Do you think voter suppression is now the main strategy of the Republican Party?

Let us examine exactly what Georgia laws will do: (according to

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/25/politics/georgia-state-house-voting-bill-passage/index.html)

1. No excuse absentee voting is retained.
2. Voters will have to request absentee ballots ELEVEN DAYS before the election.
3. Any voter requesting an absentee ballot has to provide a copy of his/her identification or driver’s license number.
4. The secretary of state is barred from sending out unsolicited applications for absentee ballots.

Keep in mind that the 2020 election saw a lot of voting changes made because of the pandemic. Would it not be irresponsible to make such temporary changes permanent?

Is it fair to call any of the above provisions voter suppression?

No. The main strategy of the Republican party is to strip the rights of women to have an abortion if they choose to. Voter suppression is a tactic to achieve that goal.

Yes. Win at any cost.

Yes

Not the main strategy, but it is part of their strategy. The other part is trying to terrify people that Democrats will destroy America. Democrats use this tactic too now about Republicans. Democrats decided to fight fire with fire four years ago.

Not in my opinion. My state has passed a few, too.

@caravan I just used my body my choice in defense of an anti-vaxxer. Goes both ways.

I mean, what other reason is there for making it illegal to give water to people standing in line to vote, other to encourage them to leave and not vote when they get exhausted?

It is a necessary defense tactic because economic realities have fractured the traditional alliance of bigots, corporate shills and religious zealots. People are hurting, and the traditional trickle down, every man for himself, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps bullshit is no longer credible. White middle class America is no longer allowed the illusion that hard times are by definition the result of laziness or unwillingness to work. With the stranglehold on the neck of the middle class and dwindling percentage of geriatric white men, the blatant toadying up to corporate interests is no longer viable. And yet the party dare not follow the Democrats in a pretense to serve the interests of the people.

It won’t even work. There are ways around all of it. All it means is Democrats need to be better at helping each other to know the law and get the votes in.

@ragingloli My guess is the reason for that rule is that people pushing a particular candidate are not supposed to cross a certain line at the polls. They have to stay off the property so to speak. It’s a paranoid law and abusive in places where lines tend to be long at the polls. Still, I have to say that I don’t expect to be given water when I go vote.

Let’s see: they closed hundreds of polling places in the last election under the republican regime, removed mail boxes so it was harder for voters to mail in their vote. Yep. Republicans are afraid to let Americans vote.

@JLeslie You’ve probably never stood in line for hours to vote like many Black people have to. Let’s call a spade a spade: the reason for the criminalization of giving water to voters standing in a long line (!) is to make it harder for Blacks to vote. It is a cruel and punitive rule and I’m shocked that you aren’t able to see that.

@janbb I know. I said that about the lines. I said it’s abusive. It’s possible people who should not be approaching voters are using water as an excuse. My guess is that’s not the case and it’s just more paranoia and projection on the part of the Republicans.

Maybe you need to read my answers more slowly and completely.

States control the voter laws and Georgia is just the start of suppression of minorities that voted for the Democrats in 2020.

The answer is YES !

@crazyguy …2020 election saw a lot of voting changes made because of the pandemic.

The draconian measures passed into law in Georgia have nothing to do with the pandemic. I agree with those that compare them to Jim Crow laws.

ALL, as expected, the overwhelming majority of responders here think that it is ok to liberalize voting laws (blaming the pandemic) but then never remove those provisions! Talk about having your cake and eating it too!

Voter suppression aimed at poor Democrats.

Because no downsides to that have been demonstrated.
60+ dismissed lawsuits attest to that.
Sidney Powell’s (Drumpf’s “elite Kraken”) latest defence against Dominion’s defamation lawsuit, is her arguing that all her claims about fraud were just her opinion, and that no one reasonable could possibly have believed her (ignoring the fact that thousands stormed the capitol because they did believe her, and the fact that she filed lawsuits based on those claims)

^^And, Republicans had no problem with the changes in places where Republicans won like Florida. DeSantis did executive orders to start counting mail-in sooner than ever before, 3 weeks earlier, and not a peep out of Republicans on Facebook or Fox about it. Nope, DeSantis rather is said to have run the election brilliantly

@JLeslie
Not to mention the case of literal election fraud in Florida, where republicans put up a fake candidate in order to syphon away votes from the opponent. Totally fine with that outcome, they are.
It is not about “fraud” or “election integrity”.
It never was.
It is about them losing.

If you put in a provision to address special circumstances arising from the pandemic, you either make the provision temporary or it sunsets. Doing neither is a rather clear sleight of hand. And most of the believers on this board fall for it!

