Voter Suppression

[atomheartbevo 89452]

14 hours ago, Flg8rfan said:

Just SOME of the things you need a photo ID to do
- check into a hotel (most of them anyway)

Who the fuck on Surly is checking into hotels that require photo IDs?

Are you one of those fancy Surly 2% fucks that prefers to pay for a hotel by the day instead of the hour?

[TheStoicPaisano 9904]

One fewer defector than the George Floyd bill passed earlier today. Both will be headaches in the Senate.

[Queen Bitch 1692]

I'm sick of letting Republicans golf from the red tees. Dems need to do everything -- EVERYTHING!!! -- to get this passed.

[Bookman 4611]

17 hours ago, Flg8rfan said:

Just SOME of the things you need a photo ID to do
- get something notarized
- cash a check
- buy alcohol (unless you’re old like me)
- drive a car
- check into a hotel (most of them anyway)
- rent a car
- get on an airplane

The argument that it’s insurmountable for people to get one to vote is utter bullshit. I have no doubt that there are some people that have legitimate hurdles to get one, but it seems to me that NOT having one would make everyday existence more problematic.

A decade ago when I applied for a passport, I found out my ‘registration of live birth’ from the hospital wasn’t considered a birth certificate. Used it to join the service many, many decades ago, used it to get my drivers license, my parents used it to get my social security card decades before that. Fine. $30 and 5 days later I had my first and only official birth certificate issued by the state I was born in.

Sure, there’s probably people that have some extraordinary challenges to overcome to get one but that’s on them. I’m sure there’s plenty of resources available to assist them, they just need to not wait until a month before an election for it to be an issue.

You don't have any idea what you're talking about.

[pyrohornIII 4809]

On 3/3/2021 at 9:18 AM, Js1 said:

Unless you're Florida, in which case, voters overwhelmingly approve giving citizens with prior felony convictions their right vote once they complete the terms of their sentence (probation and parole included).

Then the legislature says FUCK YOU and makes them pay off all the fees unassociated with their sentence (drug tests, electric monitoring, medical care while in prison) before they can vote.  But they don't tell you what you owe or how to find out or how to pay. 

Yeah, I realize that. Was really just speaking about Texas voting in that rant.   Good point though.   It's odd though that there was so much publicity about this in FL but most Texans don't have a clue it's a thing here.

On 3/2/2021 at 12:35 PM, DonkeyCigars said:

Not exactly. While I do think that doing things illegally in the name of "anti-Democratic" is bad (e.g. voter intimidation and denying legally the people who have a right to vote), but I'm also think there is such a thing as "too democratic", in the opposite: e.g. allowing illegal immigrants to vote, allowing felons/people in jail too vote, and annexing folks so they will vote (e.g. Puerto Rico) in the sense these are clearly just political levers to pull in order to bolster power via popularity and more voters.

Elfenix beat me to the punch, but here's the entire post I went back and dug out before I realized he'd done the cliff notes on it.

[Brisketexan 104631]

9 hours ago, Bookman said:

You don't have any idea what you're talking about.

He doesn't.  He's even wrong about several of them (you don't need a photo ID to cash a check everywhere, for example).  But what he doesn't grasp is what so many Americans fail to grasp: there are tens of millions of Americans who don't live in the world we live in.  They are unbanked.  They don't drive.  They are incredibly poor, and have very limited resources -- not just money, but resources.  They can't get to a DL office, among other challenges.  Think of homebound elderly.  Think of homebound people with a medical condition...as just a start.  Work a Meals on Wheels route one day, and most of the people you will visit fall into those classes, as just one easy example.

Making it harder to vote is not done to protect voting integrity, but is intended, entirely, 100%, as ADMITTED BEFORE THE FUCKING US SUPREME COURT BY THE GOP, to disenfranchise people who are likely to be more inclined to vote a way that the GOP doesn't like.  That's it.  It's the only reason.   Don't listen to me, listen to THEM, they fucking say it, repeatedly.  When someone tells you exactly why they are doing something, repeatedly, you should believe them.

[Guest Lobo]

What exactly is the GA Republican rationale for stopping voting on Sundays?  I mean, I know whey they're doing it, but I haven't seen anywhere what "excuse" they're putting up.  I mean the ID thing, that's "Election Integrity", but what's the facade for no Sunday voting?  "the machines must reboot for a whole day"?  What's the public-facing "story" for this?  

