# 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:** 413
**Author:** ![Squooshed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Squooshed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squooshed)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8241 "2015-08-27T06:21:10Z")
And how does that solve the problem for people needing their license for the first time? Is it ok to significantly burden voting rights if you only do it once? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8242 "2015-10-01T19:34:34Z")
[**eschereal** posts in the “malicious GOP behavior” thread:](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=18733880) > [@We pit malicious GOP behavior!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-pit-malicious-gop-behavior/732869/46): > > More gerrymandering, as it were. > > [31 state licensing offices to be closed](http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/09/voter_id_and_drivers_license_o.html): > \*The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s website says their office at the Clarke County Courthouse is still open, but soon a lot of others nearby won’t be. On Wednesday, the agency announced that it would close 31 offices throughout the state, leaving 29 counties without a place where 16-year-olds can take a driver’s test … > > - > > and, of course, > \*In 2011, Alabama lawmakers approved the state’s voter ID law, making it illegal to vote in Alabama without a government-issued photo ID. For most folks, that’s a driver’s license. In those 29 counties you might be able to register at the courthouse, but you won’t be able to cast a ballot there unlessunless you have that ID… > > Look at the list of counties now where you can’t get a driver’s license. There’s Choctaw, Sumter, Hale, Greene, Perry, Wilcox, Lowndes, Butler, Crenshaw, Macon, Bullock … Depending on which counties you count as being in Alabama’s Black Belt, either twelve or fifteen Black Belt counties soon won’t have a place to get a driver’s license. > > Counties where some of the state’s poorest live… majority African-American. \* > > Shitheads. > > _(reposted from SRIotD, with less invective)_ ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8243 "2015-10-01T19:42:17Z")
Let me do Bricker’s response for him: _“Haw Haw Haw! Stooopid Libs. Get a job, poor people!!! Haw haw haw!”_ — Some Asshole ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8244 "2015-10-02T13:50:58Z")
[Meanwhile, in Oregon:](http://www.salon.com/2015/03/17/oregon_leads_the_way_on_automatic_voter_registration/) > [@](#): > > Departing from the national trend toward enacting laws designed to make voter participation more difficult, newly minted Gov. Kate Brown (D) on Monday signed legislation that makes Oregon the first state in the nation to implement automatic voter registration. The move could add up to 300,000 new voters to the state’s rolls. > > \ > > The passage of the legislation — which encountered fierce Republican opposition — marks a personal victory for Brown, who developed the bill while she was secretary of state. Brown took over as governor last month, after Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned amid of a conflict-of-interest probe. > > Brown’s law bucks the movement throughout the country toward voter suppression measures, which have gained popularity since the Tea Party wave of 2010. The Brennan Center for Justice calculated last year that since 2010, states had enacted new voting restrictions — including voter ID laws and limited polling hours — in 22 states. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8245 "2015-10-02T16:11:56Z")
Salon and the Brennan Center for Justice, two studiously neutral parties that strive above all to deliver factual unbiased analysis of the situation, strike again. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8246 "2015-10-02T16:20:46Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Meanwhile, in Oregon:](http://www.salon.com/2015/03/17/oregon_leads_the_way_on_automatic_voter_registration/) Is there a non-“Voter suppression” reason for opposing automatic voter registration like Oregon has implemented? I can’t see any downside that people would be willing to admit. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8247 "2015-10-02T17:25:00Z")
[Sometimes the direct approach is most effective:](http://www.salon.com/2012/10/19/gop_voter_registration_scandal_widens/) > [@](#): > > A man originally reported to have been working for the Republican Party of Virginia was arrested by the Rockingham County, Va., Sheriff’s Office on Thursday and charged with attempting to destroy voter registration forms by tossing them into a dumpster behind a shopping center in Harrisonburg, Va. But this isn’t just some local partisan zealot: > [@](#): > > the Republican Party of Florida had turned in more than 100 allegedly fraudulent and otherwise suspect voter registration forms in Palm Beach County. The story has continued to widen ever since, to a dozen Florida counties and several other states, now including Virginia, and even to the upper-echelons of the Republican Party itself. > > The man arrested today was 23-year-old Colin Small of Phoenixville, Pa. As it turns out, he does not only work for the Virginia Republican Party. According to an online profile, he appears to be working for the Republican National Committee and, prior to that, served as an Intern for Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., in the U.S. House of Representatives. > > Joseph Tanfani at the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Small was “working as a supervisor as part of a registration operation in eight swing states financed by the Republican National Committee.” _Y much mucho mas._ ETA: From 2012 but what’s changed? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8248 "2015-10-02T18:21:30Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Salon and the Brennan Center for Justice, two studiously neutral parties that strive above all to deliver factual unbiased analysis of the situation, strike again. Oh, their facts are wrong? Well, then, good thing you’re here! The real facts are at your fingertips? OK, you may proceed to shock us with the wretched truth… ---
