Ken Paxton’s Politically-motivated Prosecution of Houston Voter

Carla Reed and Hervis Rogers, the last two voters at Texas Southern University, finally got their “I voted” stickers. They waited six hours, until just after one in the morning. (Jen Rice / Houston Public Media)

Criminally-indicted AG Ken Paxton has done much to bring shame to our state, but today was a new low.

News broke this morning that Paxton had arrested and plans to prosecute Hervis Rogers, a duly registered Houston voter who believed he was eligible to vote when he cast a ballot — after a long, well-publicized six-hour wait at TSU — in the 2020 primary election.

As with Crystal Mason, who faces a five-year prison sentence for casting an ultimately uncounted provisional ballot on the advice of a poll worker while she was on supervised release, Hervis Rogers registered and had no meaningful notice or warning that his parole status prevented him from voting.

Texas AFL-CIO President Rick Levy said: “Is it even news anymore that the indicted AG is using his office to intimidate voters and advance conspiracy theories? This is a voter suppression prosecution, pure and simple, a poster child for Jim Crow 2.0. Unfortunately, it confirms that Texas’ shameful legacy of disenfranchisement is alive and well and desperately needs fixing.”

Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation Executive Director Hany Khalil said: “Hervis Rogers worked all day and then spent 6 hours in line to exercise his right to vote. Instead of working to make voting easier and more accessible, Ken Paxton is using Hervis as a scapegoat to advance Republicans’ voter suppression agenda.”