[Js1 85115]

Something something Jesus.  The Lord's Day.  And on the 7th day....Jesus stopped the negroes from voting. 

[Guest Lobo]

Ah yes, I forgot the biblical verse where he goes into Temple on the Sabbath and overturns all the electronic balloting machines.  

"And Jesus did turn over those election tables in the Temple as the Lord our God commanded him.  For they had power over men, but not DOMINION over mankind."  

[tx 3 putt 76409]

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

What exactly is the GA Republican rationale for stopping voting on Sundays?  I mean, I know whey they're doing it, but I haven't seen anywhere what "excuse" they're putting up.  I mean the ID thing, that's "Election Integrity", but what's the facade for no Sunday voting?  "the machines must reboot for a whole day"?  What's the public-facing "story" for this?  

 

blacks like to vote on Sunday after charge and this prevents them from doing that ?

[Queen Bitch 1692]

Don’t threaten me with a good time.

 

[Guest Lobo]

25 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

blacks like to vote on Sunday after charge and this prevents them from doing that ?

Yeah, I'm familiar with "Souls to the Polls."  And I know the GA GOP is angry about how well they did that in 2020, and want to prevent it from happening in '22, '24, and beyond.  My question is "How are Georgia Republicans dressing this up so it doesn't look like the overt racist move that it actually is?"  I mean, they have to put something out there for legal reasons.  Like how we use the excuse of "Voter Fraud" to pass "Voter ID" bills in Texas.  They have to give some bullshit reason, I'm just wondering what it is about this Sunday thing?  "Too much to ask election volunteers to also work on Sundays" is what I'm guessing it is, but I honestly can't find anything online about how they're covering this up.

[Post Oak 20187]

49 minutes ago, Queen Bitch said:

Don’t threaten me with a good time.

 

 

[NWBuck 8548]

50 minutes ago, Lobo said:

My question is "How are Georgia Republicans dressing this up so it doesn't look like the overt racist move that it actually is?" 

"Sundays is for Jesus, Tuesdays is for Votin'. Saturdays is for getting drunk and watching the Dawgs choke to 'Bama again."

[Guest Lobo]

They're not gonna open with that are they?  I could see Texas saying some shit like that, but we've never actually had Sunday voting (at least not in my lifetime, though I think some counties allowed it during Pandemic).  The oddity about Georgia is they had it, it worked well, nobody had a problem with it, and we know why they're trying to make it go away.  But it's harder to do away with something once it's been around for so long without issue than it would be to incept it from scratch in Texas.  So how are they justifying the attempt is my question?  

[Willfully Horn 7918]

NSIAP

 

There it is. Republicans have lost the battle of ideas. They’re crying about that to SCOTUS.

[Willfully Horn 7918]

In case you want to hear that exchange:

 

 

[tx 3 putt 76409]

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

Yeah, I'm familiar with "Souls to the Polls."  And I know the GA GOP is angry about how well they did that in 2020, and want to prevent it from happening in '22, '24, and beyond.  My question is "How are Georgia Republicans dressing this up so it doesn't look like the overt racist move that it actually is?"  I mean, they have to put something out there for legal reasons.  Like how we use the excuse of "Voter Fraud" to pass "Voter ID" bills in Texas.  They have to give some bullshit reason, I'm just wondering what it is about this Sunday thing?  "Too much to ask election volunteers to also work on Sundays" is what I'm guessing it is, but I honestly can't find anything online about how they're covering this up.

They don’t have to, look at the make up of the Supreme Court 

[Satchel 6908]

On Monday, the GOP-controlled Georgia House passed, by a 97-72 margin, a voter suppression billthat would greatly restrict absentee voting, early voting, weekend voting and ballot drop boxes in that state. And on top of that, North Carolina law professor Carissa Byrne Hessick notes in a Twitter thread, the bill "makes it a crime to give food or water to anyone standing in line to vote."

Hessick, who teaches criminal law at the University of North Carolina, tweets, "The idea that this should be a crime is completely outrageous."

 

https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/georgia-law-on-voting/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=6727

[NWBuck 8548]

7 minutes ago, Satchel said:

On Monday, the GOP-controlled Georgia House passed, by a 97-72 margin, a voter suppression billthat would greatly restrict absentee voting, early voting, weekend voting and ballot drop boxes in that state. And on top of that, North Carolina law professor Carissa Byrne Hessick notes in a Twitter thread, the bill "makes it a crime to give food or water to anyone standing in line to vote."

