The Texas Senate on Monday gave the initial approval to SB2, a bill to make any form of illegal voting punishable by up to 20 years in prison and more than $10,000 in fines, VoteBeat.org reports.
Of course the real point isn’t to punish people for intentionally voting illegally, it’s to make the process so intimidating to people on the margins, those afraid of making a simple mistake, that they don’t bother risking it. “I just would ask you to consider the unintended consequences of your proposal,” said Dem state Senator John Whitmire. “We’re all against voter fraud. But to give it the gravity that you are today really frightens some of us who have worked with voters that are just not going to be as informed as perhaps you assume they are, such as someone coming off of parole, such as a 17-year-old high school student.”