# I Pit the ID-demanding GOP vote-suppressors (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 12, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943 "2012-06-12T19:15:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 387
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7721 "2014-11-18T04:23:46Z")
I admit my lack of full understanding with the circumstances, but I’m not inclined to describe the workers as braindead, or impaired in any way. They got phone calls from someone of apparent authority (enhanced by the fact that they had the worker’s phone number in the first place, suggesting access to official information not available to some random schmo) and it may not have been clear how to verify the information or time to do so. Further, they’d have no reason to assume someone from the Republican Party would be _lying_ to them. I can see their confusion being the result of trust, not stupidity. It’s the betrayal of that trust that has me curious about ramifications for future elections. If you were fucking with the people who agreed to work for the _other_ party, that’d be a dirty trick, but the Illinois Republicans are fucking with their _own_ people, unless I’m wildly misreading the situation. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7722 "2014-11-18T05:13:18Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > As has been mentioned once or twice or eighty-four times before in this very thread, without Voter ID, there’s no real way to prosecute voting under a false name. And 84 times, it’s been fucking bullshit. It’s just your faBrickation. Some kind of bizarre extension of some bullshit you’ve claimed about passing bad checks. > [@](#): > > Ramon Cue is the example that you might remember. We all know of Ramon Cue. You’ve mentioned him 84 times as well, because he’s all you’ve got, you night school attorney. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7723 "2014-11-18T12:18:00Z")
I suggest when Bricker _stops_ talking to you, you’ve won. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7724 "2014-11-18T14:36:52Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I suggest when Bricker … you’ve won. There, I fixed that for you. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7725 "2014-11-18T15:01:35Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > That must be a very comforting fiction for you, along with assuming the burdens are “minimal.” Just decide that only stupid or lazy people will be affected, and then disregard them on that basis. Huzzah. I don’t have to assume the burdens are minimal. The courts have decided they are minimal. Why should you get to override their decision? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7726 "2014-11-18T15:03:11Z")
> [@Reyemile](#): > > You’ve stopped even reading, haven’t you? The brain dead people were the election judges. Point out, specifically, what I said in this exchange that was wrong. Objectively wrong, not “wrong” by some liberal bullshit “it’s sooooo immoral,” whine. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7727 "2014-11-18T15:11:06Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I thought the brain dead people who got flummoxed were the election workers who thought they shouldn’t work that day based on the robocalls. If Bricker was instead referring to voters, then yes, he was wrong. And quite duh-wrong at that. Except I wasn’t. I was referring to the election judges: > [@](#): > > In other cases, dozens of judges reported receiving calls demanding they vote a certain way in order to serve as election judge. And the result? > [@](#): > > Election officials said some judges quit after receiving the misinformation. > **['Malicious' Robocalls Leave Chicago Short Of Thousands Of Election Judges](https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/malicious-robocalls-leave-chicago-short-of-election-judges/)** > > Chicago Board of Election Commissioners Chairman Langdon Neal said at least one precinct in all 50 wards had a problem with election judges not showing up, and the city had to enlist the help of 250 standby judges. That’s pretty brain-dead. Of course, to a liberal, it looks perfectly normal. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7728 "2014-11-18T15:14:58Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I admit my lack of full understanding with the circumstances, but I’m not inclined to describe the workers as braindead, or impaired in any way. Of course not. To a liberal, the concept that an election judge would get a call saying he had to vote a certain way to serve as an election judge makes absolutely perfect sense. Liberals are so easily duped that detecting that such a statement might possibly be false is viewed as well-nigh impossible. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7729 "2014-11-18T15:20:49Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t have to assume the burdens are minimal. The courts have decided they are minimal… Did they say that voter ID was OK? Yes. Did they say that a partisan and unjust application of voter ID was OK? That would be interesting, to say the least. Where, exactly, was this written, that its OK for one party to use a legitimate concern to stack the electoral deck in their favor? Its OK for the Republican Party to bugger the minority voter, so long as they don’t stick it in all the way? Is that what the courts said? Did they say that voter ID is so gosh-darn wonderful that no partisan warping and corruption is possible? Was the GAO report entered in evidence at the time? Might it not be possible that the court might not consult you as regards to its evidential value, and might fail to agree with you? It would have perfectly possible to craft a voter ID law without any taint of partisan advantage. They didn’t do that. They didn’t do that because: they did not want to. Need me to type that more slowly? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7730 "2014-11-18T15:23:11Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > …Liberals are so easily duped … Then, how come you can’t seem to manage it? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7731 "2014-11-18T16:46:30Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Of course not. To a liberal, the concept that an election judge would get a call saying he had to vote a certain way to serve as an election judge makes absolutely perfect sense. Liberals are so easily duped that detecting that such a statement might possibly be false is viewed as well-nigh impossible. Actually, as a CANADIAN, the idea of election judges (or indeed any official whose absence would dramatically slow the process) being provided by a political party is something that bemuses me. But as I understand it, the people duped by the calls weren’t liberals, but people who were to work on behalf of the Republicans to, I guess, judge that the vote was being run fairly. If that is not the case, what do YOU think happened, and who were the people getting this bad information? A close reading of your post suggests the entire story is false and no such calls were made. I thought you’d already acknowledged the contrary. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7732 "2014-11-18T17:00:42Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Did they say that voter ID was OK? Yes. Correct. > [@](#): > > Did they say that a partisan and unjust application of voter ID was OK? Yes. (According to you, anyway: you contend that the current Voter ID laws are partisan and unjust, right? They said those laws were OK, as you concede above.) Of course, the current laws are not unjust, although I suppose they are “partisan.” And the Supreme Court has specifically said that partisan laws – that is, laws supported only by one party – are OK. That’s it. Battle over. Liberals lose. Voter ID wins. It’s done. Go back to singing protest songs about Walmart. