It’s so hard to tell the fake news from the real stories these days, isn’t it? For example, we all know that there’s no voter fraud going on. We’re aware of this because Democrats and the mainstream media tell us so on a weekly basis. And yet a woman in Texas was just sent to federal prison for illegal voting. How could this possibly be the case? (CBS Dallas)

A North Texas woman convicted in state court of illegal voting has been sentenced to 10 months in federal prison for violating her parole from a fraud case by casting a ballot.

Crystal Mason was sentenced to five years in state prison after pleading guilty in March to voting illegally in the 2016 presidential election.

She was on supervised release from the federal fraud case after having served three years in prison and state law prohibits voting by a person still serving a sentence for a crime.

The 43-year-old Rendon, Texas, woman had been free on bond while appealing the state sentence, but U.S. District Judge John McBryde sentenced her Thursday for violating the terms of her supervised release that prohibited her from voting.

This case is a bit of an outlier from the usual voter fraud stories we cover. The woman in question wasn’t an illegal alien or non-citizen, nor was she underage, voting multiple times or using a fake identity. (All of which we’ve seen happen in the past.) She was a felon on supervised release during the 2016 election, having been convicted of fraud, serving part of her sentence and then being released. In Texas, as with 33 other states, convicted felons lose their voting rights either for a set period following their release or, in some cases, indefinitely. Ms. Mason signed an agreement upon her release warning her against attempting to vote during her supervised release.

Amazingly, there were some who were outraged at the District Attorney’s office for pursuing the case and at the judge for handing down the sentence, demanding an apology and a reversal of course. The DA was having none of it, releasing a statement saying, “we will not apologize for enforcing the laws of the State of Texas.”

This is probably one of the more rare types of voter fraud that takes place, but it’s a reminder that it does happen. I believe there’s a valid debate to be had over whether those who have committed a crime but paid their debt to society should still be barred from voting, but as things stand, the laws are what they are. And for the time being, doing what Ms. Mason did constitutes voter fraud.