Texas Man Who Waited Hours to Vote Arrested For Voting

A Texas man waited in line for six hours to do his civic duty—the last one to vote in the 2020 presidential primary at his polling station. A photo of him with his hard-won “I voted” sticker went viral. Then he got arrested, Houston Public Media reports. Hervis Rogers had served time for a felony charge and had been out on parole for some time. His parole was set to end in June 2020, but he voted in March. He also voted in 2018. He said didn’t know it was illegal, the Texas Tribune reports, and as written, it’s only illegal to knowingly vote while ineligible. Rogers was arrested just last Wednesday—a day before the Texas legislature convened to discuss new voting restrictions.

Rogers was being held in jail because he could not pay the $100,000 bail. The Bail Project, a national nonprofit, paid his bail so he could go home, the New York Times reports. Tommy Buser-Clancy, an attorney with the ACLU says the organization is investigating the charges. Rogers is facing a stiff penalty—possibly 20 years for each vote, or 40 years in prison. “Second-degree felonies are normally reserved for aggravated assault, and to apply it to Mr. Rogers’s case, it just shows how unjust that is,” Buser-Clancy said. (More voters stories.)