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Reminder that in America high voter turnout almost always favors Democrats, and the Republicans are very good at gerrymandering and taking control of state gove

Reminder that in America high voter turnout almost always favors Democrats, and the Republicans are very good at gerrymandering and taking control of state governments. They use this power to restrict voting rather than make it easier, mainly in the name of combating voter fraud, which statistically doesn't actually occur in the first place.

awqrre 10y ago
voter fraud is probably more likely to happen with digital voting machines... a paper trail should always be available
- justinlardinois 10y ago
  > voter fraud is probably more likely to happen with digital voting machines Why?
  - awqrre 10y ago
    because it is so much easier ... hack one machine, change how many votes?
    - awqrre 10y ago
      and if you can hack one machine, you probably can hack many since there is probably many exact same models in circulation
paulddraper 10y ago
I might be responding to a HN project that remixes Bernie tweets. But I'll bite. --- > Reminder that in America high voter turnout almost always favors Democrats Wrong; the effect is mixed. http://www.factcheck.org/2016/06/sanders-shaky-turnout-claim/ http://www.factcheck.org/2016/06/sanders-shaky-turnout-claim... > Republicans are very good at gerrymandering and taking control of state governments Both sides gerrymander as much as possible. But Democratic votes already naturally clump geographically in a state, causing them to say, win 90% in an urban district and loose 40% in a bunch of others. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2014-09-08/why-democrats-can-t-blame-gerrymandering https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2014-09-08/why-democ... Most analyses just look at total votes and resultant state representation, while forgetting that most of the effect is a natural consequence of Democratic geopolitics, rather than some Republican superiority in gerrymandering acumen. > They [Republicans] use this power to restrict voting rather than make it easier Maybe the media favors that story in the past 12 months, but that is not a trend. The Voting Rights Act had better support by Republicans than by Democrats. In fact, the Democratic majority had fillibustered the bill in the Senate until the Republican minority leader stepped in. Remember the voting rights case where a federal court concluded there was "a systematic and deliberate attempt to reduce black political opportunity. Such an attempt is plainly unconstitutional. It replaces a system in which blacks could and did succeed, with one in which they almost certainly cannot...The inference of racial motivation is inescapable." Whom did that case convict? The original President Clinton. https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/osg/briefs/1990/01/01/sg900402.txt https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/osg/briefs/1990/... Both sides play these dumb games. > voter fraud, which statistically doesn't actually occur in the first place. Probably. While it's often repeated that there are very few "credible" cases of voter fraud, that doesn't necessarily say much. Remember that George Bush won the presidency in 2000 by 0.009% of the Florida vote. The Democrats were sure counting the beans then.
- philwelch 10y ago
  > The Voting Rights Act had better support by Republicans than by Democrats. In fact, the Democratic majority had fillibustered the bill in the Senate until the Republican minority leader stepped in. The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, which was before the Southern Strategy. After the Southern Strategy, the Voting Rights Act's requirement for majority-minority districts resulted in packing black voters into a fewer number of districts, which is a form of gerrymandering that benefits Republicans.
  - justinlardinois 10y ago
    Not to mention that this in the middle of party realignment; the Democratic and Republican parties were in the middle of switching sides on the political spectrum.
    - philwelch 10y ago
      That's an oversimplification. Democrats have always been the pro-labor party and Republicans have always been the pro-business party, it's just that during the Civil War, northern businesses were competing for economic and political power with southern planters (and were thus anti-slavery), hence the Republicans became the anti-slavery party. Resentments over the Civil War led a majority of southern whites to the Democratic camp up until the 1960's, when the Johnson administration went all-in on civil rights and the Republicans deployed the Southern Strategy to sweep up the southern white vote.
      - justinlardinois 10y ago
        And the relevant effect here is that the parties essentially switched sides on social issues.
  - paulddraper 10y ago
    Yeah, and when the Alabama district maps were revised in 2010 (as they must be, to keep up with population numbers), the Alabama state legislature followed Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and avoided reducing the black population in majority-black districts. But...that was more helpful the Republicans that Democrats, so the Democrats (after arguing on the side of VRA for a few decades) reversed and wanted the Supreme Court to strike down the Voting Rights Act. http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-11-12/landmark-voting-law-creates-role-reversal-in-court-clash http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-11-12/landma... Oceania vs. Eurasia.
metaphorm 10y ago
in Republican Party propaganda euphemisms "voter fraud" means "black people voting". they hate "voter fraud".

