Talarico Ad Omits Details of Crystal Mason’s Illegal Voting Case

The Texas Democrat's campaign ad blames Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton for Crystal Mason's five-year sentence, but local prosecutors brought the case years before her conviction was overturned. The dispute highlights broader concerns about voter fraud enforcement and racial disparities in Texas.

One of the closing ads from Democrat James Talarico in the Texas Senate race says that Crystal Mason received a five-year prison sentence for illegal voting “because of Ken Paxton’s crackdown on voters of color.” But there’s more to the story.

Although her vote ultimately did not count, Mason, a Black Texas resident, was convicted and sentenced by a state judge in March 2018 for illegally casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 general election. At the time, she was on supervised release following a felony conviction for tax fraud in 2011. That made her ineligible to vote under state law.

Her conviction and sentence came after Paxton, Talarico’s opponent and the state’s Republican attorney general, announced a voter fraud initiative in early 2018 involving “enforcement and education.”

However, the case against Mason, who was charged in February 2017, was investigated and prosecuted by the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office — not Paxton’s office, as the ad may suggest to viewers. The judge didn’t provide an explanation for the five-year sentence.

The penalty for illegally voting in Texas, a second-degree felony, was up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Attempting to vote illegally, a different charge, is a state jail felony, punishable by up to two years in state jail.

Explaining the Case of the Two Dan Sullivans on Alaska’s Ballot

A second Republican candidate named Sullivan sparked a legal battle, allegations of political manipulation and an extraordinary Justice Department intervention in Alaska's closely watched Senate contest between incumbent Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska | In the Alaska Senate race, the candidacy of retired teacher Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. — not the incumbent Republican senator, Dan S. Sullivan — has been the subject of months of legal wrangling. But the issue took on increased national prominence this past week. 

At the behest of President Donald Trump, the Department of Justice took the unusual step on Oct. 22 of filing a preemptive lawsuit arguing that if Sen. Sullivan doesn’t win reelection, and if he loses to his Democratic opponent Mary Peltola by fewer votes than Daniel J. Sullivan gets, the state should “not certify any election result that may be impacted by voter confusion.”

Then, on Oct. 28, the New York Times dropped a story saying it had uncovered evidence that “operatives aligned with Mary Peltola” helped to recruit Daniel J. Sullivan and others to run for the Senate seat in an attempt to siphon votes away from the incumbent Sullivan. The next day, in response to the Times story, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, ordered a criminal investigation to determine if any Alaska criminal laws were violated.

Trump, meanwhile, has weighed in, calling the issue “voter fraud at the highest level” and saying, “Peltola should resign from the race. I think she should be prosecuted criminally for what she did.”

On Oct. 29, Peltola denied she had any knowledge of or participation in recruiting another Dan Sullivan to run in the race.

“I just want to clear the air,” Peltola said. “I knew nothing about any other candidates on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters.”

With less than a week until Election Day, we’ll lay out the facts of what’s known so far, and the legal history leading up to this point.