3 ms·

The history of voter suppression in certain states cannot be ignored. The argument you're presenting is misleading because the intent of the system is clearly t

The history of voter suppression in certain states cannot be ignored. The argument you're presenting is misleading because the intent of the system is clearly to discourage specific groups of people from voting. There's a long history of voting machines not working (on purpose), inadequate staffing, restrictive laws, and all of this malfeasance curiously manifesting in neighborhoods with specific demographics. People are saying the pandemic and high voter turnout changes things but... > The Clayton County resident, who registered to vote in Georgia when he moved six months ago, showed up at the Frank Bailey Senior Center in Riverdale, Georgia, at 9 a.m. hoping to cast his vote early. At 2 p.m. Dubose had just reached the front of the line -- that ran hundreds deep and snaked around the senior center into the back parking lot. https://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/georgia.voting/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/georgia.voting/index... > According to a local election official interviewed by CBS News' Phil Hirschkorn, the last "early voter" in line for Saturday's truncated early voting in Palm Beach County finally got to cast a ballot at 2:30 a.m Sunday morning, which means that voter waited in line for more than seven hours. In Miami, another traditional Democratic stronghold, the wait was said to be nearly as long. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/no-one-in-america-should-have-to-wait-7-hours-to-vote/264506/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/no-one-...

jdmichal 6y ago
> The history of voter suppression in certain states cannot be ignored. Agreed but mostly orthogonal. Providing early voting at all is a drastic improvement reducing voter suppression. Since it lasts for multiple days, it allows for many more people to vote on days off work and other commitments, when they may not be able to easily vote on election day. Providing better early voting would of course do an even better job of this.
- cortesoft 6y ago
  You can’t ignore the attempt to actively make early voting WORSE though, like Texas removing ballot drop off locations that were already in place and changing the rules to only allow one location per county. That isn’t “old rules are out of date and need updating”, that is “actively making the current system worse to suppress voting”
  - jdmichal 6y ago
    I'm not sure what you're looking for here? Do you want an endorsement that I don't like voter suppression? Because sure, I don't like voter suppression. But you keep bringing up points that are at best tangentially related to the actual topic at hand here. I don't dispute that there's shit that happens, but I also don't see the connection to long lines at early voting.
    - cortesoft 6y ago
      > I think there was likely not much thought put into the number of early voting locations. It's always been viewed as a low-budget, customer-friendly alternative to voting on election day. That probably should have been re-evaluated given the pandemic and the likelihood of greater numbers of early voters This part of your earlier comment makes it seem like you are arguing that the early voting issues are simply logistical issues because they didn't "re-evaluate" their process for the pandemic. I am pointing out evidence that these problems aren't from a lack of planning, but from active suppression. If you look at any particular incident (like the long lines for early voting in this case), you can think of a lot of innocent reasons it might be happening. When you see the pattern, and you see clear and active suppression, you can't just say "well, all of these other incidents are just poor planning"
      - onecommentman 6y ago
        You are using the phrase “active suppression” in a way I have never seen it used before. Extending the use of the phrase to describe these sort of political tactics has a downside. It waters down the emotional impact of the phrase when being used to describe, say, the poll tax or grandfather clauses in the US South. Real voter suppression. And thus, in a backhanded sort of way, dilutes the honor of those early civil rights workers who fought, and sometimes died, so that everyone got a chance to vote. Why would you want to do that?

jdmichal 6y ago

> The history of voter suppression in certain states cannot be ignored. Agreed but mostly orthogonal. Providing early voting at all is a drastic improvement reducing voter suppression. Since it lasts for multiple days, it allows for many more people to vote on days off work and other commitments, when they may not be able to easily vote on election day. Providing better early voting would of course do an even better job of this.

cortesoft 6y ago
You can’t ignore the attempt to actively make early voting WORSE though, like Texas removing ballot drop off locations that were already in place and changing the rules to only allow one location per county. That isn’t “old rules are out of date and need updating”, that is “actively making the current system worse to suppress voting”
- jdmichal 6y ago
  I'm not sure what you're looking for here? Do you want an endorsement that I don't like voter suppression? Because sure, I don't like voter suppression. But you keep bringing up points that are at best tangentially related to the actual topic at hand here. I don't dispute that there's shit that happens, but I also don't see the connection to long lines at early voting.
  - cortesoft 6y ago
    > I think there was likely not much thought put into the number of early voting locations. It's always been viewed as a low-budget, customer-friendly alternative to voting on election day. That probably should have been re-evaluated given the pandemic and the likelihood of greater numbers of early voters This part of your earlier comment makes it seem like you are arguing that the early voting issues are simply logistical issues because they didn't "re-evaluate" their process for the pandemic. I am pointing out evidence that these problems aren't from a lack of planning, but from active suppression. If you look at any particular incident (like the long lines for early voting in this case), you can think of a lot of innocent reasons it might be happening. When you see the pattern, and you see clear and active suppression, you can't just say "well, all of these other incidents are just poor planning"
    - onecommentman 6y ago
      You are using the phrase “active suppression” in a way I have never seen it used before. Extending the use of the phrase to describe these sort of political tactics has a downside. It waters down the emotional impact of the phrase when being used to describe, say, the poll tax or grandfather clauses in the US South. Real voter suppression. And thus, in a backhanded sort of way, dilutes the honor of those early civil rights workers who fought, and sometimes died, so that everyone got a chance to vote. Why would you want to do that?