@ragingloli I missed that here in my state. I know that strategy goes on though.

Florida tried for a one two punch. They changed counting mail-in, which was good, but then at the same time Senator Scott tried to put in a Bill at the national level that all votes must be counted within 24 hours of Election Day. There was evil in what seemed good on the surface. I think that was concocted with DeSantis being aware of what Scott would try. Scott used to be governor here.

Yes. Democrats try and make it easier to vote; Republicans try and make it more difficult. It’s not a matter of not being able to see it, it’s a matter of choosing not to see it.

Republicans know that if every eligible voter voted, they would never win another presidential election (and many other elections) again. This is their only option. The scrapped parts of the bill illustrate clearly what the purpose of this is. It’s not about fraud.

@crazyguy the restrictive voting laws being proposed and passed have nothing to do with the pandemic and everything – I emphasize again, EVERYTHING to do with the realization that Republicans cannot win elections if everyone is allowed to vote! They have been saying this for forty years!

@Demosthenes The easiest way to vote is just waltz into a voting station, say who you are and cast a ballot! That leaves out just one extremely important thing:

Can you prove who you are?

That is what most Republican changes are aimed at.

@Strauss If you consider having to prove who you are restrictive, there is nothing else to talk about.

@crazyguy – Cut the shit. You know what these laws are about. Stop pretending and engage in a discussion sincerely.

@crazyguy These laws are not only abouts identification. Did you bother to check the link in my previous post? It’s spelled out right there. Paul Weyrich, co-founder of The Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation, and the American Legislative Exchange Council to name a few, and these organizations are really responsible for the development of the conservative movement as it exists today.

Both parties are in trouble, but the Republicans’ doom will precede tr collapse of their Democratic counterparts by several years. For as though things aren’t tough enough, there is a growing effort among black voters to return to and concentrate in the SOUTH, where already it is the Hispanic demographic which rockets ahead of all other demographics in growth in the region. And the loss of the South spells the end for the party as a national factor.

@crazyguy I supported your position, told why these necessary changes / laws came about, and proposed the question, how is any of that you mentioned ‘voter suppression.” That the only manipulation of votes occurred with innocuous or incomplete mail-in ballots.

My answer was moderated as ‘flame bait.’ As might be expected.

But there are a few of us here who understand what’s happening in GA, AZ, and Pennsylvania.

It is now illegal to give water to people waiting in line to vote in Georgia. Think about that for a minute.

Yes, I am curious to know the connection between giving someone water and fraud.

@Demosthenes It is the people of color, elderly getting water and nothing to do with fraud but all to do about voter suppression.

I think that was the original point of the question ( Voter Suppression & GOP ) before someone deflected the question to voter fraud !

Perhaps its voter suppression because the elderly and African Americans almost never have any photo I..D. and are discriminated against / denied ever getting any?

Once again, if a law applies to all people, it is not racist. It can’t be. To say people have to show an ID to vote is not a racist action. If you believe it is, then you must also say it is racist to ask for ID to buy cigarettes or alcohol. You must believe needing a driver’s license is racist. You must believe that having to show an ID to get a fishing license is racist. You have to believe that asking for ID to buy a gun is racist. Basically, everything you do in this country that requires an ID…any time anyone asks you for an ID…it is racist.

^ Not following the plot tonight?

Someone is not with the program @hello321 !

Okay children, tell me…whose vote is supposed to be suppressed by the Republicans?

People of color, elderly, poor without internet and transportation. . . .

Not rich landowners like 1890’s when the women, people of color and people that didn’t own land couldn’t vote. In order to vote during that time you had to show you paid taxes “Poll Taxes” to vote.

So…people of color is your biggest hitter…the first one you go to. Thank you for making my point. As for the elderly, my mom is 88 and gets around fine. She has many friends that either get around fine or have other means of getting around. So that one falls apart. Not to mention, the real push in the entire thing is to make people prove they are who they are saying they are. Why is that a bad thing?

Not all people are your mother. I’ve got friends that are younger than me and they are limited to mobility at 60. So they have difficultly getting to the polls

” So that one falls apart. Not to mention, the real push in the entire thing is to make people prove they are who they are saying they are. Why is that a bad thing?”
When everybody can’t get IDs, in NC the registrar of voters makes people of color go through extra non essential requirements, NC state Rep had to take her mother for the third time. The whole time she had all the documents needed but was old and the wrong color and the voter registrar made go home two times. She didn’t drive and didn’t have a passport . . . .

I have never met a minority of ANY “race” that had no photo I.D.—nor any disabled person who didn’t use their photo I.D. very frequently.

