# Do Democrats suppress Republican votes anywhere? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 13, 2018, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898 "2018-10-13T08:52:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/21 "2018-10-13T20:07:43Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Your doubt is that the audits were occurring? There’s ample evidence of that. The typical leftist defense on this is that the lefty orgs were also hit, not that it didn’t happen. Not really, what happened is that a lot of files with names that appeared political were pulled for audit, and thus certification delayed. Not many were given a full audit in the end. And indeed, a purely politcal org cant be a Non-profit. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2018, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/22 "2018-10-13T20:38:39Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Let me guess. You get to define what “suppress,” voters means, and it won’t mean gerrymandering, and it won’t mean arguing that military absentee ballots should not be counted because they lack postmarks, which military mail often does, but it WILL mean Voter ID and voter registration roll verifications. > > Right? Is it possible for you to answer in the positive rather than sniping at the OP? I mean, seriously, that was a really crappy answer. To the OP – I think there was some pretty bad gerrymandering in, maybe, Maryland? _looks it up_ Yes, here’s an article: > **[Analysis | How Maryland Democrats pulled off their aggressive gerrymander](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/03/28/how-maryland-democrats-pulled-off-their-aggressive-gerrymander/)** > > Maryland is among the most gerrymandered states in the nation. I think that gerrymandering is a form of voter disenfranchisement, but I guess it’s not technically voter suppression since it doesn’t stop people from voting; it just makes the targeted votes less impactful. I’m not a mod, but the IRS auditing or non-auditing of various groups really seems like pretty bad hijack. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2018, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/23 "2018-10-13T21:31:26Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Let me guess. You get to define what “suppress,” voters means, and it won’t mean gerrymandering, and it won’t mean arguing that military absentee ballots should not be counted because they lack postmarks, which military mail often does, but it WILL mean Voter ID and voter registration roll verifications. Do you have something to add to the discussion? If you do, by all means feel free to do so. There ARE states with Democratic governors and legislatures, right now. Are any engaging in voter suppression efforts? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2018, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/24 "2018-10-13T21:49:01Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I’m not a mod, but the IRS auditing or non-auditing of various groups really seems like pretty bad hijack. Especially since the correlation, if any, between being a Republican organization and being investigated for fraud _may have a causal relationship quite different_ from the hijacker’s imputation. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2018, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/25 "2018-10-13T22:35:16Z")
Oh, I was thinking of starting a thread on this. Can someone tell me a decent plan that the Dems could use to suppress R votes if they were so inclined? Don’t just say “close the rural DMvs so rural whites can’t register”, I thnk it should include a state that the Dems can reasonably be excepted to control in the near term. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2018, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/26 "2018-10-13T22:53:06Z")
Good question! Making it harder to vote absentee would be a big win, I think. For one thing, there are probably several tens of thousands of battered or brow-beaten women who are forced to vote Republican while hubby watches. Here’s a [story of _ **a state GOP chairman** _ who filled out his wife’s ballot and signed it without her consent!](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/steve-curtis-former-colorado-gop-chairman-sentenced-for-voter-fraud/) Especially amusing is that this top GOP leader is also a radio talk show host. Shortly before committing his felony he told his listeners: “Virtually every case of voter fraud that I can remember in my lifetime was committed by Democrats or do I not have the facts?” 😃 [Cite.](https://kdvr.com/2017/12/04/voter-fraud-trial-underway-for-former-gop-chairman/) ETA: Remenber to quote my posts. Some thread participants do not see them unless you do. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2018, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/27 "2018-10-13T23:01:16Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Oh, I was thinking of starting a thread on this. Can someone tell me a decent plan that the Dems could use to suppress R votes if they were so inclined? Don’t just say “close the rural DMvs so rural whites can’t register”, I thnk it should include a state that the Dems can reasonably be excepted to control in the near term. There have been a number floated. Getting rid of absentee ballots would be a great start. Making polling places based on the population, rather than the area would work pretty well. We could shut down all the physical registration places and mailings, and have you do it online. We could just make the print smaller and harder to read. We could put instructions in multiple languages. We could send you a mailer in one of those languages, and drop you from the rolls if you don’t reply. We could enforce separation of church and state, and not allow polling places to be in churches. And you know, we do spend quite a bit of money keeping those rural DMV’s open for the convenience of those who don’t want government intrusion into their lives. We can reduce the intrusion and reduce their taxes, by only having a DMV in a county of say 100,000 residents or more. What state(s)? Well, start with the obvious, Cali, NY, and Illinois. We can probably throw in most of the states that went for Clinton in 2016, and even some that trump narrowly took. In fact, I would say that those would be the states that would be most ripe for some disenfranchisement. It’s quite likely that there will be a blue wave here in the next election and in 2020, and these could be tactics that could be used to make that democratic power linger longer than the actual people would like it to. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2018, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/28 "2018-10-13T23:08:15Z")
