. . . except when it does:

The state of Texas and the Justice Department gave opening statements Monday in a trial over Texas’ new voter ID law, setting the stage for a legal battle over the federal Voting Rights Act.

. . . .

Testimony from witnesses began immediately after opening statements, with Texas calling Brian Keith Ingram, an official with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office. Ingram told the court he knew of at least four verified instances when someone voted who had recently passed away according to records and said there could be as many as 239 such instances.

“It’s more common than we thought, and it is troubling,” he said.

Under cross examination, Ingram said that there’s a possibility some of those instances are the result of clerical errors.

Believing that we always catch voter fraud requires us to believe that government is motivated to catch the bad guys, and that they always do. In other words, that government officials are always competent, motivated, and hardworking.

If you’re already sniggering behind your hand, you might be a conservative.

BONUS FACT: I know Brian Keith Ingram. I went to law school with a person by that name. He won the law school’s jalapeno-eating contest. But in the end, he lost.

At a 2009 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Wanda Sykes said to Barack Obama:

The first black president! I’m proud to be able to say that. That’s unless you screw up. And then it’s going to be, “What’s up with the half-white guy?”

Guess what?

Oscar winning actor Morgan Freeman has declared that the U.S. is still waiting for its first black president as Barack Obama does not qualify because he is of mixed-heritage.

Making the controversial comments on NPR, Freeman said that even though President Obama identifies himself as African-American, the fact remains that his mother was a white woman from the Great Plains.

“First thing that pops into my head regarding our president is that all of the people who are setting up this barrier…they just conveniently forget that Barack had a mama, and she was white – very white American, Kansas, middle of America.”

The story says Obama checked off “black” on the 2010 Census. I guess he’s one of the ones who conveniently forgot he’s just a half-white guy.

P.S. Romney is headed to the NAACP today to do the “we don’t do enough for black people” thing that GOP candidates feel like they have to do.

Wouldn’t it be great if someone actually took conservative principles to them and explained how those benefit everybody — black, white, or half-white?