RENDON (WBAP/KLIF News) – A Tarrant County woman is accused of voting in the 2016 presidential election, despite being on parole.
Crystal Mason of Rendon is on supervised release for a conviction of conspiracy to defraud the government in 2011.
Prosecutors said she and her then husband, Sanford Taylor Hobbs III, inflated their clients tax refunds at their tax and notary business in Everman. She was ordered to pay more than $4.2 million in restitution.
Election officials became suspicious after a worker filed a complaint about Mason’s ballot.
Mason checked that she was a United States citizen but allegedly failed to check that she was on parole, which would prevent her from voting.
She told the Fort Worth Star Telegram that it was an honest mistake.
“They tell you certain things like you can’t be around a felon, you can’t have a gun. No one actually said, ‘Hey, you can’t vote this year,’ ” said Mason.
If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Her indictment comes on the heel of another Tarrant County woman who was convicted of voter fraud.
Rosa Maria Ortega of Grand Prairie was sentenced to eight years in prison on two counts of illegal voting last month
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