# How does banning "early voting" contribute to less minorites/young people voting? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 7, 2015, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-banning-early-voting-contribute-to-less-minorites-young-people-voting/721925 "2015-06-07T22:39:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![phantom\_lamb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@phantom\_lamb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phantom_lamb)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-banning-early-voting-contribute-to-less-minorites-young-people-voting/721925/1 "2015-06-07T22:39:18Z")
I’m curious because I hear this argument a lot, but I’m interested in how it actually works. I understand how US republicans wanting to push for voter ID laws affects minorities’ access to voting. I just don’t get how early voting affects the democratic voting base but not the republican voters? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-banning-early-voting-contribute-to-less-minorites-young-people-voting/721925/2 "2015-06-07T22:50:40Z")
The short version is that anything that increases voting “friction” hurts the Democrats more. Their base are young people with terrible jobs that force them to work on voting day, while the Rebublican base is retired folk with all the time in the world. Also, the youth are lazy and/or apathetic, so reducing their options will cause some of them to stay at home. That’s obviously a massive exaggeration, but there’s enough truth to it that it has an effect. Elections are won by small margins. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-banning-early-voting-contribute-to-less-minorites-young-people-voting/721925/3 "2015-06-07T23:00:29Z")
I remember in Florida the issue was apparent when the ballot became very long due to candidates and issues to be voted on. It was bad for regular voters but worse for minorities that had to read a lot and it delayed voting in poor areas. [http://www.jaeah.com/charts-how-minority-voters-get-blocked-at-the-ballot-box/](http://www.jaeah.com/charts-how-minority-voters-get-blocked-at-the-ballot-box/) > [@](#): > > While unexpected voter turnout may have contributed to bottlenecks at polling places, the report’s authors conclude that local officials’ neglect and failure to prepare played a key, yet overlooked, role. > > Take Florida, which experienced the longest voting delays in the country in 2012. In the 10 Florida precincts with the longest delays (which the Brennan Center measured using poll closing times) almost 70 percent of voters were Latino or black. (Most were in Miami-Dade County, home to some of the nation’s largest Latino communities.) Statewide, Latino and black voters make up about 30 percent of the population. Had early voting not been available it would had been worse. And there is usually one party the one that wants to make it worse so as to see more delays making less votes to come from the “wrong” kind of people when election day comes. [http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-01-29/business/os-voter-lines-statewide-20130118\_1\_long-lines-sentinel-analysis-state-ken-detzner](http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-01-29/business/os-voter-lines-statewide-20130118_1_long-lines-sentinel-analysis-state-ken-detzner) > [@](#): > > Elections supervisors have blamed the long lines and delays on the cutback of early-voting days from 14 to eight that was ordered by the 2011 Legislature, a record-long ballot that included 11 lengthy constitutional amendments and a 71 percent turnout for a hotly contested presidential election. Indeed, Gov. Rick Scott said last week he’d back legislation restoring the early-voting days and restricting ballot length. > [@](#): > > In documents provided to the state, Lee elections officials conceded its resources were inadequate, and “what we deployed on [Nov. 6] turned out not to be sufficient.” Despite a 70,000 increase in registered voters since 2008, the county slashed its number of polling places from 136 to 88 and dispatched fewer ballot-scanning machines. > > “The biggest surprise is that people waited so long,” Allen said of his review, saying he would have expected the length of the lines to discourage even more voters. Overall, the 201,000 voters he indicated gave up equaled 2.3 percent of the Election Day turnout. > > In Florida, he concluded, the lost voters appeared to favor President Barack Obama. Of the 201,000 “missing” votes, 108,000 likely would have voted for Obama and 93,000 for Republican Mitt Romney, he said. > > This suggests that Obama’s margin over Romney in Florida could have been roughly 15,000 votes higher than it was. Obama carried the state by 74,309 votes out of more than 8.4 million cast. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-banning-early-voting-contribute-to-less-minorites-young-people-voting/721925/4 "2015-06-07T23:34:11Z")
African-Americans also have a tradition called “Souls to the Polls” where after Church on Sunday as the election nears, Churches will bus congregants to the polls to ensure turnout (mostly for electing local candidates, but it affects statewide and national results, too. That’s why so many red states are banning weekend voting, too. ---
**Author:** ![phantom\_lamb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@phantom\_lamb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phantom_lamb)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-banning-early-voting-contribute-to-less-minorites-young-people-voting/721925/5 "2015-06-07T23:55:40Z")
Thank you guys for the replies, it makes a lot more sense now. Wow… quite a shady tactic. Also, banning weekend voting? I wonder what passable veiled excuse you could have for such an idea… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-banning-early-voting-contribute-to-less-minorites-young-people-voting/721925/6 "2015-06-08T01:18:51Z")
> [@phantom\_lamb](#): > > Thank you guys for the replies, it makes a lot more sense now. Wow… quite a shady tactic. > > Also, banning weekend voting? I wonder what passable veiled excuse you could have for such an idea… Black churches meet on Sundays. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-banning-early-voting-contribute-to-less-minorites-young-people-voting/721925/7 "2015-06-10T14:21:29Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > The short version is that anything that increases voting “friction” hurts the Democrats more. Their base are young people with terrible jobs that force them to work on voting day, while the Rebublican base is retired folk with all the time in the world. Also, reducing the time frame makes the standard GOP tactic of allocating insufficient voting facilities to precincts infested with “those people” more effective, by removing a factor that ameliorates the resulting long lines.