# 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:** 447
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8921 "2016-03-24T20:24:50Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > No. None. Not at all. 1:21000 is indefensible. There is no excuse for forcing voters to stand in line for 5 hours. Any county that cannot or will not provide for an efficient voting process that enables the largest number of voters to participate in the election is guilty of malfeasance. You should be ashamed for trying to hide that behind meaningless statistical obfuscation. The only election I ever missed in my life was the one in which you were elected as the sole arbiter of acceptable voter ratios and acceptable budget compromises. Was it at least a close election? ---
**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:** [March 24, 2016, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8922 "2016-03-24T20:28:49Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Maybe missing something here, **Lobo** , but I’m not seeing it. We can easily set a default position of totally dumb pooch-screwing without needing any malign intent. Maybe they just totally fucked up. Shouldn’t prove to be too hard to unearth some stats to flesh out the plot, sure bet somebody has. > > If the polling places were chosen to disadvantage Dem voters, that won’t be too hard to illustrate, and somebody would have done the research by now. After all, the Pubbies would have needed to know that to cook their scheme. So, has anybody done that? > > I don’t need a whole lot of proof to start seeing a dastardly plot, but gonna need _some_. You got it, you brought it, and I missed it? I’m not saying it was purposely malicious. I think it’s more likely it’s just the result of putting inept people in charge. I am saying that Fred’s argument is rubbish because he assumes that polling places serve people in the same ratio of dem/GOP as the population in general. Does that make sense? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8923 "2016-03-24T20:54:01Z")
Well, just a second here, when were you elected Supreme Authority on Voter Rules? Because if you weren’t, then you can’t say stuff like that. (See Post #8921 for citation.) Be that as it may, the theme of this marathon thread is Republican perfidy. Pretty good bet that whomsoever put this goat-fuck festival together is likely to incur the attention of the voter and suffer thereby. Good! Now, if we are to be taken down the primrose path of innocence not even dumb, that the county was forced to its actions by way of fiscal necessity…wouldn’t we expect they had said something? Maybe hold a bake sale, raise some money to forestall this bullshit? Well, did they? ---
**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:** [March 24, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8924 "2016-03-24T21:27:44Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Well, just a second here, when were you elected Supreme Authority on Voter Rules? Because if you weren’t, then you can’t say stuff like that. (See Post #8921 for citation.) > > Be that as it may, the theme of this marathon thread is Republican perfidy. Pretty good bet that whomsoever put this goat-fuck festival together is likely to incur the attention of the voter and suffer thereby. Good! > > Now, if we are to be taken down the primrose path of innocence not even dumb, that the county was forced to its actions by way of fiscal necessity…wouldn’t we expect they had said something? Maybe hold a bake sale, raise some money to forestall this bullshit? Well, did they? You can be on my team if there is a zombie apocalypse. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8925 "2016-03-24T22:21:55Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Yes. Write on the blackboard fifty times: > \*This thread is about GOP vote-suppression. > This thread is about GOP vote-suppression. > This thread is about GOP vote-suppression. > This thread is about GOP vote-suppression. > This thread is about GOP vote-suppression. > \* > Contrivances in voter ID laws is just _one of many_ nefarious means to the pernicious end. First of all, I’m not buying **Cal’s** claim that he wasn’t posting about Voter ID laws. Since he put “So you not only need to get the requisite ID…snip… So the law as written is perfectly valid, and you need have no complaints.” in the post I was responding to, are we really to believe that he was talking about _some other law_? If so, which one? And, as I already noted, even if he _was_ posting about some other law (yeah, right) we don’t know if that ass-hole clerk in the article was a Republican, Democrat or whatever. This was an instance of ass-holery, and maybe the ass-hole in question was a Republican and maybe not. ---
**Author:** ![inscrutable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a88e4f/32.png) [@inscrutable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inscrutable)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8926 "2016-03-25T00:28:01Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > One wonders if Bricker will point out that Fred’s point was inept. One does wonder. That “one” being you. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8927 "2016-03-25T01:52:07Z")
> [@inscrutable](#): > > That “one” being you. Why did you bother to post this pointless and stupid comment? Did you think anyone here doesn’t know English? You’re not inscrutable; you’re a fool. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8928 "2016-03-25T04:18:16Z")
It is good to be reminded of the unity of the self, the “oneness” that is at the very core of our being. Kinda pointless as well, sure, but what the heck. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8929 "2016-03-25T11:58:36Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > First of all, I’m not buying **Cal’s** claim that he wasn’t posting about Voter ID laws. Since he put “So you not only need to get the requisite ID…snip… So the law as written is perfectly valid, and you need have no complaints.” in the post I was responding to, are we really to believe that he was talking about _some other law_? If so, which one? > And, as I already noted, even if he _was_ posting about some other law (yeah, right) we don’t know if that ass-hole clerk in the article was a Republican, Democrat or whatever. This was an instance of ass-holery, and maybe the ass-hole in question was a Republican and maybe not. As I noted in my response (which, as usual, no one has cited or even acknowledged – am I invisible?) I was posting it because this is a thread about voter suppression, so it’s appropriate. The rest of that statement was a gibe about the justifications for situations often given by some people in this thread. You’re reading too much into it. ---