I have never met a minority of ANY race who was against photo I.D. laws or thought they were disenfranchised by them—only white liberal Democrats are claiming that they are.

@seawulf575 – If the lawmakers themselves craft a law to intentionally reduce access to voting, why do you believe it is about something else?

There is nothing to even discuss here. It’s an open admission that they are suppressing the vote – a targeted suppression. And yet you are here licking the boots of the boys who are engaged in an attack on voting.

Because elections have been manipulated and stolen by unsolicited and illegal ballot harvesting, @hello321

How is banning ballot harvesting, flooding counties with unrequested mail-in ballots, and requiring signatures and I.D. suppressing anyone’s vote?

No one is even claiming they are being discriminated against. Just a few who want to manipulate the vote, as was done in 2020.

“I have never met a minority of ANY “race” that had no photo I.D.—nor any disabled person who didn’t use their photo I.D. very frequently.” . . . and you don’t know everybody !

My county and city has a lot of people without a picture IDs. Guess what is the major identifier is ? Give you a hint the county court house still has two water fountains and two entrances, not used any more.

“How is banning ballot harvesting, flooding counties with unrequested mail-in ballots, and requiring signatures and I.D. suppressing anyone’s vote?”

Most ballot harvesting is by GOP over the last five years. I can give sources !

Reuters on unsolicited ballots !

“No one is even claiming they are being discriminated against. Just a few who want to manipulate the vote, as was done in 2020.” Your opinion where is the proof and sources . . . ?

Here is a summary of a few issues with this law.

@Tropical_Willie If this were true, then the Democrats would be against ballot harvesting.

The original water fountains and restrooms for “Colored Only” still exist but all the restrooms themselves are used by all people, as has been the case since the Civil Rights movement and the Democrats falling out of power in the South.

Well @Yellowdog ask the KKK I’ve received in my mail box invites to “cross burnings” (not posted mail)
This South is still 60 years ago in their minds but try to follow Federal laws so they don’t get arrested by the “Federals”.

Three people in the county went to DC on January 6th to see the “patriots” storm the Biden’s confirmation. Maybe more went but these guys posted on Facebook they were there, I haven’t heard if FBI is at their doorstep.

Just give anyone without ID the opportunity to get a free ID and that should solve the problem. Are the Republicans ok with that? Put the money towards making sure every citizen has a government issued ID like how we pay people to follow up on the census. It has to be with plenty of lead time, you can’t change the laws in a state that you need ID three weeks before the election, you need to give people two years.

Meanwhile, mail-in is comparing signatures, so you don’t have to have an ID, but you need to be a resident of the state and a citizen. On the voter application in Florida, if you don’t have a driver’s license you list the last four of your social security number. Florida does MILLIONS of mail-in votes. Republicans seem fine with it. Trump complimented our state.

@Yellowdog Because elections have been manipulated and stolen by unsolicited and illegal ballot harvesting

Can you please document one or more elections that have been manipulated by that method?

@hello321 ensuring voter fraud doesn’t happen and that people are who they say is not the same as suppressing votes. Unless you truly want voter fraud? You want people cheating on votes? You want elections rigged? Is that what you are saying?

@JLeslie There are already a number of states that have Voter ID laws and that is exactly what happens. If a person doesn’t have a driver’s license or passport or some other official ID card, they can get one free of charge. But they still have to show proof of who they are to get it.

@hello321 Your CNN citation is full of opinion passed off as facts. “Voter Rights groups” giving opinion that is not backed by any facts is not actual issues. Example: they claim that having to give a driver’s license number of some other form of proof of who they are is targeting black people and is erecting too many barriers. Where is the proof it is targeting blacks since it applies to everyone? And if a person requests an absentee ballot, they have already gone to the trouble of sending in a request, how much of a barrier is it if that request has a line for the requested information?
Might want to avoid CNN as a source from now on since they rarely actually present facts but rather present opinion and call it facts.

@seawulf575 I don’t know anything about policy to give free ID. Plus, I’m saying if they don’t have proof then the state needs to help them get the proof. Money needs to be spent to get birth certificates or whatever. Very few people don’t have ID, it’s really not much to ask that we help people get ID if it’s so important to you.

Meanwhile, mail-in doesn’t have ID, so it’s kind of ridiculous to dwell on ID. Almost 5 million people voted mail-in in Florida in the 2020 presidential election and our Republican senators told Trump to shut the hell up about criticizing mail-in regarding Florida and suddenly he started saying Florida is ok. They just say anything. Literally anything. Before 2020 2 to 3 million people typically voted by mail in Florida. There might be more fraud in Florida mail-in than other states of all things. People not meeting the requirements of residency by spending more time in their houses up north.

