Why Does the GOP Want to Prosecute Voters?

An election official scans a mail in ballot while tallying votes for the 2020 U.S. presidential election in Marfa, Texas, U.S., November 3, 2020. [Reuters/Adrees Latif]

40 years in prison for voting? It could happen in Texas.

In mid-July, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced charges against Hervis Rogers, a Black Houston resident who waited over six hours to vote in November 2020. According to Paxton’s office, the 62-year-old allegedly voted in the 2020 primary and in 2018 while on parole, in violation of a Texas law banning people from casting ballots until they have completed their sentences. Voting advocates immediately questioned the decision to bring charges, especially given Rogers’ claim that he did not knowingly vote while ineligible. Rogers faces more than 40 years in prison if he is convicted.

While Paxton is trying to draw attention to Rogers’ alleged crime, the charges are already being used as ammunition to further the GOP’s effort to pass restrictive voting laws that would have a disproportionate impact on nonwhite communities. Texas Republicans are currently trying to push through a restrictive law that would enact strict ID requirements for mail-in ballots, ban drive-thru voting and restrict early voting hours, among other measures. Paxton, who supports the effort, has been one of former President Donald Trump’s fiercest supporters, advancing his Big Lie that President Joe Biden actually lost the election.

“It’s clear that Ken Paxton cares nothing about Hervis Rogers and is using him as a political pawn to score points with Republican officials in Texas and nationally,” said Nicole Porter, director of advocacy for the Sentencing Project, a group focused on decarceration. “What Ken Paxton needs to understand is that Mr. Rogers is a person and subjecting him to a potential 40-year prison term is obscene.”

While voter fraud charges are extremely rare – a recent Bloomberg analysis found that prosecutors across the country have brought voter fraud charges just about 200 times since the November 2018 elections – it has not stopped Republicans from exaggerating the problem and looking for rare examples to support their false claims.

In Arizona, Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced felony charges against Guillermina Fuentes and Alma Juarez, two Latina women he accused of collecting four ballots and bringing them to a drop box in Yuma County. Arizona’s ballot harvesting law, which the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld, prohibits residents from returning ballots for people other than themselves and their relatives. The two women were indicted in December and face up to two years in prison. Brnovich does not allege that they tampered with the ballots or did anything to interfere with the votes being cast – just that they helped people who live in a rural community where many lack access to transportation.

“It is disappointing that the Attorney General is using the state’s limited resources to criminally prosecute two women for possessing approximately 4 ballots with no allegation of fraud,” Anne Chapman, an attorney for Fuentes, told me in an email earlier this year. “We can’t help but observe that this prosecution targets the community of San Luis, which is over 95% Hispanic.”

Voting advocates also pointed to the fact that when the charges were brought, Republicans were trying to convince the Supreme Court to keep Arizona’s ballot harvesting ban intact and to issue a ruling making it easier for Republicans to get away with restrictive voting policies. The strategy seemed to work, and in June, the high court made it harder for those who challenge voting laws to prove intentional racial discrimination.

With this new green light from the Supreme Court, Republicans are no doubt going to ramp up their efforts to restrict voting to help them win future elections. Even if Rogers can avoid conviction by proving that he didn’t knowingly vote while ineligible, the damage will be done. Black voters in Texas or other states may think twice before casting ballots for fear that they too will be targeted with criminal charges and used as political pawns. And the Republican Party will be able to talk about Rogers as an example of voter fraud, despite ample evidence that fraud is exceedingly rare and almost never sways elections.