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7733 "2014-11-18T17:06:35Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Actually, as a CANADIAN, the idea of election judges (or indeed any official whose absence would dramatically slow the process) being provided by a political party is something that bemuses me. > > But as I understand it, the people duped by the calls weren’t liberals, but people who were to work on behalf of the Republicans to, I guess, judge that the vote was being run fairly. That’s not my understanding. If it were in the interest of the Republicans to assign those jobs to people that would simply not show up, they could have hired Solyndra employees. Or their own loyalists, with instructions to feign various obstacles. > [@](#): > > If that is not the case, what do YOU think happened, and who were the people getting this bad information? The people that got called were volunteers who were supposed to manage the activities at polling stations. Various strategems that no normal person could see through, like being told they had to vote for a particular party before they could serve in this capacity, were used to ensure they did not turn up. Undoubtedly other calls were being readied in the same spirit of plausibility, with some election judges being told they would have to wrestle a bear or defang a cobra while naked before serving. (Why the cobra was naked would be left tantilizingly unexplained). > [@](#): > > A close reading of your post suggests the entire story is false and no such calls were made. I thought you’d already acknowledged the contrary. No, no. It sure sounds like the kind of thing liberals would fall for. “You have to vote for this person or you can’t be an election judge.” “Okay dokey!” Liberal Battle Cry: We’re the dumbest! Now let’s vote! We’re the dumbest! Now let’s vote! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7734 "2014-11-18T17:21:06Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > That’s not my understanding. If it were in the interest of the Republicans to assign those jobs to people that would simply not show up, they could have hired Solyndra employees. > > Or their own loyalists, with instructions to feign various obstacles. The possibility (indeed strong temptation) for work-to-rule slowdowns is a large reason the whole idea strikes me as odd, if not baffling. > [@](#): > > The people that got called were volunteers who were supposed to manage the activities at polling stations. So these were people who volunteered to the Republican Party, to manage the activities to ensure that party would be treated fairly? Is that the gist? If so, would they be inclined to think the Republican Party would deliberately _lie_ to them? I suspect some are _now_ so inclined, which has me wondering about Republican short-sightedness. Low-level grunt workers are necessary, no? I wouldn’t personally be inclined to burn through them in this manner, because I might need them later. > [@](#): > > Various strategems that no normal person could see through, like being told they had to vote for a particular party before they could serve in this capacity, were used to ensure they did not turn up. Undoubtedly other calls were being readied in the same spirit of plausibility, with some election judges being told they would have to wrestle a bear or defang a cobra while naked before serving. (Why the cobra was naked would be left tantilizingly unexplained). You realize you’re calling these people stupid for trusting the Republicans, right? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7735 "2014-11-18T17:29:08Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > You realize you’re calling these people stupid for trusting the Republicans, right? No. Anyone who received a call claiming that their service as an election judge was contingent on how they voted, and believed it – that person I’ll happily call stupid. And in fact, if anyone got a call with outlandish claims and trusted it because the caller claimed to represent Republicans, then sure: stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7736 "2014-11-18T17:50:04Z")
You say “no” and then agree with my observation. Should I be surprised at this late date? ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7737 "2014-11-18T17:52:52Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I suggest when Bricker _stops_ talking to you, you’ve won. He has kind of started ignoring me, hasn’t he? Well, I’m not here for anything other than to debate, with a huge side order of smacking down stupidity, so I’ll keep responding to his offerings either way. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7738 "2014-11-18T18:38:43Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > He has kind of started ignoring me, hasn’t he? Maybe he thinks you tagged me in. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7739 "2014-11-18T18:44:49Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > You say “no” and then agree with my observation. Should I be surprised at this late date? Should you be surprised that your cheap trick failed? No, you really shouldn’t. “stupid for trusting the Republicans” =/= “stupid for believing their service as an election judge was contingent on how they voted” This is true even if the person conveying the second claim was a Republican. Too stupid to see why? No, you’re not. Too shifty to admit that you deliberately tried to conflate those two? Let’s see. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/7740 "2014-11-18T19:01:03Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > …Yes. (According to you, anyway: you contend that the current Voter ID laws are partisan and unjust, right? They said those laws were OK, as you concede above.)… Not the question, as I’m fairly sure you know. Did they actually address the partisan effect of the laws, did they put the courts legal “OK-doke” on using the laws to create a partisan advantage? Because if they ignored that issue when ruling, then they did not address it. Now, my understanding is that they glanced at it, but decided that there was no objective evidence on which to base a decision, so they ducked. Which was before the GAO report came out. From a governmental agency who’s province is to supply objective number crunching. Who says, besides you, that such a report cannot be offered, and accepted, as evidence? > [@](#): > > …Of course, the current laws are not unjust, although I suppose they are “partisan.” And the Supreme Court has specifically said that partisan laws – that is, laws supported only by one party – are OK… Very slippery, Counselor. No cigar. Certainly a law can be legit when it is supported by one party and not the other. It only becomes…scare quote! “partisan” /scare quote…when it offers an electoral _advantage_ to one party over another. So, anyway, nice try. I’m probably not as smart as I think I am, but thank the Lord I’m not as dumb as _you_ think I am. > [@](#): > > …That’s it. Battle over. Liberals lose. Voter ID wins. It’s done. Go back to singing protest songs about Walmart. If only your insults were clever, they would be more forgivable. Voter ID was only _your_ issue, as we have noted before, the partisan _misuse_ of voter ID is ours. See the title of the thread, that word, “suppression”? Look closely, its there. And you still don’t get it? You _can_ read, yes? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943.md?page=386) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943.md?page=388)