**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:** [October 2, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8249 "2015-10-02T18:48:10Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Salon and the Brennan Center for Justice, two studiously neutral parties that strive above all to deliver factual unbiased analysis of the situation, strike again. What reasons do you assume a TRULY unbiased organization could find to oppose automatic registration? Not that your ad hominem isn’t utterly convincing in itself, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8250 "2015-10-02T20:15:27Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Oh, their facts are wrong? Well, then, good thing you’re here! The real facts are at your fingertips? OK, you may proceed to shock us with the wretched truth… From their article: > [@](#): > > national trend toward enacting laws designed to make voter participation more difficult… Nope. They are designed to verify voters’ identities. > [@](#): > > …Brown’s law bucks the movement throughout the country toward voter suppression measures… Nope. They are not voter suppression measures. That’s propaganda. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8251 "2015-10-02T20:20:05Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > What reasons do you assume a TRULY unbiased organization could find to oppose automatic registration? > > Not that your ad hominem isn’t utterly convincing in itself, of course. A truly unbiased organization might claim that the process of obtaining voter identification is too difficult without claiming that the laws are suppressing voters, although that unbiased organization should first find a study that shows it’s true. The Brennan Center for Justice is replete with quotes that _predict_ voter suppression but thin when it comes to actual results that show it happened. The AJC story, oft-quoted in this thread, showed Georgia’s law was followed by an increase in minority voter participation. Despite years and years of making these claims, you guys still don’t have any study that actually says, “Here are results (not estimates of what will happen in an upcoming election) and they show significant (or any) minority decrease in voting.” But when facts and ideology clash, ideology must triumph over facts, eh? ---
**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:** [October 2, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8252 "2015-10-02T20:23:51Z")
Nice minirant, but it doesn’t answer my question. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8253 "2015-10-02T20:34:14Z")
We have it on the very best authority that at least “some” Republicans have malign motives for all of this. We have solicited further clarification from said authority, but it has not been forthcoming. But at any rate, “some” Republicans are seeking unearned political advantage. Which means that your characterization as “propaganda” is at the least an exaggeration. Misleading, at best. Is it an accident, then? The effect on the underserved population, that was an “oopsy”? “Some” Republicans were intentional in that effect, others were…what, exactly? Misled? Gulled, fooled, bamboozled? Or the opposite, perhaps? The “some” Republicans believed they were accomplishing something to partisan advantage, but they screwed up, and did a good deed by accident? ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8254 "2015-10-03T09:15:35Z")
In case what’s happening in Alabama isn’t crystal clear on its face, every county in the state that has a majority Black population is losing its DMV office. Every single one. But it’s just budgetary. There’s nothing intentional about it, nosiree, not here! ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8255 "2015-10-05T16:24:53Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > A truly unbiased organization might claim that the process of obtaining voter identification is too difficult without claiming that the laws are suppressing voters, although that unbiased organization should first find a study that shows it’s true. The Brennan Center for Justice is replete with quotes that _predict_ voter suppression but thin when it comes to actual results that show it happened. The AJC story, oft-quoted in this thread, showed Georgia’s law was followed by an increase in minority voter participation. Despite years and years of making these claims, you guys still don’t have any study that actually says, “Here are results (not estimates of what will happen in an upcoming election) and they show significant (or any) minority decrease in voting.” > > But when facts and ideology clash, ideology must triumph over facts, eh? Sorry, Bricker, but B.E is right - this doesn’t answer the question. I’m actually also really curious on what a legitimate reason would be to oppose automatic voter registration as implemented in Oregon? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8256 "2015-10-05T18:43:17Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Sorry, Bricker, but B.E is right - this doesn’t answer the question. I’m actually also really curious on what a legitimate reason would be to oppose automatic voter registration as implemented in Oregon? I do not oppose the Oregon law at all. I’m a little surprised at the love for this initiative being shown here; I thought that SMDB orthodoxy required a belief that using drivers’ licenses in connection with voting was terribly exclusionary and deeply racist. I don’t agree with that, of course, and the Oregon method seems to contain enough identity proofing that I think it’s a fine plan. ---
**Author:** ![Abe\_Babe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ab097/32.png) [@Abe\_Babe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abe_Babe)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8257 "2015-10-05T18:47:05Z")
No, see the motor voter registration is intended to increase the number of people who vote, something Republicans don’t like. Requiring DL as an ID to vote is something intended to decrease the number of people who vote, something Republicans are all over. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8258 "2015-10-05T18:47:19Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I do not oppose the Oregon law at all. > > I’m a little surprised at the love for this initiative being shown here; I thought that SMDB orthodoxy required a belief that using drivers’ licenses in connection with voting was terribly exclusionary and deeply racist. If that was the only way to register, it would be. You don’t seem to understand the difference between making something more inclusive instead of less inclusive. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8259 "2015-10-05T19:56:06Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I do not oppose the Oregon law at all. > > I’m a little surprised at the love for this initiative being shown here; I thought that SMDB orthodoxy required a belief that using drivers’ licenses in connection with voting was terribly exclusionary and deeply racist. I don’t agree with that, of course, and the Oregon method seems to contain enough identity proofing that I think it’s a fine plan. Well, the part I was interested in concerns voter **registration** so requiring IDs to vote was not my original question. Seems like the vote in the Oregon House of Representatives was completely party based. All republicans (except for one who didn’t vote) voted against this bill. And all republicans (and one democrat) voted against this bill in the Oregon Senate. I was just curious what the stated reasons were for voting against this bill because it just seems like the only reason to vote against this is because it enables more people to vote, or, at least, get registered to vote. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8260 "2015-10-05T20:21:17Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > . . . I thought that SMDB orthodoxy required a belief that using drivers’ licenses in connection with voting was terribly exclusionary and deeply racist. . . . I’m sure you have no problem with literacy tests either. Not racist at all, and not in any way exclusionary. Right? Or is it only you who gets to parody other people’s views in debate here? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943.md?page=412) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943.md?page=414)