@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 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."