Plus, almost every citizen does have ID. I have a feeling it’s a very very small problem and just a stupid wedge issue the politicians and media keep people fighting about because fighting keeps people angry and motivated to vote. Everyone is being manipulated.

@Strauss Actually, I had not. But I just did. So you have one clip of one crazy right-wing guy saying something and you insist on ascribing that opinion to the entire Party? Give me a break, please!

Not just “one crazy right-wing guy. He was one of the driving forces that caused the Republican Party to shift so far to the right over the past 40 years. I’m not talking about something I just read in a history book, I’m talking about something I witnessed. Look at the links I posted to the organizations he founded or influenced.

Psst psst @Strauss those are organization someone identifies with and maybe supports.

@Strauss Maybe it is that the left-wing has gone so incredibly to the left that it makes the right wing look like it is moving. Take a look at the goals, efforts, rhetoric and plans the left has pushed over the last 30 years. 30 years ago, things they are doing today would have been laughed out of existence. But they have so shifted the window that they have become commonplace. And if you take their view as the stationary point of comparison, yes, the right looks like it is soaring to the right. In reality, it hasn’t moved that much and has, in fact, moved a bit to the left in the same time period.

@seawulf575 Take a look at the goals, efforts, rhetoric and plans the left has pushed over the last 30 years.

You mean like voters’ rights, equal pay for equal work, access to healthcare not tied to an employer, collective bargaining for pay and benefits?

The question of whether the left has moved radically left or the right swerving radically right is easily settled. One need only ask which of the 2 ideologies is most resistant to progress.

@stanleybmanly Y’think that’s why the terms liberal and progressive seem to be synonymous?

@Strauss Nice try. Voters rights, equal rights, etc were all addressed in the Civil Rights Act of 1963 that, while signed into being by Lyndon Johnson, a Dem, was not supported by the Dems and was only passed because the Republicans wanted it. And all that is almost 60 years out…well beyond the 30 year I mentioned. No, I’m talking about open borders, socialized medicine, being paid a living wage whether you are working or not, censorship of anyone with an opposing view, and all the rest of the things that tyrants drool over. NONE of that was supported by the left 30 years ago, yet is espoused boldly today. All leftist ideals. All things Hitler or Stalin would have wanted. Oh wait….they did have many of them. When you move to the left and don’t realize it you see others, that aren’t moving, as flying to the right. Sort of like believing the Earth is the center of the universe and everything else revolves around it.

Open borders is a libertarian ideal, not a liberal ideal.

@seawulf575 And your comparison of everybody getting health care with Hitler is revolting to say the least.

@Caravanfan Be revolted all you want. But answer one simple question. Didn’t Hitler believe that the people worked for and owed the government for everything and that the government should control everything?

You are a banana

Voters rights, equal rights, etc were all addressed in the Civil Rights Act of 1963
The act was passed, but it was (and still is) resisted in many places.

It is a fact that Republicans would prefer that most people don’t vote because statistics show, just as they did in the 1980’s, that by and large, the greater the turnout, as a percentage of registered voters,, the harder it is for Republicans to win.

Hitler like Trump believed that HE was the government. And the civil rights act was passed because in 1963 only because there were LIBERAL REPUBLICANS capable of abstract thought. No one bothers to assign any such trait to today’s brain dead conservatives. It’s the liberals who are the progressives. While the slow witted cling to such simple minded notions as the “genius” of Trump or “clean coal”. Today’s conservative ideologies amount to little more than testimonials to cognitive impairment and mental retardation. It’s a wonder that those adhering to such disciplines find the wherewithal to tie their own shoes or come in out of the rain. Go ahead and glory in being backwards, pig headed and eternally forever on the wrong side of history. I await every delicious opportunity you dummies offer up to ridicule and torment you simpletons for all you are worth. Here’s hoping you accrue all the assured disappointment and misery you certainly deserve.

@seawulf575 No.

@Strauss The reason it is harder for Republicans to win is that the Democrats promise handouts, which are loved by even some Republicans, while the Republicans believe in providing longer-term solutions. Republicans promise bitter medicine while Democrats promise freebies! If you don’t believe me, just correlate the average wages of the lowest paid black employees through Democratic and Republican administrations. I have done that in the past, but am too exhausted to dig it up now.

