The Wages of the vote fraud fraud
By 
Whenever a pundit gives an unwarranted assumption of good faith to Republican vote suppression measures directed at non-existent fraud, this is the kind of behavior they’re abetting:
On Election Day 2016, Crystal Mason went to vote after her mother insisted that she make her voice heard in the presidential election. When her name didn’t appear on official voting rolls at her polling place in Tarrant County, Texas, she filled out a provisional ballot, not thinking anything of it.
Ms. Mason’s ballot was never officially counted or tallied because she was ineligible to vote: She was on supervised release after serving five years for tax fraud. Nonetheless, that ballot has wrangled her into a lengthy appeals process after a state district court sentenced her to five years in prison for illegal voting, as she was a felon on probation when she cast her ballot.
Ms. Mason maintains that she didn’t know she was ineligible to vote.
“This is very overwhelming, waking up every day knowing that prison is on the line, trying to maintain a smile on your face in front of your kids and you don’t know the outcome,” Ms. Mason said in a phone interview. “Your future is in someone else’s hands because of a simple error.”
The fact that the vote didn’t even count — trying to impact elections through individual voting fraud is essentially impossible even in theory — is a particularly critical takeaway. But making the rules as complex and opaque as possible and then throwing the book at people who don’t understand them is helpful if you don’t want (some classes of people) to vote.