The Republicans have passed a law against stealing Twinkies, and our defense is going to be that we were only stealing Ding-Dongs? A Texas voter finds voter ID is not a “conspiracy” to “suppress” his vote after all, but a fair way to ensure the legitimacy of the vote: What a letdown. They allowed me to vote… I was hoping for a fight. In fact that’s why I went… All this year the consistent narrative for the Texas voter photo I.D. law has been that photo I.D. is a Republican conspiracy to keep Democrats like me from voting. August personages of the political realm, like Dallas Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, have declared that vote fraud is nonexistent in Texas. They say the whole photo I.D. thing is aimed solely at vote suppression. That’s what I wanted them to do. Suppress me. I wanted to be suppressed so I could express my ire… On the other hand, I always get a little shiver when somebody like Eddie Bernice Johnson says there’s no such thing as vote fraud in Texas. I seem to remember writing a lot of stories myself about vote fraud in Dallas in the past, mostly in the part of town that falls within Congresswoman Johnson’s district… Had the photo I.D. requirements been in effect back then, they would not have touched the kind of fraud I saw, all of which involved mail-in ballots rather than voters showing up at the polls to vote… But does that make it a law without any legitimate reason for being? … The Republicans have passed a law against stealing Twinkies, and our defense is going to be that we were only stealing Ding-Dongs? Sanctity of the ballot works two ways, it seems to me. The right to exercise the franchise is sacred, and we ought to do everything we can to enable and encourage people to do it. But if the vote is sacred, then it also seems fair to say it shouldn’t be fake. I don’t believe there can be fake sacred votes. So is it not also important to do what we can to give everybody a certain comfort level where the legitimacy of the vote is concerned?