Don’t fool yourself. The Republicans believe in freebies aplenty. It’s just a matter of freebies for whom. Never mind the salaries of black people. Let’s talk about the salaries of WORKING people compared to those of the CONGRESS and the people who OWN both the country AND the Congress. The narrative of enforced bigotry as working to the advantage of people who punch a clock is no longer sufficient to convince the suckers that the GOP Is on their side. No amount of gay bashing or suppression of women, Hispanics, etc. is going to distract people from WHERE THE MONEY IS GOING and who ELSE is losing along with the “designated” targets.

Who did Trump and the Republican reward with a forever tax break? ?
The “one percent” and corporations. I remember something like $1.9 TRILLION dollars. Then the GOP turns around and starts pushing up the taxes on the low and middle classes to pay for the rich going from 35 % to 21% income tax Biden wants them to pay their fair share.

The conservative Reason.com agrees with you
https://reason.com/2021/03/29/the-republican-attack-on-voting-rights/

@Caravanfan In case you have not seen it yet, Biden got 4 PINOCCHIOS from the Washington Post for his claim that the new Georgia statutes limit voting hours:

See
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/

Specifically,

The president jabs a section of the new Georgia law as “outrageous,” but that provision actually expanded early voting for many residents in the state.

Trump claimed voter fraud and cheating during the 2020 election. No one wanted to dig into those claims, preferring instead to allow the election to stand and then look at the voting issues afterward. I saw this interview with some expert about the only audit of the election mail in ballots to be done so far. Missoula Montana did an audit of all the mail in ballots that were sent in. They found that they ended up with 6% more votes than they had ballots. They found many ballots that were improperly filled out and should have been rejected as well. So I would put forth that fixing those glaring deficiencies is something that needs to be done and is not voter suppression…it is voter protection. Ensuring a fair election is the keystone of our republic. If every city/county/state did a similar audit I suspect they would find many similar issues and would then have ways to go about fixing the holes in the system instead of burying their heads in the sand.

@seawulf575 $1.6 Billion lawsuit against Rudy Kazooty, another for Atty Powell and another against Fox news. Dominion will drag all three through the courts on defamation charges. No truth to Dominion adding votes for Biden and taking away from Trump.

Oh !
Trump could be up on voter fraud for his request for 11K votes for him.

“Montana did an audit of all the mail in ballots that were sent in. They found that they ended up with 6% more votes than they had ballots.” sources please !

@Tropical_Willie Dominion’s own ‘margin of error’ showed that several hundred thousand people in the state of Georgia double-voted, were deceased, did not live in the state, or too young to vote Trump clearly won the state of Georgia by a landslide. All he was asking was eleven thousand votes which were his own votes.

@Yellowdog Do you have a source for that statement?

@Yellowdog sources PLEASE !
“Dominion’s own ‘margin of error’ showed that several hundred thousand people in the state of Georgia double-voted, were deceased, did not live in the state, or too young to vote Trump clearly won the state of Georgia by a landslide. All he was asking was eleven thousand votes which were his own votes.”

@seawulf575 OAN News makes up most of their news and lies about the rest !

@Tropical_Willie once again, you want to try discounting the source. Is that because you really can’t address the substance…as usual?

Make believe on OAN is all they have, they still think Trump won and his Presidency was stolen !

ONCE AGAIN !

@Yellowdog: Is there a source for your quote “Dominion’s own ‘margin of error’ showed that several hundred thousand people in the state of Georgia double-voted, were deceased, did not live in the state, or too young to vote Trump clearly won the state of Georgia by a landslide” or is it something you made up?

@Tropical_Willie you still haven’t addressed the substance. What’s the matter? Can’t?

During the Jim Crow era, laws that looked neutral on their face were specifically designed to target Black voters. Today, legislators across the country are considering bills that will have the same effect. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Georgia, where last week, Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law an omnibus bill that targets Black voters with uncanny accuracy.

It’s now a crime in Georgia to give a bottle of water or a snack to people waiting in line to vote. We know that in Georgia and across the country, hours-long lines to vote are more often in Black and brown communities. Mobile voting (polling sites on wheels that travel to different set locations) is also now illegal in Georgia — a practice that has only been used in Fulton County, which has the largest Black population in the state. Ballot drop boxes must now be located inside early voting sites instead of other convenient locations, and many voters who plan to vote by mail must provide a driver’s license or state ID number.

These laws will disproportionately harm Black, brown, and Native American voters. Legislators tried to pass even more onerous laws — like canceling vote by mail but preserving it for the segment of the electorate that tilts white and more conservative — but faced a sustained and effective outcry.

“It’s sick,” said President Biden about the Georgia law and the over 253 bills proposed across the country that would make voting harder.

