PatD

With a year's worth of finger pointing about why Hillary lost and Trump won last year, we need to reflect on a little something the Supreme Court did a few years ago with The Voting Rights Act:

https://www.thenation.com/article/th...ng-rights-act/https://www.thenation.com/article/th...ng-rights-act/

https://civilrights.org/new-report-d...arance-states/

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politi...htmlstory.html

868 polling places shut down around the south--and that's just up to last year.

Where's the fucking "Liberal Media" screaming this from the rooftops? Why are they staying silent? Little to no one on the Left is talking about this. Not Bill Maher. Not Keith Olbermann. Not Michael Moore who's dinking around on Broadway. This is a systemic problem that's only going to get worse come 2018 and 2020. The public really needs to be made aware of this. Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. Put in on your blog. They are disenfranchising people and trying to swing elections to their favor. (And we haven't even gotten to Gerrymandering.)

Mabuse

If nobody is talking about it how come you have three links to articles?

JasonF

Gerrymandering is a problem, but the systematic erection of barriers to voting among people statistically more likely to vote Democratic is a bigger problem, and as you point out, one that doesn't get as much attention. Kris Kobach scares the shit out of me, and a lot of people don't even know who he is.

grundle

Making people wait in line for five hours to vote is inexcusable.

Having only one polling place per 21,000 registered voters is also inexcusable.

The Republicans who did this are evil.

Vibiana

Having lived in Kansas the last twenty years, I sure as fuck know who he is, and you're right to be scared.

Abob Teff

Also, he could tell us what “it” is.

I’m sure there is substance to the post, but it reads like clickbait and adding three links adds to that notion.

PatD

Seriously? I said: "they are disenfranchising people". I point to several articles corroborating this. So, I've altered my original post. Happy?

wendersfan

I changed the thread title so people would know what issue that's not being talked about that we're discussing in this thread. I mean, it could be just about anything, right?

VinVega

It really could have been the biggest thing NOBODY here was talking about at DT until you decided to weigh in.

Troy Stiffler

I still think we all (probably Democrats) need to fun a service that gets disenfranchised voters setup to vote. Seems like it's be a great experience for volunteers. I'd donate to the cause. I bet it'd be huge in crowdfunding.

JasonF

So here's an example of a subtle way the thumb is put on the scale:

DVD Josh

Easy way to fix that is just have elections end statewide at 8pm.

wendersfan

Gee, ya think? But what if I don't want to fix it? What if I want to create a situation where groups of people who tend to vote overwhelmingly for Democrats have fewer opportunities to vote?

Why So Blu?

Draven

I honestly don't know why that doesn't happen. What possible reasons could be given?

VinVega

Some states like FL span 2 time zones, so for example, Pensacola (Central Time) voting will end at a different time than Tallahassee (Eastern Time), but they still end at the same time (7pm locally usually). There's no logical reason for ending voting at different times in the same time zone in the same state.

Draven

The time zone stuff makes sense. But yes, I don't understand any reason that an entire state wouldn't end at the same time.

I've never lived in a place that made it difficult to vote. I go to either a local school or a church and since my name is at the end of the alphabet, I often walk right to the front of the line and am done in less than 10 minutes start to finish. And when I have had to wait, it's no more than 20 minutes at most.

Supermallet

First we need to make Election Day a national holiday. Second, polls should be open for a few days leading up to the election. Or even better, make the whole state vote by mail like Oregon does.

Trevor

^ Agreed. Having voting on a work day, and limiting the hours, favors the non-poor.

Troy Stiffler

Exactly. I still think a lot of would-be voters don't come out because they don't know exactly what to do, or feel anxiety about voting. So they just ignore it.

VinVega

Even with early voting, the Repubs try to disenfranchise minority voters. In FL, they have early voting about 9-10 days before the election. They start the voting on the Sat one week before election day. Well it was found out that the majority of black early voting was taking place on Sunday as churches would promote early voting and drive people to the polls on Sunday. Well guess what happened? They shut down Sunday as an early voting day, so those black churches that were voting on Sunday were shut out of 2 opportunities to vote. Pretty awesome, right?

Supermallet

Yeah, it’s super shitty. How do these assholes sleep at night?

Inhumans99

Given who we have in the White House right now (oops, Draven will be along to tell me I meant to say who we will have in the White House forever), I would wager they sleep like babies.

I get it though, you were asking a rhetorical question and already know the answer.

Trout

You mean up all night crying? You would be right about that.

Draven

Not forever! Just after Trump's reelection. And then whatever reality TV star the GOP coughs up to win the next election too, of course. Maybe a "Duck Dynasty" member?