4 ms·

Yeah, the GOP has been caught a few times saying the quiet part out loud: Voter ID initiatives are explicitly intended to make it harder to vote for lower-inco

Yeah, the GOP has been caught a few times saying the quiet part out loud: Voter ID initiatives are explicitly intended to make it harder to vote for lower-income people, because those people tend to vote for Democrats.

refurb 4y ago
Yet most countries have far stricter voter ID requirements. Weird!
- acdha 4y ago
  How many of those countries lack freely-available national ID cards?
- erehweb 4y ago
  Most countries do not have a history of Jim Crow laws and voter suppression like the U.S. does.
  - refurb 4y ago
    That's hyperbole. The US isn't alone in not letting women vote, non-landholders, certain minorities.
    - ubermonkey 4y ago
      You should go read up on the history of Jim Crow laws and come back, because it's clear you are lacking a huge chunk of context here.
      - refurb 4y ago
        I’m not sure how that matters? Are you saying because there used to be laws suppressing a minority that minority is unable to meet voter ID requirements that every other countries voters can easily meet?
        ubermonkey 4y ago
        America was an apartheid state well into the 1960s. Structures remain in place that make it difficult for people to escape the inter-generational poverty that was enforced by LAW up until that time. The abolition of Jim Crow laws did not magically create socioeconomic equality, nor did the abolition of those laws mean things like redlining, preferential hiring, etc. didn't continue to happen (and, in many cases, still happen). As I mentioned in my other comment, in many states the Republican party has sufficient power that they can (a) reduce polling places in poorer, black areas while also (b) close Department of Motor Vehicles offices in those same areas. This means it's harder to vote even if you have the ID, and also harder to get the ID. So yes, that is exactly what I am saying. You would do well to do some reading on this before you embarrass yourself further, because it's clear you really have no idea what you're talking about.
- davchana 4y ago
  Many of them, India is the one I know, did a multi year drive to go to every corner & make voter id cards available to every one, for no cost & for no more than 200m walk away.
- ubermonkey 4y ago
  It feels like you're suggesting the reality of voter ID in the US isn't how I'm describing it. In the US, there is no national ID card. The de facto ID is the driver's license, and those are issued by the individual states -- and for people who don't drive (which, in most places in the US, means "poor people") there's no reason to have one. States DO issue a non-DL ID, but getting one involves a bunch of the same hassles that getting the driver's license involves -- paying a fee, taking time to go to the correct government office, taking time off work to do so (again, a large imposition for lower income non-drivers), etc. The GOP is also infamous for reducing polling places in areas that tend to vote Democratic, and really only gets in trouble when they're super obvious about it. Now, with VoterID, many GOP-run states have also starting closing the driver's license issuing offices in poorer and blacker areas of the state (for example, Alabama). There, you get a snowballing effect: reduce polling places easily accessed by poorer people; require an ID to vote that many of them don't have; and then make it harder to GET the ID in order to vote. This is the new American reality.

refurb 4y ago

Yet most countries have far stricter voter ID requirements. Weird!

acdha 4y ago
How many of those countries lack freely-available national ID cards?
erehweb 4y ago
Most countries do not have a history of Jim Crow laws and voter suppression like the U.S. does.
- refurb 4y ago
  That's hyperbole. The US isn't alone in not letting women vote, non-landholders, certain minorities.
  - ubermonkey 4y ago
    You should go read up on the history of Jim Crow laws and come back, because it's clear you are lacking a huge chunk of context here.
    - refurb 4y ago
      I’m not sure how that matters? Are you saying because there used to be laws suppressing a minority that minority is unable to meet voter ID requirements that every other countries voters can easily meet?
      - ubermonkey 4y ago
        America was an apartheid state well into the 1960s. Structures remain in place that make it difficult for people to escape the inter-generational poverty that was enforced by LAW up until that time. The abolition of Jim Crow laws did not magically create socioeconomic equality, nor did the abolition of those laws mean things like redlining, preferential hiring, etc. didn't continue to happen (and, in many cases, still happen). As I mentioned in my other comment, in many states the Republican party has sufficient power that they can (a) reduce polling places in poorer, black areas while also (b) close Department of Motor Vehicles offices in those same areas. This means it's harder to vote even if you have the ID, and also harder to get the ID. So yes, that is exactly what I am saying. You would do well to do some reading on this before you embarrass yourself further, because it's clear you really have no idea what you're talking about.
davchana 4y ago
Many of them, India is the one I know, did a multi year drive to go to every corner & make voter id cards available to every one, for no cost & for no more than 200m walk away.
ubermonkey 4y ago
It feels like you're suggesting the reality of voter ID in the US isn't how I'm describing it. In the US, there is no national ID card. The de facto ID is the driver's license, and those are issued by the individual states -- and for people who don't drive (which, in most places in the US, means "poor people") there's no reason to have one. States DO issue a non-DL ID, but getting one involves a bunch of the same hassles that getting the driver's license involves -- paying a fee, taking time to go to the correct government office, taking time off work to do so (again, a large imposition for lower income non-drivers), etc. The GOP is also infamous for reducing polling places in areas that tend to vote Democratic, and really only gets in trouble when they're super obvious about it. Now, with VoterID, many GOP-run states have also starting closing the driver's license issuing offices in poorer and blacker areas of the state (for example, Alabama). There, you get a snowballing effect: reduce polling places easily accessed by poorer people; require an ID to vote that many of them don't have; and then make it harder to GET the ID in order to vote. This is the new American reality.