I'm not minimizing anything.
People love to gloss over real racism in the electorate, and pretend like the big bad boogeyman of Cambridge Analytica tricked people's parents into voting racist. That's just not what happened.
Those people were enjoying Fox News for 20 years before Cambridge Analytica. Trump won because of extreme voter suppression, clear and simple.
The attitudes of those Trump voters didn't change before or after the election.
The number of Black people that were legally eligible to vote in 2016, but that were illegally prevented from voting, was larger than the entire margin of victory for Trump. But we don't like to talk about that. 🤷🏿♂️
People who know that their family members are racist for a long time, pretend that they only started being racist after Cambridge Analytica. That's a lie.
Trump gave people who were racist inside the house permission to be racist outside of the house too.
@mekkaokereke @oscarjiminy @carnage4life Please do talk more about the details of the voter suppression, if and when you're so inclined and have the opportunity.
I have a broad sense of the techniques (ID requirements, date/time/location restrictions, register purges, mail-in restrictions) but not a good sense of the numbers involved.
@georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
I'll give just 2 examples.
1) Black voters in Milwaukee were targeted with racist voter ID laws.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/voter-suppression-wisconsin-election-2016/
This caused a 20 point electoral swing to Trump.
2) 17 million voters purged from rolls between 2016 and 2018. Disproportionately Black, in places where Black voters have been intentionally disenfranchised.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/purges-growing-threat-right-vote
The purging was 4 million voters more effective than during Obama's election. 4 *million*. Not a typo
@georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
The reason that people like Rachel Bitecofer, me, and most Black folk, are so often right about who's going to win a US election, and people like Nate Silver are so often wrong, is that Nate looks at the stats and polls, which tell you how people *intend* to vote, while we look at turnout/suppression, which tells you how people *are able* to vote.
Voter turnout is all about suppression. And suppression is all about racism. 🤷🏿♂️
@MHowell @q_aurelius @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
It is as dire as we fear.
I honestly don't mean to sound harsh, but I need to be very clear about something:
The whole game of voter suppression efforts, is to design attacks to look innocuous, common sense, not racist, and "not that dire" to gullible white citizens.
Meanwhile, Black voters, and white folk that do understand voter suppression and want less of it, try to point out how it will have a huge negative effect.
@mekkaokereke @MHowell @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
EXACTLY.
I remember ten years ago a white libertarian I knew was arguing with me "I looked it up, a state id is $5. Stop making a big deal of this."
(The cost listed on the website does not include 'fees' which are assessed at the county and city level and are higher in urban areas.)
The whole thing is about providing plausible deniability for white people who don't want to think about it too much.
The Anambra State Commissioner of Police, CP Echeng Echeng, has ordered investigation into a viral video of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) numbering up to a million found by a hunter in a forest in Nnewi area of Anambra State. On Tuesday, four days to the presidential election, a hunter whose identity was not revealed had approached the Authority FM in Nnewi with a bag filled with PVCs he discovered in a forest in the area.
@Barbramon1 @CatDragon @q_aurelius @mekkaokereke @MHowell @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life To be fair California has 4 times the population of Ohio and 8 times the population of Missouri. Its probably cheaper to have massive industrial printers churning out licenses in CA than individual machines in each DMV that would be broken more than the McDonald's ice cream machine.
Missouri privatizes as many "public" services as possible to provide opportunities for rich people to get more rich.
@chrisisgr8 @mekkaokereke @MHowell @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
We used to free file (before our taxes got too complicated) and it was filled with misleading options to get you to spend money. You had to be very careful not to get charged.
@neckspike @mekkaokereke @q_aurelius @MHowell @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life Funny how you can get a passport at the post office but not a regular ID! 🙄 Everything becomes predictable once you grok that almost every time something is stupid and onerous it’s because of racism.
Similarly: https://hachyderm.io/@LauraLangdon/110294310940422714
Y’all. At the DMV, they don’t accept your driver’s license as proof of address. The ID they issue you in that building isn’t sufficiently convincing for them. But your car registration is sufficient, because ✨racism✨.
@neckspike @q_aurelius @mekkaokereke @MHowell @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
At some point I was having a conversation with someone who is in favor of voter ID, and their argument was "well, Canada requires it!" Let's go see what Canda allows for voter ID, shall we?
https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=ids&document=index&lang=e#list
There are 48 things on this list, including library cards, transit passes, utility bills, letters from homeless shelters, etc.!
The laws being passed in the US are about reducing turnout among certain populations, full stop.
@ricci @neckspike @q_aurelius @mekkaokereke @MHowell @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
just the us registration requirement process is 🐂🐂🐂
most of europe, you get your coupon by mail, and you are "required" to vote ... or else explain why you did not ...
the us complication of simple problems is just a further technical excuse to suppress voting ...
guess the pip usury kkkristians are scared of prople that vote ...