Hessick, who teaches criminal law at the University of North Carolina, tweets, "The idea that this should be a crime is completely outrageous."

 

https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/georgia-law-on-voting/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=6727

Brought to you by some of the same fine people who won't even stand and speak for an entire filibuster.

[pyrohornIII 4809]

Kagan has been awesome

Her line of questioning:

KAGAN: So the first one is that the state decides that each county can have one poll place, and because of who lives in larger counties, that creates a disparate impact that black voters have to wait in line for 10 times the amount that white voters do, two-and-a-half hours instead of 15 minutes. Is that system equally open in the language of the statute?

CARVIN: I would think not. "Equally open" means takes into account demographic reality. If you have one polling place for five people and one polling place for 5 million people, obviously, in the latter situation, those people do not have an equal opportunity to vote. So, no…

KAGAN: Okay. How about -- how about this one? A state has long had two weeks of early voting, and then the state decides that it's going to get rid of Sunday voting on those two weeks, leave everything else in place. That -- black voters vote on Sunday 10 times more than white voters. Is -- is that system equally open?

Let the floundering begin!

CARVIN: I would think it would be because, let's think about it, Sunday is the day that we traditionally close government offices.

KAGAN: It's a -- you know, it's an exception --to have government workers come in on a Saturday too. That's not -- that's not a real problem.

And then it became art.

KAGAN: Can we go -- just go on to another one? The state says we're placing all our polling places at country clubs. And that decision means that black voters have to drive 10 times as long to the polls and have to go into places which, you know, are traditionally hostile to them.

Country clubs! Carvin began to backpedal so vigorously that it’s a wonder he didn’t end up out on a sidewalk somewhere. Kagan kept at him, turning him into a pretzel on the subject of polling hours.

KAGAN: So 9 to 5 is okay, but 10 to 4 would not be okay? Is that the idea?

CARVIN: Again, these are all hypotheticals that have never existed in the real world because --

KAGAN: You know, this doesn't seem so fanciful to me.

Me neither. If the VRA survives, Justice Kagan gets the save.

 

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a35702370/elena-kagan-question-arizona-republican-lawyer-voting-rights-act/

[Bookman 4611]

On 3/4/2021 at 10:26 AM, Brisketexan said:

He doesn't.  He's even wrong about several of them (you don't need a photo ID to cash a check everywhere, for example).  But what he doesn't grasp is what so many Americans fail to grasp: there are tens of millions of Americans who don't live in the world we live in.  They are unbanked.  They don't drive.  They are incredibly poor, and have very limited resources -- not just money, but resources.  They can't get to a DL office, among other challenges.  Think of homebound elderly.  Think of homebound people with a medical condition...as just a start.  Work a Meals on Wheels route one day, and most of the people you will visit fall into those classes, as just one easy example.

Making it harder to vote is not done to protect voting integrity, but is intended, entirely, 100%, as ADMITTED BEFORE THE FUCKING US SUPREME COURT BY THE GOP, to disenfranchise people who are likely to be more inclined to vote a way that the GOP doesn't like.  That's it.  It's the only reason.   Don't listen to me, listen to THEM, they fucking say it, repeatedly.  When someone tells you exactly why they are doing something, repeatedly, you should believe them.

What gets me is how we are having the same conversations today that we had five and ten years ago.

[Brisketexan 104631]

1 minute ago, Bookman said:

What gets me is how we are having the same conversations today that we had five and ten years ago.

Because the reason for these laws isn't, and has never been, "vote integrity."  The entire purpose -- admitted and openly stated -- is to deter voting by a group of people one political party doesn't want to vote.  It has never been more complicated than that.

[Buzzrock 14871]

The purpose of political parties is to win elections. You should hope that whatever team you pull for is working as hard as possible to pass legislation that tilts the field in their favor.

If that’s alarming or horrifying or whatever to you then you don’t really understand politics. It’s not about us, it’s about them. It’s about power.

[pyrohornIII 4809]

On 3/5/2021 at 9:49 PM, Buzzrock said:

The purpose of political parties is to win elections. You should hope that whatever team you pull for is working as hard as possible to pass legislation that tilts the field in their favor.

If that’s alarming or horrifying or whatever to you then you don’t really understand politics. It’s not about us, it’s about them. It’s about power.

