamela Moses and Crystal Mason from their unjust sentences.

Election fraud in contests in which federal candidates’ names are on the ballots is a federal crime, according to justice.gov, which makes Moses and Mason eligible for presidential pardons. So please contact your senators and your reps to urge President Biden to pardon Pamela Moses and Crystal Mason immediately! Call the White House as well (202-456-1111) to spur Biden to execute the two pardons.

You may contact the governors in each state (Gov. Abbott in Texas and Lee in Tennessee) to demand pardons for Mason and Moses, respectively. Both governors are republicans, but it’s worth a shot.

You may also sign the change.org petition to free Pamela Moses and to keep Crystal Mason out of prison. The ACLU supports Mason with its petition, The Action Network backs Moses with this one, and Common Cause’s petition seeks to end felony disenfranchisement.