Alabama closing DMV in ten counties with eight being majority, minority based. How is this not voter suppression?

It is clearly voter suppression. This isn’t really new. But it is pretty awesome that they are no longer trying to hide it. If my sisters twins have taught me anything it is that when you tell people they can’t do something it becomes really important and they will crawl through razor blades to do it.

bizzarostriesand

I think the real question is, “When and why did they stop trying to hide it?”.

I’m pretty sure that they figured out the right legal loopholes to try and make it all look like enough of an accident to have a measure of plausible deniability, at least enough to tie up the courts long enough to screw with the 2016 election.

When I heard this yesterday, I was torn. Because the implications were so blatantly obvious, I’m pretty much convinced that the people responsible REALLY WERE STUPID ENOUGH TO MISS THE IMPLICATIONS. I’m almost certain that the DMV shutdowns in black counties was merely business as usual in a place where shorting black folks on civil services is just tradition. The jackasses responsible certainly did not understand the repercussions, because to do so would mean that they also understood the inevitable backlash. The next time someone tells you there are is no further necessity for civil rights remedies, refer them to this incident and tell them to “shut the fk up”.

@stanleybmanly I don’t think they could claim plausible deniability but I do agree they could probably tie it up in courts long enough to screw the 2015 and possibly the 2016 elections. Especially if other states start to do the same thing. I won’t be surprised if Florida, and North Carolina and Georgia and Mississippi follow suit. Texas already tried something like this I believe but it got zapped.
@jerv, I think they do know but they are fairly confident that they will get what they want before they burn.
The next time someone tells you there are is no further necessity for civil rights remedies, refer them to this incident and tell them to “shut the fk up”. I agree.

Hopefully the local political parties will have shuttle services to get people to the polls.

@Pandora No I seriously do believe that the people responsible for this didn’t even see the implications for voting rights. I think they’re plenty dumb enough to miss the obvious, but no politician living could be dull witted enough to invite the rain of sh*t that’s going to fall on them and keep Alabama under close scrutiny for decades in the future.

@stanleybmanly, The people high enough to close these DMV,have to be high enough up the food chain, to know the statistics. I’m no politician, and yet, I was able to put together the idea that this would be a civil rights incident. I wouldn’t need someone to spell it out for me. They could’ve evenly distributed the closures around all of Alabama if it was a matter of cost, but that is not what they did. Meaning they purposely targeted these areas. Even a blind man can see that. And you are right they are not dull witted. I think whoever did this probably knew he had a snowballs chance in hell to win in the next election. So if he/she could rig the next election, then they will get a few more years in office. Sometimes people have that, “I’ll burn the house down with me in it”, attitude if there is a chance of getting out alive. I don’t think dull witted. I think mean and malicious and if they don’t get away with it, they will go, oops my bad.

Alabama gets away with it for two reasons:

- the Republican ‘machine’ controls the state house, the legislature, the courts, and almost of all of the counties. Alabama is an example of what happens when one single party controls all of the governmental institutions.

- largely because of the first reason, the black community is living in white-gerrymandered districts, has no significant leadership on a state level, and no political clout.

Add those to an almost totally rural state with two cities of any size, and that is the recipe for racist politics acting with complete immunity from the law.

To @Pandora and @stanleybmanly who figure that some adult in government will catch on—dreams upon dreams. Alabama as has been seen over and over again, just doesn’t care.

They’re the worst of the old South. Even Mississippi has it more together than Alabama.

But this means that Alabama will have the Federal government’s nose deep in its election business once again. Mandates are going to fall like hailstones on the state. The state only recently escaped from under the thumb of the Federal courts supervising its elections, and a bunch of Alabama cities still aren’t allowed to run their own elections, and the folks who’ve had the electoral powers snatched from them have been unhappy about it for some 50 years. I just can’t believe that they would deliberately give the Feds the perfect excuse to snatch control from them once again. Obama’s Department of Justice is going to kick the living sh#t out of the state.

@stanleybmanly – you would think so. But there are years if litigation ahead, before it ever gets to federal courts, if it ever does. The Supremes weakened voting rights laws a couple years ago.

No. When it comes to voting irregularities, things are going to happen quickly. There’s great sensitivity to the allegations that conservatives are out to restrict access to the polls, and this screw up is a HUGE disaster. In fact, it snatches the covers off the entire strategy. Just watch how fast the “stars fall on Alabama”!

What’s all the fuss here??

“residents without photo ID can apply for a free state photo ID.”

I applaud a broke state like Alabama for doing something to stem the bleeding of their state budget a concept our Federal Government cannot wrap their thick heads around.