@dibi58 @ricci @neckspike @q_aurelius @mekkaokereke @MHowell @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
scared indeed. we have a serious problem with a portion of the country that simply does not want democracy. a lot of our founding was quite anti democratic and americans are endlessly propagandized from childhood onward that whatever those dudes did was good, so the founders’ disdain for voters is shared by many who assume they must have had good reason
@ricci @neckspike @q_aurelius @mekkaokereke @MHowell @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life Look up just above where you linked to where it says “Option 3: If you don't have ID“ and says you can have someone vouch for you and that’s good enough to cast a ballot.
We most definitely don’t require ID to vote in Canada. It’s certainly recommended and almost everyone provides it, but my wife counts ballots in elections and she typically gets a couple people each election who don’t.
@klausfiend @michaelmelanson @ricci @q_aurelius @mekkaokereke @MHowell @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
There's something like that but it varies wildly from state to state. It's a bit of a mess.
@klausfiend @ricci @neckspike @q_aurelius @mekkaokereke @MHowell @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life Yes, scruineers are a thing in Canada and often come to polling stations, especially closely contested ones, both while ballots are being cast and while they’re counted.
They have very limited rights, merely to observe and to lodge a complaint if they disagree with a poll worker’s judgment on eligibility of a voter or how a ballot is counted.
@newstik @ricci @q_aurelius @mekkaokereke @MHowell @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
That's also how it works in the state I live in, they have you sign the roll to verify you voted. If you want to vote from somewhere other than your registered polling place you can but they have you fill out a provisional ballot so it's slightly more hassle. They could definitely make this easier, but you don't have to show ID.
I presume they look into your eligibility when processing your registration, so it's taken care of long before you get to the polls.
I do my voting by mail these days because I'm disabled and at higher risk for Covid and other junk. It's very convenient and should be more easily accessible.
@deborahh @ricci @neckspike @q_aurelius @mekkaokereke @MHowell @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life Yes, though, again, that way of #VoterRegistration works on the federal level, and some other election authorities use that data as well, but not all do.
The #Yukon, for example, used to send people to each house and apartment to stand up a list of voters for every single election anew. All the data was deleted and then recreated next time, by foot - that changed with the most recent election.
@ricci @neckspike @q_aurelius @mekkaokereke @MHowell @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life Canadian elections require proof of ID and proof of address. Some of the items you mentioned only cover the “proof of address” half.
However, I believe all provinces provide a non-drivers ID card if you want. It covers all “government issued ID with photo and address” requirements, just like a drivers license. I know at least one person who cannot drive and don’t have a passport who use one.
You also have provincial health insurance cards, which can be used as ID in some circumstances, though this is discouraged under the idea that showing off your health insurance info is bad and can lead to fraud.
In Ontario ID and insurance cards are issued through “Service Ontario” which means a (sometimes long) line, but there are enough of them that there is always one that will be accessible.
@mikemacleod @neckspike @q_aurelius @mekkaokereke @MHowell @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
Thanks for filling in these details! USA voter ID requirements are generally 'thing you get from the DMV or a passport'; when looking at the lists, it seems clear to me that the (federal) Canadian list was designed to include things that pretty much everyone can be assumed to have, or to get without a lot of hassle. The USA lists are clearly designed to be "things middle class/rich people can be assumed to have, and things that poor folks can theoretically get by going through a lot of hassle."
@MHowell @oscarjiminy @mikemacleod @ricci @neckspike @q_aurelius @mekkaokereke @georgeeyong @carnage4life
In Alberta, in addition to ID, you can have another registered elector with identification that resides in your voting area vouch for you, or have an authorized signatory complete an attestation form in advance.
@mekkaokereke @oscarjiminy @q_aurelius @MHowell @ricci @carnage4life @neckspike @georgeeyong @mikemacleod
Nope, nothing provisional about it, once a vote is cast it remains anonymous and can’t be removed from the poll.
Info about ID here: https://www.elections.ab.ca/uploads/Information-Sheet-for-Media-Voter-Identification.pdf
@DavidM_yeg @mekkaokereke @oscarjiminy @q_aurelius @MHowell @ricci @carnage4life @neckspike @georgeeyong ah, cool. Not sure what the details are in Ontario, and also on vacation so “research”, even to be right on the internet, is verboten.
One thing to highlight though is the rules are slightly different depending on whether it’s a federal, provincial, or municipal election. Broadly similar, but subtle differences exist.
@georgeeyong @neckspike @oscarjiminy @ricci @MHowell @carnage4life @q_aurelius @mikemacleod @mekkaokereke
Happy vacation! To my knowledge, unlike the US, there is no such thing as a ‘provisional ballot’ in Canada; you are either permitted to vote or you are not. All ballots are counted on election day, there is no further vetting.
@mekkaokereke @MHowell @q_aurelius @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
I think people underplay how hard it is to get to polling places, and the Secretary of State, DMV, and other offices that handle IDs. Also w/ transit issues, not everything we need is along a transit route.
