relatively unchanged and you really have to wonder what is the point. writing for the atlantic about the case of krystal mason, i want to read just one more quote. you say fraud, you can read more of that in the atlantic, that piece, thanks so much for coming on. thanks for having me. that is all in on this tuesday night, the rachel maddow show starts right now. good evening rachel. are you really having the best in staff with jennifer lawrence on your show tomorrow. we are. we are. that will be interesting. how are you going to approach this? do you mind telling me off air or don t tell me here. we had a conversation about, this i don t know, i m just saying honestly here it s hard to know what to make
this was the tangible evidence. and you sat down with krystal mason, what is her view of this now that she is out in the world watching all of the big lie, watching the cases roll through the federal courts of people that did things like invaded the capital, in an attempt to overthrow an election, what does she make of her case and where things stand? well, she keeps up with the prosecution of the people involved in the january 6th insurrection, and obviously she is fascinated to say the least by the fact that so many of them are getting no jail present time at all. many of them are getting very lenient sentences. when you compare that to what she got, to what she had to deal with, she s already had to go back into eight months in prison because of this. she is facing five years now. so you look at what she has already given to this, and look at how so many folks
one of the most infamous cases of this. tell us about krystal mason s story. yeah so crystal mason, she is a black grandmother, mother, just a hell of a family living just outside of dallas texas. in 2016 she was coming out of a federal prison sentence and was doing since she went out her mother told her to go vote, donald trump was it put the fire to a lot of folks. she decided to go out and vote. she did not know that in texas she had to complete the terms of her release in order to get out and vote. so she power filed a provisional ballot, it was denied, yet a couple months later she was prosecuted for the legal voting. despite her fact that her voice did not count. that part of it just to be clear here the provisional ballot and this is one of the things the ap found in their analysis
of it here and there. usually affecting a single vote. and the few instances of it that do turnout from time to time, are usually ridiculous. all of those instances that i describe from 2020, all of those republicans, all of them got with basically a slap on the wrist for their crimes. the dude in 44, pennsylvania, prosecutors dropped the most serious charges against him. they re working out a plea deal. the guy who voted for his dozen years dead mother, ring she was still a life, he got five years probation. the local republican elected official in ohio who voted for his dead father, he got jail time. he got three days and a 500 dollar fine. it is worth keeping that context in mind when you also remember the case of krystal mason. we ve talked about the case of krystal mason in 2016. she went to her local polling place to vote. she discovered her name was not on the voting rules there. so, at the suggestion of a poll
worker, miss mason filled out a provisional ballot. she was told were not sure what the problem is, but fill out this provisional ballot. that we, if there is any real problem here, we won t count it. but provisionally, you can cast this vote in case we can sort out whatever seems to be the problem. a few months after that experience krystal mason was arrested and charged with illegal voting. because when she filled out that provisional ballot, she was on supervised release after completing a prison sentence for federal conviction. and she thought, because she had served her time in prison, that she was eligible to vote. she did not know that under texas law, you re not eligible to vote unless you have also completed any probation or supervise relief. after released from prison, she did not know that. even though that was a technical misunderstanding. and even though she cast a provisional ballot. and even though her provisional ballot was never counted. she nevertheless was convicted