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An interesting dilemma for media owners - the subscription model is the future of news, yet the self suppression of reach that this necessarily entails means th

An interesting dilemma for media owners - the subscription model is the future of news, yet the self suppression of reach that this necessarily entails means that media owners now have far less influence over politics than they did during the ad-funded era, hence this unsatisfactory half-way house of 'its free when we want to influence your voting behaviour' Also: democracy isn't dying just because media stops have the reach it once did. People will still vote, that is not being suppressed

macintux 3y ago
> People will still vote, that is not being suppressed Some would vehemently disagree with the second part of that sentence. Voter suppression is practically a plank of one of the two U.S. major parties. And is voting still meaningful if most people are ignorant of what's happening in the shadows?
- hunglee2 3y ago
  how is voter suppression operating (genuine question!) - what are the key techniques? >And is voting still meaningful if most people are ignorant of what's happening in the shadows?< Democracy is simply people voting for representatives, we have never measured ignorance of the population, hence no qualitative difference today than any time in the history of this system of governance
  - adgjlsfhk1 3y ago
    the most obvious is by closing poling places in regions where your opponents live. Lots of Republican states have dramatically reduced the number of poling places in cities leading, predictably to hour long lines to vote. in addition, some have made giving food or water to people in line illegal.
    - hunglee2 3y ago
      this is terrible. How are they able to get away with this?
  - macintux 3y ago
    > how is voter suppression operating Well, one egregious example would be sending a SWAT team to arrest someone in the early morning because they were erroneously allowed to register but not to vote. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/08/florida-voter-fraud-election-police-desantis-entrapment.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/08/florida-voter-fr... Or aggressively purging voter rolls in minority districts. https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/lawsuit-alleges-ohio-illegally-purging-voter-rolls-msna828006 https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/lawsuit-alleges-ohio-illegally-p... Or closing voting sites in minority areas. https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/politics/poll-closures-rural-lincoln-county-georgia/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/politics/poll-closures-rural-... Or outlawing handing out water to people waiting in line to vote. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/mar/29/josh-holmes/facts-about-georgias-ban-food-water-giveaways-vote/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/mar/29/josh-holme... And early/absentee voting has been on the firing line. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/voting-restrictions-republicans-states/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/vot...
    - hunglee2 3y ago
      thanks. This is outrageous. How is it possible for these actions to occur, especially closing voting sites? Surely there should be federal mandate that there should be X number of voting sites per Y number of residents
      - macintux 3y ago
        Like much else in the U.S. system of government, responsibility for managing elections is distributed between the federal and local governments, and most of the laws are local, not federal. For decades much of the south was under federal oversight because the suppression of black voting rights was so flagrant that Congress passed a law to impose some sanity, but the law was significantly hamstrung by the Supreme Court in 2013. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965

macintux 3y ago

> People will still vote, that is not being suppressed Some would vehemently disagree with the second part of that sentence. Voter suppression is practically a plank of one of the two U.S. major parties. And is voting still meaningful if most people are ignorant of what's happening in the shadows?

hunglee2 3y ago
how is voter suppression operating (genuine question!) - what are the key techniques? >And is voting still meaningful if most people are ignorant of what's happening in the shadows?< Democracy is simply people voting for representatives, we have never measured ignorance of the population, hence no qualitative difference today than any time in the history of this system of governance
- adgjlsfhk1 3y ago
  the most obvious is by closing poling places in regions where your opponents live. Lots of Republican states have dramatically reduced the number of poling places in cities leading, predictably to hour long lines to vote. in addition, some have made giving food or water to people in line illegal.
  - hunglee2 3y ago
    this is terrible. How are they able to get away with this?
- macintux 3y ago
  > how is voter suppression operating Well, one egregious example would be sending a SWAT team to arrest someone in the early morning because they were erroneously allowed to register but not to vote. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/08/florida-voter-fraud-election-police-desantis-entrapment.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/08/florida-voter-fr... Or aggressively purging voter rolls in minority districts. https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/lawsuit-alleges-ohio-illegally-purging-voter-rolls-msna828006 https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/lawsuit-alleges-ohio-illegally-p... Or closing voting sites in minority areas. https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/politics/poll-closures-rural-lincoln-county-georgia/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/politics/poll-closures-rural-... Or outlawing handing out water to people waiting in line to vote. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/mar/29/josh-holmes/facts-about-georgias-ban-food-water-giveaways-vote/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/mar/29/josh-holme... And early/absentee voting has been on the firing line. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/voting-restrictions-republicans-states/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/vot...
  - hunglee2 3y ago
    thanks. This is outrageous. How is it possible for these actions to occur, especially closing voting sites? Surely there should be federal mandate that there should be X number of voting sites per Y number of residents
    - macintux 3y ago
      Like much else in the U.S. system of government, responsibility for managing elections is distributed between the federal and local governments, and most of the laws are local, not federal. For decades much of the south was under federal oversight because the suppression of black voting rights was so flagrant that Congress passed a law to impose some sanity, but the law was significantly hamstrung by the Supreme Court in 2013. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965