[ol] [li]Download the image of the registration form from our pinned Tweet on Twitter as a jpg[/li][li]Convert that to a pdf[/li][li]Complete the form[/li][li]Attach the completed pdf to an email to Secretary of State’s office[/li][/ol] If you have any questions please see the FAQ in our Instagram story. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2018, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/29 "2018-10-14T00:17:00Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Good question! Making it harder to vote absentee would be a big win, I think. For one thing, there are probably several tens of thousands of battered or brow-beaten women who are forced to vote Republican while hubby watches. > > Here’s a [story of _ **a state GOP chairman** _ who filled out his wife’s ballot and signed it without her consent!](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/steve-curtis-former-colorado-gop-chairman-sentenced-for-voter-fraud/) > > Especially amusing is that this top GOP leader is also a radio talk show host. Shortly before committing his felony he told his listeners: “Virtually every case of voter fraud that I can remember in my lifetime was committed by Democrats or do I not have the facts?” 😃 [Cite.](https://kdvr.com/2017/12/04/voter-fraud-trial-underway-for-former-gop-chairman/) > > ETA: Remenber to quote my posts. Some thread participants do not see them unless you do. How would you do it? IIRC, absentee ballots are generally rich, mostly white voters. No? So…how would you go about actually implementing such a plan? I honestly don’t have any idea. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2018, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/30 "2018-10-14T00:41:04Z")
IIRC it wasn’t long ago that California, at least, required an actual _reason_ to request an absentee ballot; e.g. proof or affadavit that you would be out of town on election day. Obviously this would make voting less convenient for some people, _ **but that’s the whole idea.** _ The question posed was: _How can Democrats emulate malicious Republican behavior?_ I’m quite curious what those so proud of GOP malice would think of this plan? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2018, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/31 "2018-10-14T01:15:52Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > IIRC it wasn’t long ago that California, at least, required an actual _reason_ to request an absentee ballot; e.g. proof or affadavit that you would be out of town on election day. > > Obviously this would make voting less convenient for some people, _ **but that’s the whole idea.** _ The question posed was: _How can Democrats emulate malicious Republican behavior?_ > > I’m quite curious what those so proud of GOP malice would think of this plan? So…in California they basically required a reason. That doesn’t seem to me to be very systemic wrt vote suppression and absentee ballots. Did it work, btw? Did they actually implement it? Did it actually, well, do anything? I’m not seeing this as a good example of how the Dems could suppress the vote of Pubs, but I’ll concede that I’m probably not all here atm and could be missing, well, lots. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2018, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/32 "2018-10-14T01:57:29Z")
> [@XT](#): > > So…in California they basically required a reason. That doesn’t seem to me to be very systemic wrt vote suppression and absentee ballots. Did it work, btw? Did they actually implement it? Did it actually, well, do anything? > > I’m not seeing this as a good example of how the Dems could suppress the vote of Pubs, but I’ll concede that I’m probably not all here atm and could be missing, well, lots. I did write “IIRC.” Someone with better memory or Google-fu can fill you in on details. They did _not_ impose a _new_ requirement on absentee ballots! At one time _ **absentee ballots were simply not an option at all.** _ When absentee ballots were first implemented, the assumption was that there was a “legitimate” reason to request absentee ballots. (Please see NOTE below.) \* I do not remember\* what the detailed requirement was. If your point is that R voters will break the law and use absentee ballots illegally, fine. (I wonder how our GOP apologists will comment on that.) **PLEASE NOTE: _Independent of voter suppression there are excellent reasons to prohibit or regulate absentee ballots._** One of the key features of a secret ballot system is that the voter’s vote be secret _ **whether or not the voter wants to keep it secret.** _ People overlook this key feature, which is completely destroyed by the indiscriminate allowing of absentee ballots. To understand why voter’s vote should be secret whether or not the voter wants to keep it secret, consider the following conversations: A. I will pay you $10 to vote as I tell you to. B. Good! But how will you know to trust me? A. You will request an absentee ballot. I will watch you fill it in and mail it. or A. I will watch you vote for Trump or I will give you a bloody nose. B. But I don’t want to request an absentee ballot. A. Fine. I’ll give you a bloody nose right now. ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2018, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/33 "2018-10-14T03:24:08Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > I did write “IIRC.” Someone with better memory or Google-fu can fill you in on details. > > They did _not_ impose a _new_ requirement on absentee ballots! At one time _ **absentee ballots were simply not an option at all.