> > I'm curious as to what methods they used to weed out lower income voters, > especially > > when polls are usually just lines of people getting there when they get there, rich > > or poor. Were they asked to show their W-2s, and if it was lower than some amount, > > told to move to the end of the line?... Or given fake ballots? Closing polls early > in > > bad neighborhoods? > > > > Most of the voter blocking to my understanding is requiring a state driver license > instead of other forms of ID, but truth be told, I'm not an expert on the small > details of it. The laws are made by Republicans though so do the math. I read that > 600,000 were estimated to have been turned away in one state alone, it was either MI > or WI, I don't remember. There is also Republicans like the bald freak governor of > Florida fighting against voter time extensions due to weather that are disgusting. > Ask yourself, is it ok to stop people from voting in any case?
Requiring a driver's license is a problem in big cities where many people (of all economic backgrounds) don't own cars and don't drive because they can walk or use public transportation for everything. There's far more people without driver's licenses than people think. If you were born and raised in a big city and your family didn't own a car or drive, why would you bother taking a driver's test and getting a license? How would you practice driving with your permit even if you wanted to get a license if you didn't have access to a car?
Regardless, even though it has some impact, I think the driver's license requirement thing was a bit of a red herring. The most common way to suppress lower income voters is to have insufficient voting opportunity in poor areas. This can be done by closing some polling locations, reducing the number of physical voting booths, switching to paper ballots (which are slower to fill out), reducing hours at early voting locations, reducing early voting days, stopping early voting on the weekends, locating polling places where there is insufficient parking and/or no public transportation. These techniques (and others) lead to really long lines with waits of 4 or more hours. People who work in low-wage retail and fast food jobs usually can't afford to (or aren't allowed to) take off work to stand in a voting line all day. This is especially true if they're working multiple low-wage jobs to make ends meet. If Republicans make voting enough of a hassle, a lot of people just won't bother.
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