@oscarjiminy @carnage4life

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.

@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 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 @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.