** _ When absentee ballots were first implemented, the assumption was that there was a “legitimate” reason to request absentee ballots. (Please see NOTE below.) \* I do not remember\* what the detailed requirement was. If your point is that R voters will break the law and use absentee ballots illegally, fine. (I wonder how our GOP apologists will comment on that.) > > **PLEASE NOTE: _Independent of voter suppression there are excellent reasons to prohibit or regulate absentee ballots._** One of the key features of a secret ballot system is that the voter’s vote be secret _ **whether or not the voter wants to keep it secret.** _ People overlook this key feature, which is completely destroyed by the indiscriminate allowing of absentee ballots. > > To understand why voter’s vote should be secret whether or not the voter wants to keep it secret, consider the following conversations: > > A. I will pay you $10 to vote as I tell you to. > B. Good! But how will you know to trust me? > A. You will request an absentee ballot. I will watch you fill it in and mail it. > > or > > A. I will watch you vote for Trump or I will give you a bloody nose. > B. But I don’t want to request an absentee ballot. > A. Fine. I’ll give you a bloody nose right now. Yet I am in a state with exclusively mail in ballots and the world didn’t end. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2018, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/34 "2018-10-14T03:34:32Z")
> [@XT](#): > > IIRC, absentee ballots are generally rich, mostly white voters. No? Not in CA. At least not anymore - absentee voting is hugely popular and steadily getting [more so](https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/historical-absentee/). It’s formed an absolute majority of voters for a decade now. Frankly, I love it. Any suppression of it would be disastrous and would certainly profoundly piss me off :p. Thankfully it will never happen, because politicians aren’t idiots when it comes to issues affecting popularity. The outrage in CA would be huge from all across the political spectrum. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2018, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/35 "2018-10-14T03:41:44Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Good question! Making it harder to vote absentee would be a big win, I think. For one thing, there are probably several tens of thousands of battered or brow-beaten women who are forced to vote Republican while hubby watches. I’m just guessing that is more than balanced out by the people who can’t get off work, find childcare, have mobility issues, are to damn exhausted _after_ work or any of a number of other reasons that could interfere with them reaching a polling station on a particular day. Absentee ballots are _more_ democratic if you ask me. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2018, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/36 "2018-10-14T04:16:31Z")
> [@rat\_avatar](#): > > Yet I am in a state with exclusively mail in ballots and the world didn’t end. Are wives being coerced to vote hubby’s way? How would you know? ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2018, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/37 "2018-10-14T04:32:59Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Are wives being coerced to vote hubby’s way? How would you know? This sounds like Republican talk. Like illegal alien voters, I don’t think we need to do anything about this until we see that deterrents already in place aren’t getting the job done. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2018, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/38 "2018-10-14T04:48:28Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > Like illegal alien voters, I don’t think we need to do anything about this until we see that deterrents already in place aren’t getting the job done. 😕 Which are these deterrents already in place, again? Let’s suppose coercion and vote-buying due to absentee ballots is not a big problem. Let’s suppose that the net advantage to the GOP is only 30,000 votes nationwide or so. (If you think that less than 0.1% of wives are intimidated enough to vote per hubby’s suggestion, you should get your dosages adjusted.) Even with that low figure, that pro-R fraud vastly exceeds the actual pro-D voter fraud maliciously alleged by the GOP. But stopping that fraud was only a small part of the reason, or _rather just an excuse_, to restrict absentee voters. The main reason in the context of this subthread is to find a legal approach _ **to reduce R-voter turnout.** _ Will it inconvenience some D voters? Sure! Voter suppression by the GOP inconveniences many R voters. _ **The smart R’s accept that inconvenience because their goal is electoral victory.** _ If your point is that D’s want the convenience and _don’t care as much about actually winning elections_, I can accept that you’re probably right. I’ve already penciled in a GOP-led Congress and White House for the foreseeable future. ---
**Author:** ![Batano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@Batano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batano)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2018, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/39 "2018-10-14T12:33:38Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Oh, I was thinking of starting a thread on this. Can someone tell me a decent plan that the Dems could use to suppress R votes if they were so inclined? Don’t just say “close the rural DMvs so rural whites can’t register”, I thnk it should include a state that the Dems can reasonably be excepted to control in the near term. They could write the ballots in 5th grade English or above. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2018, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898/40 "2018-10-14T13:22:35Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > To the OP – I think there was some pretty bad gerrymandering in, maybe, Maryland? You can find plenty of them. I give you the [Illinois 4th Congressional District.](http://i.imgur.com/eo6MFoe.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-democrats-suppress-republican-votes-anywhere/822898.md?page=3)