@Cruiser I am not nearly so trusting, especially not of those who have a history of misbehavior. Fool me once shame on you, but try fooling me for the 9,283,674th time and you’ll be lucky if I even listen to your “justification” because you’ve already fed me too much bullshit to have any credibility left while any gesture at reconciliation to regain that trust will have to be biblical in scope. Trust, once broken, is hard (if not impossible) to repair.

Now, is Alabama offering free transportation and comping people for the added time off they will need to go three counties over to get an ID? If not then they are putting undue financial burdens on the disenfranchised in a phony attempt at saying that they are not discriminating. Technically, they are not charging a fee, therefore it isn’t a violation of many court precedents. In truth, their motives are EXTREMELY suspicious, based mostly on past history.

What I find funny is that the ones pushing for all these anti-voter-fraud laws seems to be the ones that are actually commuting the very few cases of voter fraud there have been. That does even more to fuel any suspicion I have about their insincere attempt at trying to sound accommodating.

@jerv If we could harness the energy you and all the other liberals generate with all the hysterics and hand waving we would not need nuclear power. Do some research before foolishly ranting about something you are obviously not fully informed on. There are other options for voters to get ID’s besides crawling on their hands and knees 3 counties over to the nearest DMV.

voters can go to the Department of Public Safety office in their county and get a free non-drivers identification card. The secretary of state will reimburse Public Safety for the cost. Voters can also go to their local Board of Registrars office and get a free photo voter ID there.

Plus “If a resident does not have the proper ID he or she must get two poll officials to vouch for his or her identity”. No crawling on hands and knees needed.

Relevant

“And it seems the only way for me to obtain the proper identification to vote would be to either purchase a new driver’s license, a government issued personal ID card, a passport or get a concealed handgun license. I also have the option to pay for a copy of my birth certificate so that I’ll have the proper paperwork to qualify for a “no charge” election identification certificate; something that’s not actually “free” considering getting a copy of my birth certificate requires that I pay a fee, and I must have my birth certificate in order to obtain the EIC.”

@Cruiser The same could be said of Conservatives. Between “birthers”, the ones who thought Jade Helm 15 was a Muslim plot to take over the US, and even a tenth of the other things I see, all I can say to you is that those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

Then again, for much of my life, even taking a couple hours off work to go renew the registration on my car placed a financial strain on me, and I’m in a far better, more stable financial position than over half of Americans. If you decided to take a couple hours, would that hurt your personal finances enough that you’d have to choose between being homeless, having a utility cut off, or parking your car for a month?

I think I have a pretty good idea of the true cost of “free” things as I’ve had to pay that cost for most of my life. What you call “hysterics” I call “personal history”. But since it hasn’t happened to you then I can see how you might have a little disbelief.

@Cruiser I’d be interested on your take as to whether or not the people involved in the decision to close particular offices were aware of the implications regarding voting consequences.

@stanleybmanly IMHO I am more than suspicious of the intent of the article to stir up reaction where there is really nothing to go nuts over. This quote is why I feel this way…
“Facing a budget crisis, Alabama has shuttered 31 driver’s license offices, many of them in counties with a high proportion of black residents. Coming after the state recently put into effect a tougher voter ID law, the closures will cut off access—particularly for minorities—to one of the few types of IDs accepted.”

This author played the race card twice in one paragraph and dramatized the “few types of Id’s accepted when nothing could be further from his truth…

I went to Alabamas voting website and they have a almost a dozen acceptable forms of ID

Valid Driver’s License
Valid Non-driver ID
Valid Alabama Photo Voter ID
Valid State Issued ID (Alabama or any other state)
Valid Federal Issued ID
Valid US Passport
Valid Employee ID from Federal Government, State of Alabama, County Government, Municipality, Board, Authority, or other entity of this state
Valid student or employee ID from a college or university in the State of Alabama (including postgraduate technical or professional schools)
Valid Military ID
Valid Tribal ID

Plus they have “A voter who is required to present valid photo identification but who does not do so will be allowed to vote a provisional ballot as provided for by law.”

“In addition, a voter who does not have a valid photo ID in his or her possession at the polls shall be permitted to vote if the individual is positively identified by two election officials as a voter on the poll list who is eligible to vote and the election officials sign a sworn affidavit so stating.”

I don’t see how they could be anymore acomodating to all their voters.

Snopes even smelled the fishiness of all the hyped up attempts to make this a race related issue when the facts of the matter are the Alabama is broke and closed the DMV’s that process the least amount of licenses. I do not believe for a moment this is to supress voters in anyway shape or form no matter how hard some will try to make it so.