Hervis Rogers captured national attention in March 2020 when he waited for hours to vote on Super Tuesday.
— Houston Public Media (@HoustonPubMedia) July 9, 2021
Now, Rogers is being prosecuted by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office for allegedly voting illegally.https://t.co/eyT0B4SeuK
When Hervis Rogers went viral on social media for being the last person in line at Texas Southern University to cast a vote at 1 a.m. on Super Tuesday, he was applauded as a tenacious, civic-minded man who worked hard to exercise his right to vote.Now, Rogers is being prosecuted by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office for allegedly voting illegally.Rogers was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in prison for burglary and intent to commit theft in 1995.He was out on parole May 20, 2004, and his parole was set to end June 13, 2020.Rogers was one of millions of people in America without the right to vote, due to laws prohibiting people on parole from participating in elections in many states across the country, including Texas.Rogers was arrested on Wednesday in the South Acres neighborhood in Houston and he voted in Harris County, but the AG's office is prosecuting the case in Montgomery County. Rogers is charged with two counts of illegal voting. His bail is set at $100,000.
Yes, Super Tuesday. In 2020. And why Montgomery County? Because Harris County is deep blue, and neighboring Montgomery County, isn't. Forum shopping, in other words. Whether that can be successfully challenged is honestly an open subject. That this prosecution shouldn't happen, is not an open subject. It shouldn't. Period.
Then again, Mr. Rogers was presumptively voting in the Democratic primary; which, as far as Mr. Paxton is concerned, should be illegal anyway.
Under a bill approved in 2007 by both the Texas House and Texas Senate, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice would have been required to notify people released from custody about their eligibility to vote. However, former Gov. Rick Perry vetoed that bill.
I mean, then what's the point of the law, amirite?
A similar bill filed this week by State Rep. John Bucy would require the state to give people convicted of felonies more information about their eligibility to vote.
I give this new bill about as much chance as the old bill.
And Paxton? Well, he’s in Dallas this weekend, at C-PAC. Coincidence? I think not.
Just another reason that the Democratic Party should take over all nominating elections and run those apart from the state governments' attempts to ratfuck them. The state has absolutely no business being involved in what is, essentially, a non-governmental election for a party's nominees. All of them should be registered Democrats only, by mail, bypassing Iowa's and New Hampshire's stranglehold on having the "firsts". Iowa's caucus, as all caucuses should be declared null and void in terms of determining the nominees.
ReplyDeleteIf they're not stopped in the next election cycle, American democracy is over in its present incarnation. Long live American egalitarian democracy, once we achieve it.