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According to a June 24 indictment from the Texas Attorney General’s office, Hervis Earl Rogers, 62, voted in the November 6, 2018 general and special election, and in the March 3, 2020 Democratic primary, despite his parole for felony for 25 years. one year sentence for burglary. Because he was on parole for a felony, he was not eligible to vote under Texas law, according to the Texas attorney general’s office.
He had previously been convicted of burglary in 1989 and 1995, according to the indictment.
Rogers could face up to 40 years in prison on two counts of illegal voting, a second degree felony in Texas. The person commits the offense if they vote or knowingly attempts to vote in an election to which they know they are not eligible.
In Texas, ex-felons are allowed to vote after they have served their sentence and all conditions of their supervised release, such as parole.
Rogers did not know he was voting illegally, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which represents Rogers, told CNN on Friday.
Andre Segura, chief legal officer for the ACLU Texas, told CNN that Rogers firmly believes he is legally entitled to vote.
“That’s why he stood in line for almost seven hours and told CNN about it. He felt he was doing the right thing,” Segura said. “Where is the evidence that he knew or intended to vote illegally?” “
Lawyers are now trying to figure out what the status of his criminal history was when he voted.
Segura said he believed Rogers was no longer on parole a few months ago.
“(Attorney General Ken Paxton) wants to create a narrative of widespread electoral fraud. We don’t think this is a case that should come to this,” he said, also calling the charges against Rogers “abuse of resources “.
Segura said this sends a frightening signal that a possible innocent mistake can turn into something so serious.
Rogers was arrested Wednesday, according to his booking sheet, and held in the Montgomery County Jail.
In the same statement on Saturday, Segura said it was “a relief that Mr. Rogers is no longer in jail.”
“He shouldn’t have been arrested and charged in the first place, and certainly shouldn’t have been forced to languish in jail on shockingly high bail,” he added.
“Voting restrictions and the expansion of the cash bond system go hand in hand,” Robin Steinberg, founder and CEO of The Bail Project, said on Saturday.
He called Rogers’ situation “a classic example of how these systems overlap to undermine our basic rights and target minorities.”
Rogers spoke to CNN about the long lines in Texas last year. He told CNN at the time that he waited “a little over six hours” to vote in the Democratic primary and was not put off like other voters by the long wait.
“I thought it was my duty to vote. I wanted to get my vote to express my opinion. And I wasn’t going to let anything stop me. So I waited,” Rogers said.
He was the last person to vote at his polling center at Texas Southern University, a historically black university in Houston, CNN previously reported.
This story was updated with additional developments on Sunday.
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