While I understand this, there is no attempt to mask their powerplays anymore.  They do this shit in the open and crow about it, how they are screwing over the Dems.  It's a lot like OU holding all the time, blatant and unchecked by refs.  

[Nice Guy Eddie 13414]

On 3/4/2021 at 5:29 PM, Satchel said:

On Monday, the GOP-controlled Georgia House passed, by a 97-72 margin, a voter suppression billthat would greatly restrict absentee voting, early voting, weekend voting and ballot drop boxes in that state. And on top of that, North Carolina law professor Carissa Byrne Hessick notes in a Twitter thread, the bill "makes it a crime to give food or water to anyone standing in line to vote."

Hessick, who teaches criminal law at the University of North Carolina, tweets, "The idea that this should be a crime is completely outrageous."

 

https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/georgia-law-on-voting/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=6727

More on the same change: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/08/politics/georgia-senate-no-excuse-absentee-voting/index.html

Quote

Under SB 241, voters would need to be 65 years old or older, absent from their precinct, observing a religious holiday, be required to provide constant care for someone with a physical disability, or required to work "for the protection of the health, life, or safety of the public during the entire time the polls are open," or be an overseas or military voter to qualify for an absentee ballot. The bill aims to undo a 2005 Republican-backed law allowing no-excuse absentee voting.

Dems needs to realize that ultimately the key to power is via the state houses/senates. You can pull off a Presidential or Senator win in a red state but the rules will soon be changed against you. And it's fine to attempt to win the high level races but you have to fight even more for the state level races.

[Biff Tannen 45499]

On 3/5/2021 at 9:49 PM, Buzzrock said:

The purpose of political parties is to win elections. You should hope that whatever team you pull for is working as hard as possible to pass legislation that tilts the field in their favor.

If that’s alarming or horrifying or whatever to you then you don’t really understand politics. It’s not about us, it’s about them. It’s about power.

Fuck a bunch of democracy, amirite?

[Buzzrock 14871]

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

Fuck a bunch of democracy, amirite?

Democracy is great. Politicians fucking suck. 

[Catdaddyhorn 3444]

 

 

[Catdaddyhorn 3444]

 

 

 

[horn4life 3755]

Why don't the elected GOP legislatures just adopt a skin color chart for placement at voting locations. Then declare light brown skin votes count as  3/4 of a vote,  and declare black votes as only counting as 3/5th and get it over with? 

Then they can decry Dominion voting machines counting the partial votes as full votes!!!! 

 

[tx 3 putt 76409]

if your state / county has open voting at any polling station, non whites need to make the drive to the burbs to vote. nicer facilities, shorter lines 

[LABEVO 928]

[Firemans4Horn 17839]

 

[Mrs Whiggins 13049]

3 minutes ago, Firemans4Horn said:

 

That is an excellent justification for not allowing certain members of Congress to vote. Off the top of my head, I can name over forty House and Senate members who should never ever vote on anything.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Mrs Whiggins
Edit-to be clear, I'm not supportive of Kavanagh's position.

[WhatTheBuck 28713]

John Kavanaugh is full of shit. 

[Firemans4Horn 17839]

5 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

John Kavanaugh is full of shit. 

He’s so racist his shit is probably white. 

[Biff Tannen 45499]

5 hours ago, Firemans4Horn said:

 

This is fundamentally anti-American.

[Guest Lobo]

Quality of Votes? 

I'll give him credit, that's a very original phrase.  It makes no fucking sense, and even sounds borderline evil, but I'll grant him originality.  

I mean, if what he's saying has validity, this changes everything from the Heisman Trophy to Congressional Elections, to the very existence of a Mr. J.D. Power & Associates.  

Edited March 13, 2021 by Lobo

[LABEVO 928]

 

[Biff Tannen 45499]

Stacey Abrams doing work on the morning shows today.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19093]

On 3/5/2021 at 2:18 PM, Brisketexan said:

Because the reason for these laws isn't, and has never been, "vote integrity."  The entire purpose -- admitted and openly stated -- is to deter voting by a group of people one political party doesn't want to vote.  It has never been more complicated than that.

I would like to deter voting by stupid people.  So that means about 74.2 million people wouldn't be allowed to vote by my count.  

