Back in the day, it was just about entirely a racial issue, white people in Alabama simply didn’t want black people to vote. Now, its at least partly a political issue, black people tend to vote Democrat.
Be that as it may, manipulating the laws to provide an unearned political benefit to one party is simply wrong.
If tomorrow morning, by some miracle, Republicans in Alabama woke up unanimously convinced that black people in Alabama would vote 80% Republican, you would see a voter registration and outreach drive beyond ACORN’s wildest dreams! They would turn out the League of Women Voters, the churches, the volunteer groups to knock on every black household door. Ingenious ways would be found to verify identity, photo id’s would drop from the skies. Republicans would discover facts and studies that, to their astonishment, show that voter id fraud is minuscule and would cheerfully brush aside any such concerns in their born-again fervor for civil rights!
And I could proceed with my plans for my coronation as Queen of Romania. Tremble and obey, my possums…
Does anyone doubt that this is exactly correct? I was speculating earlier that Republican candidates would go around offering limo rides to help black people get to the polling places, but that was very naive. They would do so much more than that if blacks started voting Republican – and they would do it all in the name of righting the wrongs of the past, reminding everyone that the poor and the disadvantaged needed the most help to keep from being disenfranchised!
Of course they’re doing some of those things already – like offering free voting ID cards that are so incredibly easy to get that hardly anyone has ever tried to get one. They even have “mobile units” going to remote locations to help distribute these cards. Of course, they park in some Godforsaken secret location and are open for just one hour (no kidding!) probably at 3 AM (OK, kidding about that one) but by God, they can say they have them!
And one notes it doesn’t include one day off to deal with this shit, travel expenses, possibles hotel bill, the various costs tacked on the nominal fee etc…
LOL! So you believe them? It just so happens that they had to shutter many offices in majority black areas?
Of course, you want to believe them, you’re dying to, so anything less than someone outright admitting that they closed it for racial reasons isn’t going to be good enough for you.
Its Alabama. Its obvious. Election year(s), typical voter ID nonsense, southern state with iffy racial history. I’m going to put myself out on a limb here and say it was 99% for racial reasons.
Just to be clear, a State Voter ID can still be obtained at county offices within each county. Some folks may have to go the next county over to get a Drivers License, but you don’t need a DL to vote. And we’re talking about going to the next county over (maybe an hour’s drive), not the next country over. I doubt anyone has to stay overnight just to go the next county.
It’s a responsibility that should be as easy as possible to meet. There’s simply no reason for a setup as onerous as Alabama’s. Again, voting is a civil right, not a test of character (or financial resources).
Sure, that works too. Either make an ID card that’s free and easy to get, allow other forms of ID that are easy to get, or continue doing it the way states have done for decades pre-voter ID movement.
Did you read even sven’s post? In CA, the process is done via mail. No days off, travel expenses, or hotel bills. Even in states where you might have to go in person, incurring a hotel bill is quite a bit of a stretch of the imagination.
Raise your hand (figuratively speaking) please if you are not interested in taking measures to prevent government actions which have a disproportionate negative impact on the ease with which African Americans are able to vote.
Not a gotcha, I probably won’t even post further on the topic! I just want to get clear on this point. It is not at all unbelievable to me that someone might have a perfectly calm-headed reason for thinking it’s not important to prevent disproportionate negative impacts on specific, measurable demographics, racial or otherwise. Any of that going on here?
How is that a stretch if you actually have to go in person? If I live out of state, and have to go to the state to do this business, then it would not be unusual at all if I were to have to pay for a place to stay for at least one night.
I’m going to change “African Americans” to “group”. African Americans aren’t the only group in the US that might be affected adversely by certain laws or practices.
I have a problem if the measures are DESIGNED to be such. However, almost any change we make is going to affect different groups differently, and so I can’t get behind the idea that no change can be made if it just happens to affect one group more than another.
Is it important? You mean, like does it raise the political misdemeanor to a felony? Dunno. Shouldn’t happen, regardless.
And what does it say to those citizens? If tomorrow, the legislature were to pass a law that freckled people have to pay a nickel more to ride the bus, I would be pissed. Not for a nickel, got a nickel, that ain’t the point. And if I further knew, or had very good reason to suspect, that this had been done in order to secure an advantage at the polls, well… Yosemite Sam, hopping mad, firing off pistols in every direction…
Christ Jesus, haven’t these people endured enough insults for a life time? Maybe dunno, not black, but I do have a navel, so I’m guessing yeah.
And what if there’s a super-dooper close election, maybe a couple votes didn’t get cast because it was too much hassle to get the id. Why, that would be as terrible a travesty as voter fraud tipping an election, rip the fabric of space-time into shreds, it would…(Hi, Bricker!)
We are talking about any and all potential changes, not just this one. I’ve already expressed my opinion about this particular case earlier in this thread. I actually was going to post, as you did, about a political motivation trumping a racial one, but you beat me to it. But just to be clear, I think there needs to be an independent analysis of this particular case-- there’s smoke, but I’m not sure there’s fire. I’m willing to defer to an independent group that can actually take the time and measure the impact impartially.
Well, then, in that case, no, we should not hold back needed legislation simply because it affects some demographic in a minor way. Good catch, there, John. That point might have been overlooked, not been for you.
What Richard Parker said was, “At least as recently as 2008 Alabama was found to have been trying to suppress black voters and entered a consent decree with the federal government to revert the attempted changes.” I’m not terribly good with legalese either, but I can see two ways that the consent decree doesn’t match what he said. First, the defendant was just a city in Alabama, Calera. It wasn’t the state of Alabama. Second, the decree doesn’t say anything about Calera “trying to suppress black voters”.
But you need a DL to get the voter ID, so that point is moot.
And going to the next county over is fine if you have a car. If you don’t, it becomes an adventure. If you do, you still have to pay for gas, etc… which, again, is a financial hurdle for the poor. In any event, my point was that saying the paperwork’s 25 bucks (or whatever) is far from the whole story.
And of course : legally speaking, how is one supposed to drive to the place where they deliver driving licenses ?
Quite a bit of hassle just to get basic paperwork IMO. And I agree with whoever said that in the end it amounts to a poll tax. It’s certainly a disincentive for the rural poor of Alabama to go and vote (or to have a DL for that matter, which means they’ll get dinged whenever stopped on a DWB…).
