I'm a climate doomer, because I know that no progress on the climate can happen unless Black voting rights in the US get sorted. And we aren't even paying attention to the Black voting problem, let alone close to solving it.

There is no path to making meaningful progress on climate change that doesn't go through Black people in the US getting to vote. None. The fact that we still can't accept this, is why I'm not optimistic about our chances to do anything meaningful about the climate.

@mekkaokereke Do you see any hope in this?
“The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is launching a super PAC to mobilize Black voters ahead of 2024 in an effort to give the House a Democratic majority and, in the process, elect the nation’s first Black Speaker of the House.”

The Rolling Sea Action Fund

https://thehill.com/homenews/race-politics/4103913-new-congressional-black-caucus-pac-set-to-mobilize-black-voters-ahead-of-2024/

@mickeleh Absolutely not. I think campaigns like this are less than helpful. They turn Black voters off. Especially Black men.

My threads on here are all about racist voter suppression. But the media conversation is always around "getting out the vote" or "mobilising Black voters?" The solution is to yell at the victims to try harder?

The word "suppression" didn't appear in this article even once.

No one is more motivated than Black voters. They don't need to be mobilized. They need help.

@mickeleh

Black people wait in line for 8 hours to vote, and take another day off work to register. GOP changes things to make it 9 hours, and requires 3 days off work. The Dem response to this is... to ask Black voters to suck it up because "democracy needs you!" and take the 3 days and 9 hour voting line?

And if Black voters don't take that 3 days off work and wait in line to vote for 9 hours, in sufficient numbers to win for the Dems, then we are blamed for losing the election?

@mekkaokereke @mickeleh Washington switched to mail-in ballots only before I turned 18. I've only ever voted by mail-in ballot.

My ignorance: I didn't realize Washington and Oregon (two of the whitest states) were the only two states that do this until the whole fracas about mail in ballots in 2020.

I still haven't gotten over realizing people have to wait multiple hours in line to vote. It's barbaric and backwards.

I fill out a form on my kitchen table weeks before the election. Takes 5 min

@sidereal @mekkaokereke @mickeleh
Washington state native, here. I was voting before we moved to all mail-in. It was annoying but not difficult. Because, yeah, privilege.

The day they allowed no-excuse permanent absentee ballots I signed up, and never looked back. I hated going to churches to vote - and yeah, I ended up going to a lot of churches to vote.

It's important to note that Washington still allows people to vote in person, if they prefer.

I wish every state did it our way.

@gorskon @realtegan @sidereal @mekkaokereke @mickeleh

I lived in Michigan for nearly all my voting life until we moved to Oregon a few years ago. Mail-in / drop-off voting is the only civilized way.

In Oregon, I get a text & email when the ballot is coming. The ballot arrives on my doorstep. I read the info packet and vote at my leisure in the kitchen. We drop the ballots off, we get email & text that it's been received.

At no point in that process do I stand in a line, not like I did back in Michigan. Everyone should get to do it this way

@lmorchard @gorskon @realtegan @sidereal @mekkaokereke @mickeleh

Mail-in voting is great! It is, however, possible to set up in-person voting in a way that never requires anyone to stand in a line, though. I’ve never stood in a line since my immigration to Canada, also from Michigan (and I’ve voted at both busy and non-busy times). It’s plenty civilised here. The US just chooses not to set it up like that.

@IPEdmonton @mekkaokereke @mickeleh

We do, in some places. I have never had to stand in a significant line when voting in person in my small Massachusetts city. The places where it is chronic seem to be minority urban neighborhoods in places with hostile state governments. It's hard not to think that it is intentional vote suppression.

@mickeleh @mattmcirvin @mekkaokereke

Please read the other things I've said in this thread. I KNOW THIS. I'm specifically NOT referring to "hours-long queues" being the standard in the US. But people voting shouldn't have to stand in the kinds of non-hours-long queues that I had to stand in before I left the US (voting in non-Republican-dominated districts decades ago) either. THAT is my point.

@mickeleh @mattmcirvin @mekkaokereke

The issue with deliberate voter suppression is absolutely a thing in certain parts of the US, but that is NOT what I'm referring to here. I'm talking about how the whole system of voting is resourced and set up across the whole country. It's different from what I've become accustomed to here, and it's NOT just about voter suppression of specific groups. It's ALSO about not valuing making voting easy for EVERYONE.