Also, to address the idea of presenting an ID to vote.  Most IDs cost some sort of money, and to my mind, that is akin to a poll tax.  I think the only way having to show an ID doesn't disenfranchise folks is if (1) A Government Issued ID card is completely free and (2) there has to be a system in place to help folks get the docs they need and get the id without it being onerous (it could be for some folks).  If 1 and 2 are addressed in a satisfactory manner, then I would think it would be ok to require ID to vote.  But without those...

Also, I think we need to address legal immigrants as well.  People who are here, especially in state and local elections, legally should absolutely get a say.  Otherwise, they are experiencing taxation without representation, and we sort of fought a war over that back in the day.

 

[WhatTheBuck 28713]

37 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Stacey Abrams doing work on the morning shows today.

She’s always great. I watched her on Meet The Press. What really surprised me was the Republican Lt. Gov of GA Geoff Duncan, in response, defying Trumpism and popular right-wing ideology in agreeing that voting rights shouldn’t be suppressed. 

[Upgrayedd 5806]

On 3/11/2021 at 2:35 PM, Firemans4Horn said:

He’s so racist his shit is probably white. 

 

[pyrohornIII 4809]

22 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

I would like to deter voting by stupid people.  So that means about 74.2 million people wouldn't be allowed to vote by my count.  

Also, to address the idea of presenting an ID to vote.  Most IDs cost some sort of money, and to my mind, that is akin to a poll tax.  I think the only way having to show an ID doesn't disenfranchise folks is if (1) A Government Issued ID card is completely free and (2) there has to be a system in place to help folks get the docs they need and get the id without it being onerous (it could be for some folks).  If 1 and 2 are addressed in a satisfactory manner, then I would think it would be ok to require ID to vote.  But without those...

Also, I think we need to address legal immigrants as well.  People who are here, especially in state and local elections, legally should absolutely get a say.  Otherwise, they are experiencing taxation without representation, and we sort of fought a war over that back in the day.

 

I really like that first idea.   Start the ballot with about 10 general questions on American governance and history.  Weight that vote according to the percentage they got right.    Pull the questions from a pool of about 200 at random.   Make the 200 questions public for the year before.  Like 'Name the 3 branches of government.'    People who take the time to brush up or learn about our state/country can get full vote counted.

 

Texas does offer a general ID card for free.  But you have to go to a DPS office to get it.  

Texas also will accept an expired DL, up to 4 years under 69 and over 4 years expired if over 70.

However, IDs like used for high school or higher education are not accepted, nor any other federal or state ID.  (Think NASA ID, or Hermann Hospital ID).

So like in your point 2, the system makes it difficult to obtain accepted IDs.  They should at least cut those waiting on general ID ahead of the others waiting for TDL.   

It's ridiculous.   If they want to do this, then they need to have regional mobile units to visit all areas of the state throughout the year.   Wouldn't cost much for the added security, right?

[tx 3 putt 76409]

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

Stacey Abrams doing work on the morning shows today.

Hook’Em !

[jimmyjazz 45560]

On 3/4/2021 at 10:26 AM, Brisketexan said:

But what he doesn't grasp is what so many Americans fail to grasp: there are tens of millions of Americans who don't live in the world we live in.  They are unbanked.  They don't drive.  They are incredibly poor, and have very limited resources -- not just money, but resources.  They can't get to a DL office, among other challenges. 

. . . and those motor vehicle offices have been systematically closed, affecting poor minority counties much more than affluent white majority counties.  For instance, in Wilcox County, AL, there is only one motor vehicle office, and it doesn't even have a website showing hours of operation.  

Tell me, how is the average resident of Wilcox County, who is poor and lacks a drivers license, expected to get to that office?

Edited March 14, 2021 by jimmyjazz

[Brisketexan 104631]

53 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

. . . and those motor vehicle offices have been systematically closed, affecting poor minority counties much more than affluent white majority counties.  For instance, in Wilcox County, AL, there is only one motor vehicle office, and it doesn't even have a website showing hours of operation.  

Tell me, how is the average resident of Wilcox County, who is poor and lacks a drivers license, expected to get to that office?

Well, by their bootstraps, of course.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33843]

 

[Bruh Man 3160]

14 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Stacey Abrams doing work on the morning shows today.

She is doing too much heavy lifting. It'd be nice if she got some help from Washington. Consider it a repayment of a debt for what she accomplished last year. 

If we're in November '22 and there are miles long lines at Zone 6 ATL voting precincts I'm going to put a lot of the blame on Biden and the squares in the Senate for their inaction. That would be a total abandonment of the voters who put them in power.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Bruh Man