Remember this guy?
Back in 2020 a Houston man was a national media sensation after he waited in a long line all night to vote.
Turns out he was voting illegally.
Immediately following the Texas 2020 primary elections, numerous media outlets across the nation reported on the plight of Hervis Rogers, Harris County’s “last in line” voter who waited nearly seven hours to cast his vote at Texas Southern University (TSU) in Houston.
Days later, however, The Texan broke the news that Rogers was not eligible to vote since he was a convicted felon still on parole.
Under Texas Election Law, (Sec. 11.002) convicted felons are not eligible to vote until the convicted has “fully discharged the person’s sentence, including any term of incarceration, parole, or supervision, or completed a period of probation ordered by any court.”
Rogers has a lengthy criminal history dating back to at least 1986 but had obtained release on parole for a 1995 second-degree felony conviction for burglary.
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Rogers’ parole extended to June 13, 2020. In 2016, however, he signed and submitted a voter registration card swearing that he was not finally convicted or on parole at the time.
According to records from Harris County, Rogers voted both in the 2018 general elections and in the March 2020 primary, prompting an official complaint to the Texas attorney general’s office in 2020.
Last Wednesday, Rogers was arrested in Houston and booked into the Montgomery County jail. The attorney general’s office has charged him with two counts of illegal voting, and his total bail is set at $100,000.
In March of 2020, Rogers was hailed as a hero by local and national media for waiting in line until nearly 1:30 a.m. to cast his ballot.
Photo: Criminal mugshot courtesy of Montgomery County