4 ms·

Remember all those news stories a few months back about an attempt to close 7 out of the 9 polling places in a majority-black Georgia county which voted for Cli

by makomk 8y ago

Remember all those news stories a few months back about an attempt to close 7 out of the 9 polling places in a majority-black Georgia county which voted for Clinton in the last presidential election? The one which the entire press spun as a Republican attempt to suppress the black vote? That was a Democrat elections board. Supposedly, while the county as a whole was majority-black and voted Clinton, those voters were all concentrated around the two urban polling locations which weren't closing, whilst the seven more rural ones which were closing returned a majority for Trump last election. Not that you'd know that from the media reporting... More recently, the official Democrat party organisation in North Dakota tried to suppress the Republican vote there by running bogus, pants-on-fire Facebook ads falsely claiming that voting could cost people their hunting licenses, the state's Democrat senator stood behind this claim, and this wasn't any kind of national media scandal at all. I'm not sure if Facebook even banned them for it or anything despite this being a clear ToS violation. I presume that any other Democrat voter suppression which wasn't an in-your-face, public ad campaign with the name of the party literally written all over it and didn't get mistaken for Republican voter suppression has simply gone entirely unnoticed. Why wouldn't it?

specialist 8y ago
You're referring to Randolph County? No. Elections consultant recommended to the director of elections that poll sites which were not ADA compliant (required by HAVA) be closed, because there was no funds to upgrade them. Both candidates for governor, many organizations, and the residents opposed this plan. The two member bipartisan elections board voted against. This was all easily fact-checked with a quick google. Please try harder. The takeaway lesson from this particular drama, for you, should be that our elections are chronically underfunded and mismanaged. Most smaller county's clerk (auditors) are completely dependent on their secretary of state to keep the lights on. A cynic might suggest the director forced the issue to shake some more money out of the state, for which I would strongly approve. Cast that as a partisan issue if you wish. I didn't bother to fact check your North Dakota stuff. I assume it's also less than wrong.
- makomk 8y ago
  > Elections consultant recommended to the director of elections that poll sites which were not ADA compliant (required by HAVA) be closed, because there was no funds to upgrade them. That was the official reason, yes. Pretty much the entire mainstream press, plus the ACLU and other similar advocacy organisations, spun this as an obvious lie covering for what was in reality a Republican plot to suppress the black vote.[1][2][3][4][5][6] The candidates for governor spoke out opposing this and the board voted against it after a massive, viral tide of outrage based on the belief that this was a racist Republican voter suppression scheme, including "two packed town-hall meetings in which residents berated local elections officials".[2] The closest I've found to any mention of the fact that the supposed voter suppression scheme - a claim which was and still is uncritically regurgitated in every major news outlet - would in fact have had the opposite effect from that claimed is a single quote from Republican secretary of state Brian Kemp in one CNN article: "I was the first elected official in Georgia to publicly oppose the plan to close Republican leaning precincts in Randolph County, which is under Democratic rule".[7] The rest of the article is spent repeating the original voter suppression claims. Even now, publications like the New York Times summarize it as a "recent proposal to close seven of nine polling places in majority-black Randolph County".[8] (Which is of course technically true - just hideously misleading.) As for the North Dakota business, let me help you with that: https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/nov/02/north-dakota-NPL/voting-will-not-cost-hunting-license-north-dakota/ https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/nov... [1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/21/voter-suppression-georgia-randolph-county-polling-place https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/21/voter-suppre... [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ill-fated-plan-to-close-polling-places-in-georgia-county-recalled-lingering-prejudice/2018/08/24/6cad0ee6-a78c-11e8-97ce-cc9042272f07_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ill-fated-plan-to-cl... [3] http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/08/georgia-county-trying-to-close-most-of-its-polling-places.html http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/08/georgia-county-trying... [4] https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/20/opinions/randolph-county-georgia-voting-rights-errol-louis/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/20/opinions/randolph-county-... [5] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/us/randolph-county-georgia-voting.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/us/randolph-county-georgi... [6] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/georgia-voter-suppression-scheme-716393/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/georgia-... [7] https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/24/us/randolph-county-polling-closures-vote/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/24/us/randolph-county-pollin... [8] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/us/politics/georgia-governor-voting-irregularities.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/us/politics/georgia-gover...

by makomk 8y ago

specialist 8y ago

You're referring to Randolph County? No. Elections consultant recommended to the director of elections that poll sites which were not ADA compliant (required by HAVA) be closed, because there was no funds to upgrade them. Both candidates for governor, many organizations, and the residents opposed this plan. The two member bipartisan elections board voted against. This was all easily fact-checked with a quick google. Please try harder. The takeaway lesson from this particular drama, for you, should be that our elections are chronically underfunded and mismanaged. Most smaller county's clerk (auditors) are completely dependent on their secretary of state to keep the lights on. A cynic might suggest the director forced the issue to shake some more money out of the state, for which I would strongly approve. Cast that as a partisan issue if you wish. I didn't bother to fact check your North Dakota stuff. I assume it's also less than wrong.

makomk 8y ago
> Elections consultant recommended to the director of elections that poll sites which were not ADA compliant (required by HAVA) be closed, because there was no funds to upgrade them. That was the official reason, yes. Pretty much the entire mainstream press, plus the ACLU and other similar advocacy organisations, spun this as an obvious lie covering for what was in reality a Republican plot to suppress the black vote.[1][2][3][4][5][6] The candidates for governor spoke out opposing this and the board voted against it after a massive, viral tide of outrage based on the belief that this was a racist Republican voter suppression scheme, including "two packed town-hall meetings in which residents berated local elections officials".[2] The closest I've found to any mention of the fact that the supposed voter suppression scheme - a claim which was and still is uncritically regurgitated in every major news outlet - would in fact have had the opposite effect from that claimed is a single quote from Republican secretary of state Brian Kemp in one CNN article: "I was the first elected official in Georgia to publicly oppose the plan to close Republican leaning precincts in Randolph County, which is under Democratic rule".[7] The rest of the article is spent repeating the original voter suppression claims. Even now, publications like the New York Times summarize it as a "recent proposal to close seven of nine polling places in majority-black Randolph County".[8] (Which is of course technically true - just hideously misleading.) As for the North Dakota business, let me help you with that: https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/nov/02/north-dakota-NPL/voting-will-not-cost-hunting-license-north-dakota/ https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/nov... [1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/21/voter-suppression-georgia-randolph-county-polling-place https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/21/voter-suppre... [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ill-fated-plan-to-close-polling-places-in-georgia-county-recalled-lingering-prejudice/2018/08/24/6cad0ee6-a78c-11e8-97ce-cc9042272f07_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ill-fated-plan-to-cl... [3] http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/08/georgia-county-trying-to-close-most-of-its-polling-places.html http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/08/georgia-county-trying... [4] https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/20/opinions/randolph-county-georgia-voting-rights-errol-louis/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/20/opinions/randolph-county-... [5] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/us/randolph-county-georgia-voting.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/us/randolph-county-georgi... [6] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/georgia-voter-suppression-scheme-716393/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/georgia-... [7] https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/24/us/randolph-county-polling-closures-vote/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/24/us/randolph-county-pollin... [8] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/us/politics/georgia-governor-voting-irregularities.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/us/politics/georgia-gover...