As I said on NPR’s All Things Considered over the weekend, it’s a great political clash: a wave of proposed voter suppression in the states, and, with the For the People Act, a wave of proposed voting rights expansion at the federal level. If it becomes law, the For the People Act will stop this new wave of voter suppression cold. Congress has the power to stop these modern-day Jim Crow bills before they start.

Kemp signed his voter suppression bill in front of a painting of a plantation where more than 100 Black people had been enslaved. The symbolism, unnerving and ghastly, is almost too fitting.

When I testified before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration in support of the For the People Act last week, I asked this: Will we live up to our best ideals, or our worst? Will we build a multiracial democracy that really represents all people, or will we allow a drive to take place to turn the clock back to cut back on voting rights?

These are questions Congress must answer — and soon.
Related Issues:

Ensure Every American Can Vote icon
Ensure Every American Can Vote

Michael Waldman March 31, 2021

@Tropical_Willie Sources!!! I find it funny that I have heard about this water/snack thing several times and it makes no sense to me. So I looked. I went right to the bill to see what the exact wording was. I couldn’t find anything that looks like it at all. And I suspect that most of what you wrote (fear mongered) is equally wrong. Yes, the mobile collection booths were removed, however strict guidance for locations was added. It also looks like it took into account the population density in an area. In fact, if you look through this bill (which I don’t expect you to do…you might find all the stuff you are being told is lies) you will find that it got rid of a lot of sleazy slack in the existing laws and tightened things up….that’s all. So it will be harder for dead people to vote or for people to vote in multiple locations, harder to get absentee ballots, or to vote for someone else. All these things SHOULD be common sense things to ensure fair elections. Don’t you want fair elections?

Does anyone actually believe it to be mere coincidence that it is the slave states that all find it now “urgent” to “guard the sanctity of the polls. The rather striking fact that it is precisely the places notorious for poll taxes, literacy tests, the places where even today, for some strange reason, every election we see all these black folks shivering in their overcoats in lines stretching down the block at THEIR polling places? Why is it ONLY Republicans who see the bogeyman of fraud loose in the country? In fact, why do you suppose it is that it is the slave states which just happen to be so solidly Republican?

@stanleybmanly Just a hint here: slavery is outlawed in this country. It has been for over 150 years. You are living in the past. If you want to talk about any states that legalized slavery, that would be all of them almost. There were 36 states in the union when slavery was outlawed, so slavery was alive and well in all of them before that. And most of those were in the north. Now, if you are talking about the states that fought against segregation and enacted Jim Crow laws, you would be talking about southern states. And all of those were Democratic states. All of the push for segregation was from the Dems. Even your boy Biden spoke out against school segregation as recently as 1977 saying he didn’t want his kids growing up in a racial jungle. So why is it that you can’t see the facts in this?

Michael Waldman is President Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.

NPR March 26, 2021.

SOURCES provided !

It was as recent as the 1960s that some Southern states still had poll taxes, hence the need for the 24th Amendment. Slavery may have been gone since the mid-19th century but methods of suppressing the votes of black Southerners continued long after that.

@Tropical_Willie You still are dodging the important things. It is amusing to watch. I provided the bill…where is the statement that it is illegal to hand out water? I can’t find it. And since you provided that in your citation, it just goes to prove how wrong Mr. Waldman is and how biased NPR is. Please…prove me wrong. I couldn’t find it anywhere. So I have the actual bill, you have opinion from a leftist. Which is the truth?

@Demosthenes Yep…I agree. And all those states were solidly Democrat. It was the Republicans that carried the support for the Civil Rights Act of 1963. LBJ was a Democrat, but had almost no support from his own party for it. It would not have passed if not for Republicans.

Biden has also claimed that the Georgia bill requires the polls close at 5:00 P.M. This is another lie.

The water provision has to do with candidates and campaign workers giving out gifts and water to solicit votes. Often times the label itself has the candidate and some campaign slogan on it, and it is used to get around the laws prohibiting the distribution of campaign literature.

But anyone can distribute water to anyone as long as it isn’t motivated to promote a candidate.

@Yellowdog: Waiting for a link as per the quote and request above.

@seawulf575 Yes, and most of those Southern Democrats became Republicans once the Democrats began to push civil rights more forcefully. Not sure what the point is. I don’t care about Democrats/Republicans. What I care about is not suppressing the vote, doesn’t matter what party does it.

Some people are blind and other people don’t want to see !

The thing about the water is the bill/law should emphasize no soliciting votes once a person is in line to vote, which actually, there already are rules and laws about that. So, that can mean no advertising of any form if you approach a voter on line including the person can’t have on a t-shirt of a candidate, can’t give a pamphlet, can’t talk snout a candidate etc. People can give water and not do those things. It’s stupid. People can just set up a table of water and give water, so the argument seems a little bit of a distraction.

