A Texas man who was hailed as a national hero after he queued for several hours in order to cast a ballot in last year’s presidential primary, was charged with illegal voting earlier this week.

Hervis Rogers was arrested Wednesday in Houston, charged with two counts of illegal voting, according to a report on Houston Public Media. He is being held in jail, unable to pay bail set at $100,000.

“Mr. Rogers is being held in jail on an extremely high bail amount that he cannot afford for what amounts to simply attempting to fulfill his civic duty. This is not justice,” said ACLU of Texas legal director Andre Segura. “He faces potentially decades in jail. Our laws should not intimidate people from voting by increasing the risk of prosecution for, at worst, innocent mistakes.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is alleging that Rogers voted while on parole for a 1995 conviction for burglary.

In Texas, it is illegal for those convicted of a felony to vote in an election until their sentence is completed, including probation and parole. Rogers’ parole began in 2004 and expired in June 2020. The Texas primaries, in which he cast his ballot, were held in March of that year.

“I wanted to get my vote in, voice my opinion. I wasn’t going to let anything stop me, so I waited it out,” Rogers told an ABC affiliate last year, finally casting his ballot at 1:30 a.m. after waiting for six hours to vote at Southern Texas University.

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