awqrre 10y ago

voter fraud is probably more likely to happen with digital voting machines... a paper trail should always be available

justinlardinois 10y ago
> voter fraud is probably more likely to happen with digital voting machines Why?
- awqrre 10y ago
  because it is so much easier ... hack one machine, change how many votes?
  - awqrre 10y ago
    and if you can hack one machine, you probably can hack many since there is probably many exact same models in circulation

paulddraper 10y ago

I might be responding to a HN project that remixes Bernie tweets. But I'll bite. --- > Reminder that in America high voter turnout almost always favors Democrats Wrong; the effect is mixed. http://www.factcheck.org/2016/06/sanders-shaky-turnout-claim/ http://www.factcheck.org/2016/06/sanders-shaky-turnout-claim... > Republicans are very good at gerrymandering and taking control of state governments Both sides gerrymander as much as possible. But Democratic votes already naturally clump geographically in a state, causing them to say, win 90% in an urban district and loose 40% in a bunch of others. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2014-09-08/why-democrats-can-t-blame-gerrymandering https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2014-09-08/why-democ... Most analyses just look at total votes and resultant state representation, while forgetting that most of the effect is a natural consequence of Democratic geopolitics, rather than some Republican superiority in gerrymandering acumen. > They [Republicans] use this power to restrict voting rather than make it easier Maybe the media favors that story in the past 12 months, but that is not a trend. The Voting Rights Act had better support by Republicans than by Democrats. In fact, the Democratic majority had fillibustered the bill in the Senate until the Republican minority leader stepped in. Remember the voting rights case where a federal court concluded there was "a systematic and deliberate attempt to reduce black political opportunity. Such an attempt is plainly unconstitutional. It replaces a system in which blacks could and did succeed, with one in which they almost certainly cannot...The inference of racial motivation is inescapable." Whom did that case convict? The original President Clinton. https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/osg/briefs/1990/01/01/sg900402.txt https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/osg/briefs/1990/... Both sides play these dumb games. > voter fraud, which statistically doesn't actually occur in the first place. Probably. While it's often repeated that there are very few "credible" cases of voter fraud, that doesn't necessarily say much. Remember that George Bush won the presidency in 2000 by 0.009% of the Florida vote. The Democrats were sure counting the beans then.

philwelch 10y ago
> The Voting Rights Act had better support by Republicans than by Democrats. In fact, the Democratic majority had fillibustered the bill in the Senate until the Republican minority leader stepped in. The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, which was before the Southern Strategy. After the Southern Strategy, the Voting Rights Act's requirement for majority-minority districts resulted in packing black voters into a fewer number of districts, which is a form of gerrymandering that benefits Republicans.
- justinlardinois 10y ago
  Not to mention that this in the middle of party realignment; the Democratic and Republican parties were in the middle of switching sides on the political spectrum.
  - philwelch 10y ago
    That's an oversimplification. Democrats have always been the pro-labor party and Republicans have always been the pro-business party, it's just that during the Civil War, northern businesses were competing for economic and political power with southern planters (and were thus anti-slavery), hence the Republicans became the anti-slavery party. Resentments over the Civil War led a majority of southern whites to the Democratic camp up until the 1960's, when the Johnson administration went all-in on civil rights and the Republicans deployed the Southern Strategy to sweep up the southern white vote.
    - justinlardinois 10y ago
      And the relevant effect here is that the parties essentially switched sides on social issues.
- paulddraper 10y ago
  Yeah, and when the Alabama district maps were revised in 2010 (as they must be, to keep up with population numbers), the Alabama state legislature followed Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and avoided reducing the black population in majority-black districts. But...that was more helpful the Republicans that Democrats, so the Democrats (after arguing on the side of VRA for a few decades) reversed and wanted the Supreme Court to strike down the Voting Rights Act. http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-11-12/landmark-voting-law-creates-role-reversal-in-court-clash http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-11-12/landma... Oceania vs. Eurasia.

metaphorm 10y ago

in Republican Party propaganda euphemisms "voter fraud" means "black people voting". they hate "voter fraud".