@JLeslie The state of Georgia is a distraction.

@seawulf575 thanks for the hint concerning the illegality of slavery. Here’s a hint for you. I read somewhere that voter suppression is no longer legal. And I am quite willing to consider your interpretation of history the moment you can name a SINGLE Northern slave state. There is also your difficulty in distinguishing WAS from NOW. And that is of course bullshit about Johnson’s lack of Democratic support. Johnson lacked ONLY SLAVE STATE support and ANYBODY with a second grade education KNOWS THE TRUTH OF IT.

@seawulf575 Thanks for continuing to bang your head against the brick wall of naysayers. Don’t ask them why they say nay; they know not.

There is one anchor on CNN who often makes sense. His name is Michael Smerconish. Here is what he had to say about the Georgia election laws:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5GGCVIEYts

This is not the segment I listened to. BUT I cannot find that particular one any more. However, even this one makes clear that Smerconish has no problems with the two oft-quoted provisions of the new law:

1. ID for absentee ballots. The same ID that is required for in-person voting. I think any opposition to this provision is a confession that fraud was perpetrated but no evidence was allowed to be found.

2. Water and food for long-suffering voters in line. Relatives and other non-political people can provide water and food. The voters may also bring their own. The reason for the ban is that many precincts were powerless to stop electioneering practiced on the voters standing in line. How can this law be accused of voter suppression, when the votes you are trying to suppress are already in the line to vote?

@JLeslie There already is a law banning electioneering within 150 feet of each polling place. However, what is to prevent somebody pretending to provide water and food, but conducting electioneering?

@Demosthenes Like you, I am not particularly concerned about a person’s party affiliation; however, the rules for absentee ballots should not make it easier to perpetrate fraud. Not requiring an ID for an absentee ballot does exactly that! And the great hue and cry about that provision proves to me beyond the shadow of a doubt, that that loophole was exploited in 2020.

@Yellowdog Are you saying that even Biden lies?

@crazyguy There are poll watchers, and most citizens don’t want to be harassed while standing in line.

Anyway, keep the water 150 feet away. I don’t care. It’s just more bullshit. Both Republicans and Democrats talking about something not that big of an issue, when other things regarding suppression are much more important.

@Tropical_Willie Distracting from what do you think?

Rather than bicker about exactly WHO is providing water, let’s discuss why it is that some places manage to provide sufficient polling places without insufferable lines long enough to render thirst a disincentive? Even more telling is the striking coincidence that such lines are usually rare in places not dominated by brown or black people.

@JLeslie In the 2020 election poll watchers noticed electioneering being conducted by ‘water-providers’. For instance, see
https://www.truthorfiction.com/its-now-illegal-to-offer-someone-water-in-a-voting-line-in-georgia/

From that link:

The secretary of state referred to the practice as “line warming” – i.e., warming up the people in line to your position as you give them free pizza, for example. Raffensperger said that the practice can be used to “inappropriately influence voters in the crucial final moments before they cast their ballots” and that voting line giveaways “violate the protections Georgia law has placed on campaigning near a polling location or voting line and the prohibitions on providing rewards to voters that were enacted to stop pay-for-vote schemes.”

Only an idiot conservative would suggest that a vote might be dependably sold for a slice of pizza. Considering that the legal age in every jurisdiction is beyond the age of 4, anyone you catch selling their vote for a bottle of water or slice of pizza is beyond any hope of finding their way to a polling place, let alone recognize or distinguish a ballot or voting machine from a bathtub. You would think by now that our conservative friends would somehow tire of so consistently tripping the idiot switch, insulting all who listen and embarrassing with their followers who swallow that crap.

@crazyguy There you go. The poll watchers caught it. That system works. Go ahead and give them a warning to stop or arrest them.

@stanleybmanly Exactly right. We should be focusing on the availability of being able to vote without long waits. I think some of the long waits can easily be fixed with more early voting locations and getting out into the community to make sure voters know about the locations. Minorities are less likely to know their options and not take advantage of even what is already existing for them.

@JLeslie Before the current law, electioneering by water-givers could not be stopped. So poll workers were helpless to stop it.

@JLeslie You choose to dignify the inane comments of the nameless poster with a response. As far as I am concerned, the voters who choose to vote in-person on Election Day, deserve the long lines, and whatever else the Gods choose to throw at them. If these voters are as thirsty and as hungry as the bleeding hearts make them out to be, they will indeed sell their vote for a bottle of water or a slice of pizza.

