This question deals with some issues that have come up in some illegal voting indictments stemming from an investigation into a city election. We have had several people indicted for voting during the city election while they were on felony probation. Here are some of the issues being raised:

Mistake of Law. One of the defenses being asserted if mistake of law under Penal Code 8.03(b)(1) which states that it is an affirmative defense to prosecution that the actor reasonably believed the conduct charged did not constitute a crime and that he acted in reasonable reliance upon an official statement of the law contained in a written order or grant of permission by an administrative agency charged by law with responsibility for interpreting the law in question. The facts that they are relying on for this defense is that the probationer was never removed from the voter registration list and was even issued a voter registration card by the voter registrar�s office after they were placed on probation. The voter registration card is the �official statement�/�grant of permission� and the voter registrar�s office is the �administrative agency charged by law with responsibility for interpreting the law in question.

Due Process. The other argument is that 16.036 of the Election Code requires a notice of cancellation to the voter and that 16.061-16.066 EC, gives the voter the right to challenge the cancellation. In this case, the voters were not given notice under 16.036 EC. Furthermore, it does not appear that the voter registrar�s office was cancelling the voters that were placed on probation as required by 16.031 EC.

No offense, but the first post you made was very detailed, I nodded off. The second one was short enough for me to realize that they have the DA involved in local politics. You guys have a slow month, or did the election results offend your boss?

It had nothing to do with us we were dragged into this. We thought that the issues were political and that they needed to be addressed through an election contest not us. The grand jury then met without us, sent us memos under CCP 20.19 requesting the indictments, filed a state bar grievance stating that we were obstructing the Grand Jury and have had numerous letters printed by the local Citizen's Advocate Group claiming that we are abusing of power by not doing anything.

Sorry, haven't ever heard that one before!! Good luck with that one.

In order to originally obtain a registration certificate one must truthfully state he has none of the disqualifications of art. VI sec. 1 of the Constitution. The registration has nothing to do with meeting those qualifications, it is just one additional thing needed to actually be permitted to participate in a particular election. See art. VI sec. 2: "provided, however, that before offering to vote at an election a voter shall have registered". Obviously the fact that the registration is renewed is not an official statement that the person retains the qualifications of sec. 1. The voter "cancelled" himself by getting convicted of a felony prior to the election. He is charged with knowledge of his disqualification under the law without any additional form of notification or other trapping of "due process". My arguement would be that if you got convicted the day before the election you could not legally participate. These people are definitely suffering from a mistake about the law, just not one that will help in their defense.