During the 2020 election were setting up transportation for those we helped register to vote. What did Michigan's red legislature do? They reinstated an old law that disallowed transporting multiple ppl to vote
@Kimcpen @mekkaokereke @MHowell @q_aurelius @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
For people who can drive, and live in nice upper-middle class places, getting a driver license is SO straightforward that it is hard to comprehend the places where it's convoluted. So the factual tales of have to travel 20 miles, have to go once to file and again to pick up, have to call off work (twice), office only open 4 days a YEAR (Sauk City Wisconsin) sound false.
So it's not merely a intentional radical difference in how accessible an ID is, it's so preposterously hard that it sounds untrue.
@Kimcpen @mekkaokereke @MHowell @q_aurelius @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
I worked a couple of elections with a a Philadelphia group (Project Home) that supports the unhoused. Our job was to help people get to the polls, and I found some longish stuff I wrote in 2016 about it. Short version: We had many teams, I was on one team of two. We spent six active hours to get six people to and through the polls, four of whom cast ballots without issue. The other two were initially denied their right to cast provisional ballots based on incorrect actions by the local Judge of Elections. With Project Home's legal team we were able to get the JoEs to change their position. In one case the ballot was correctly placed, in the other case I have doubts it was put in the right pile.
These voters -- my fellow citizens -- multiple times wanted to leave rather than persist in their rights -- we are trained to encourage them to stay.
Eye opening to me, and to those I shared with.
@Kimcpen @mekkaokereke @MHowell @q_aurelius @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
(Not sure if it's the right Mastodon thing If I dump my original Facebook posts onto your thread, it would be 5-6 messages of a thousand-chars each. Happy to hear yes, no , or alternative approaches.)
@peterC @mekkaokereke @Kimcpen @MHowell @q_aurelius @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life coming from Europe this all sounds unbelievable.
Like why would you wait for hours? Why do you not mail in your votes?
How come people have no id's? Do you not need to have those?
I read and learn here and I believe you. I tell it to friends. They all go: you shouldn't believe stuff you read on the internet. I have yet to see press coverage that would explain this.
@thierna
@peterC @mekkaokereke @Kimcpen @MHowell @q_aurelius @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
Ultimately for the same reasons why paying income tax here is a total guessing game: This is all advantageous to the extremely wealthy, and for all intents and purposes the extremely wealthy are the government of the United States. The people have increasingly less control as the positions get more important; individuals have the most control at the local level, but by the time you get to federal, the entire process is broken in ways that disadvantage normal people.
@thierna
@peterC @mekkaokereke @Kimcpen @MHowell @q_aurelius @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
During COVID there was a big push to make vote by mail more accessible, but that disadvantages Republicans because a significant part of their popularity is based entirely on their manipulation of the voting system. So they literally started a propaganda campaign to convince everyone that vote by mail is incredibly insecure, and it has by and large worked. Most Republican-led states now have laws that make it increasingly difficult if not impossible to vote by mail.
It's great here. 🫤
@thierna @peterC @mekkaokereke @Kimcpen @MHowell @q_aurelius @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life The difficulties are applied unevenly, on purpose, depending on how close the vote is expected to be. You may have heard that Republicans hate mail-in voting? Nope! I live in a solidly Republican state (Utah) that has voted mostly by mail for years. But there's little question about how most elections will go here, so there's no incentive to make it hard to vote. It's the places where the margins are still close enough that voter disenfranchisement can tip the election where the fights are. And oh, hey, many of the places where voting requires a thing that you get from the DMV are also places that are reducing their DMV services, funny that.
(Where Republicans in Utah make it hard for the public to express their preferences is in the primaries, since that's where the real decisions are made, but that's another story.)
1. Every state has its own rules for voting. Some states only allow mail-in voting under strict conditions, some don't allow it at all. Some states allow early voting, some don't. Some ask for ID, some don't, etc.
2. People lose ID, it expires, it's stolen. If you are poor and/or have mobility/transportation issues, getting ID is a nightmare. Getting replacement documents takes time and money.
I can tell you stories of my own experiences getting/replacing ID.
@peterC @mekkaokereke @MHowell @q_aurelius @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
We were working with unhoused populations as well. So it's even harder to get an ID. At the polls, you can sign an affidavit confirming your identity. It's just that getting there. I learned a lot during that time.
@mekkaokereke @MHowell @q_aurelius @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
Agree. Yes, there may be workarounds for some. But every added step required for something that should be simple, as simple as filling out a form and mailing it, with help from a friend or volunteer if unsure of how to mark it correctly, creates another hoop to jump through & deters more people with a Condtitutional right to vote. This shit is no different than the literacy tests before the VRA. They just mask it.
@mekkaokereke @MHowell @q_aurelius @georgeeyong @oscarjiminy @carnage4life
"The whole game of voter suppression efforts, is to design attacks to look innocuous, common sense, not racist, and "not that dire" to gullible white citizens. "
& there is NO legitimate reason for any of it. The excuse that it is to block mythical "vote fraud" is a steaming pile of crap. When all the efforts are aimed at specific populations it is overtly accusing THAT population of being a pack of lawless criminals.
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