@crazyguy You mean Georgia didn’t already have laws that people can’t approach voters to push their candidate? I thought most states have laws not to go within 100 feet or 150 feet whatever it is.

@crazyguy Everywhere I have lived early voting is in a few key locations in a county. Election Day there are voting centers all over the county. If you’re poor without transportation the early voting centers might be difficult to get to.

The food and water might help bring people out to vote, but that doesn’t in any way mean they will sell their vote.

Did you get that? The voters who CHOOSE to stand in long lines deserve those lines. This from a man who insists that mail in balloting is little more than a guarantee of fraud.

I think it’s a little of both. Part not offering reasonable access to voting and part people waiting until the last minute. They (voters) do it the first day of early voting also. Rush in to stand on line. We saw it with vaccinations. People lining up the day before to sleep in their cars because they had to get vaccinated the first week.

We should focus on availability and communicating with voters. Georgia went blue because of communication.

@crazyguy You do realize you live in a blue state and the Southern states might be a very different situation than what you experience right?

150 feet is standard, I think. BUT water and food can be offered inside the 150-ft limit. Apparently, and I have no way to prove or disprove it, electioneering was going on inside the 150-ft radius in the guise of giving food and water.

@JLeslie In Georgia, driver’s license or equivalent is required for in-person voting. What exactly is so onerous about requiring it for absentee ballots? Last I checked, positive picture identification is also required for renting a car or for boarding a flight. I realize some people never rent a car or take a flight; however, the state has offered to provide id’s for all residents at zero cost. The only possible reason for opposing such a law is the desire for the opportunity to defraud the system. Can you think of any other possible reason?

@crazyguy Which state? Will they provide all documentation for the state ID also?

@Demosthenes I have heard that claim before. I challenge you to show me one Southern Democrat that actually shifted to being a Republican in the 60’s. Or since, really. There have been very few that shifted parties and most of the time it is to try getting re-elected because their constituents started seeing the light about Democrats.

@JLeslie I have provided the bill from the GA legislation.gov that is stated to have been passed by the House and the Senate. You seem caught up on this water stipulation. I cannot find it in the final bill. It was in a counter proposal that was put forth, but was not in the final bill. So please…correct me if I’m wrong, but go look for yourself.

The Republican power was never big in the South U,S, until the 1980s, when racism was pretty much a thing of the past.

Racism was alive and well in the South when it was predominately Democrat. There was no switcheroo of sides among political parties.

@yellowdog …when racism was pretty much a thing of the past.

Racism is alive and thriving today. It is much more subtle.

@seawulf575

Strom Thurmond

Conservative Democrats in the South created the “Dixiecrat” party because they were dissatisfied with the Democrats’ increasing support for Civil Rights. Thurmond was their presidential candidate who eventually switched to the Republican Party in 1964.

Either way, as I said before, I don’t care about Democrats/Republicans. The parties used to be more mixed ideologically; there were conservative Democrats (mostly in the South) and liberal Republicans. The South has always been conservative and conservatives have always been on the wrong side of history when it comes to voting rights.

@JLeslie Georgia. See
https://dds.georgia.gov/identification-cards-fees

From
https://dds.georgia.gov/georgia-licenseid/general-license-topics/real-id

You must present documents showing your identity, residential address, full social security number, and U.S. citizenship or proof of lawful status in the United States.

I really do not see how the state can provide these docs or why it is so hard for somebody who can read to collect the required docs.

@Demosthenes The South has always been conservative and conservatives have always been on the wrong side of history when it comes to voting rights. I agree with the first part of your sentence, but I do not think that the conservatives have always been on the wrong side of history when it comes to voting rights. Unless you believe without making the necessary effort, that the Georgia legislation is aimed at voter suppression.

@Strauss Subtle racism is alive and well in most countries. In some countries like Japan and China, the racism is so overt that you don’t find any other races. In other countries without races, we find ways of discriminating against people from different states.

I have no idea where you reside, but please name one country which has no subtle racism, and I’ll award you FIRST PRIZE.

@Demosthenes Thurmond is a interesting case. He was, as you noted, deep in the Democratic machine and fought against the Civil Rights Act of 1963. He swapped parties in 1964 but continued to fight against rights for blacks, being only one of two Republicans to vote against the Voting Rights Act of 1964. So yes, you are correct that he swapped parties, but he wasn’t in line with that party when he joined it.

The truth is that by definition conservatives must ALWAYS find themselves on the wrong side of history. And once more @seawulf575 fails to sensibly interpret WHAT he learns. If Thurmond was “not in line with that party when he joined it”, the only other possible conclusion is that THAT PARTY WAS IN LINE WITH HIM. Otherwise, why the switch?