LogFAQs > #934441383

xp1337 posted...

Also there's no value into buying into this false framing that the only voter suppression the GOP engages in is Voter ID.

They've closed polling places in areas that are disproportionately serving people of color (and thus are expected to be more Democratic), they've restricted early voting both in general and with that same specific intent (like trying to stop "pews to the polls" type efforts in some states, they're brazenly partisan about the kind of IDs they'll accept in places where they do have Voter ID (Like allowing gun permits to serve as valid ID but not college ID), they've messed with DMVs to either have to make people travel literally a hundred-plus miles to get to their nearest DMV for a constitutionally required free ID where voter ID is a thing... and then once they get there often try to make the free ID option as hidden as possible, they purge voter rolls even when they lack good cause to do so, they oppose same-day registration, they've literally had court orders (that are lifting this cycle!) preventing them from sending poll watchers to certain sites because they literally had a history of intimidation and deception like sending armed people with misleading armbands and "titles."

This isn't "just" Voter ID - although that's definitely a big part of it - it's a clear, concerted campaign on the part of the GOP to suppress the votes of people - usually minorities - who they don't expect to vote for them.

I dunno what conversation is being responded to here but I want to add more to this:

It's important to dispel the myth that the goal of voter suppression is to make it impossible to vote (that's illegal), or to target specific groups of people directly, like black or hispanic people (that's also illegal). The goal is to cut services and put up regulatory barriers that frustrate and eventually dissuade some people from voting, and to ensure that on average those people that are dissuaded from voting are more likely to vote for your opponents rather than you - again, on average. Suppressing votes will suppress some votes that'd go for you, but the goal is to make sure it suppresses more votes that would go against you. This means that republicans do target black voters through indirect means like closing registration or polling places in certain areas, granting them enough plausible deniability so that nobody calls them out on their bluff, or if someone does, that enough of the general populace believes that what they're doing is above board. Of course, it isn't - and I refuse to believe that anyone who has, say, played a game of mafia does not understand the idea of doing something shady while maintaining plausible deniability to make it look like what you're doing is fine. That's how voter suppression works. It's the same deal with gerrymandering - draw the districts with enough plausible deniability that you either don't get called out, or if you do, there isn't enough backing from the courts or the public to punish you.

It's the same deal with how republicans suppress abortion rights - you can't make abortion illegal, but you can cut services and put up crazy regulatory barriers that make it essentially possible for abortion clinics to remain open and for people to pursue abortions within a reasonable manner. As long as it's 100% legal in theory and barely attainable in practice, you can get away with it.