**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:** [March 25, 2016, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8930 "2016-03-25T12:29:56Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > The only election I ever missed in my life was the one in which you were elected as the sole arbiter of acceptable voter ratios and acceptable budget compromises. Sole arbiter? Well, me and the Maricopa County Recorder, who now accepts [full responsibility for a colossal fuckup](http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/county-recorder-helen-purcell-i-take-full-responsibility-for-what-happened-in-arizona-elections): > [@](#): > > “We certainly made bad decisions, and having only 60 polling places, didn’t anticipate there would be that many people going to the polling places,” she said. “We were obviously wrong — that’s my fault. So we’ll certainly look at that for future elections.” > > “I made an error in judgment in planning this election,” Purcell said. “I should have had more polling places, and I am very sorry about that.” So there are at least two people who think you are full of shit when you say it was defensible on the basis of budgets or ratios. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8931 "2016-03-25T12:42:59Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Sole arbiter? Well, me and the Maricopa County Recorder, who now accepts [full responsibility for a colossal fuckup](http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/county-recorder-helen-purcell-i-take-full-responsibility-for-what-happened-in-arizona-elections):So there are at least two people who think you are full of shit when you say it was defensible on the basis of budgets or ratios. Yes. Since she has access to the budget, and is the one who is entitled to weigh those factors, her view is quite persuasive that in this instance, there were other options. It’s not persuasive that the ratios discussed here are always wrong, no matter what other items need to be sacrificed to better them. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8932 "2016-03-25T15:07:45Z")
Arizona has early voting available. Did the state officials have access to how that went, could they have known how that early voting stood? Could they then have a motive to prevent in-person voting to overturn that trend? Like, if the PTB in Arizona favor “Batshit” Trump over “Crazy as a duck on acid” Cruz, and early voting heavily favored “Batshit”, then they might well have a motive to suppress the in-person numbers. A question: when did they install this goat-fuck mechanism? Did they spring it on everybody at the last second? Or did they publicly reveal the “plan” well in advance, but nonetheless prevailed because nobody bitched about it? Dunno which is the more implausible, but one or the other must be the case. Hell, maybe it wasn’t about the Pubbie side, maybe they saw a big lead for Hillary and did it to screw Bernie. Either way, the picked the most ham-fisted and stupid way to go about it! As of this moment, I don’t see a partisan angle to this that makes much sense. They were suppressing _everybody’s_ voting, probably more Pubbie side than Dem because of the rampant nature of the Pubbie race. At any rate, absent further evidence as outlined above, I’m in the “plain old stupid” camp rather than the “partisan skulduggery” camp. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8933 "2016-03-25T15:21:36Z")
> [@dba\_Fred](#): > > I got this one, **Bricker**. > What a stupid thing to say, you do realize **all** voters, regardless of party affiliation, had to use the **same** available polling locations, don’t you? > > And Maricopa County **IS NOT** a Democratic area: > 507,826 voters registered as Democrats (26%) > 691,241 voters registered as Republicans (35%) > [740,530 voters registered as Independents (38%) (not eligible to vote in the Presidential Preference Election which is solely for voters registered within a specific political party to specify their preference for a candidate of their political party for the Office of President.] > > So if the idea was to suppress Democratic votes, it is unfounded. If _anyone_ was likely to have their vote suppressed by the lack of polling places or not having enough ballots on hand, it was the Republicans by the tune of 183,415 (9%) more registered voters in Maricopa County than Democrats. > > Glad to have helped fought your ignorance, an apology is not necessary. > > (numbers from [pdf alert] [http://apps.azsos.gov/election/voterreg/2016-01-01.pdf](http://apps.azsos.gov/election/voterreg/2016-01-01.pdf)) > > I too hope there are more polling locations available on the next Election Day. Maybe this experience will cause people sign up to vote by mail or vote at the early voting locations. [Well, look at this:](http://reverbpress.com/politics/meet-the-tea-party-republican-behind-arizonas-colossal-voting-clusterfk/) Ratios varied widely. Very, very widely within Maricopa County. > [@](#): > > But the distribution of polling places in Maricopa County shows that there were significantly fewer polling places in areas with high minority populations. In Anglo-communities like Cave creek, there was one polling place per 8,500 residents compared to inner city Phoenix which had one polling place for every 108K residents, many of them Latinos. Gee, and it’s a county-wide function so funding wouldn’t vary within the county, would it? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8934 "2016-03-25T15:43:27Z")
Well, then, that makes it “incredibly stupid partisan skulduggery”. Assuming, of course, it passes the strict statistical and methodological analysis of our resident expert. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8935 "2016-03-25T15:51:28Z")
Well that is pretty peculiar. ---
**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:** [March 25, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8936 "2016-03-25T15:55:41Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Well, then, that makes it “incredibly stupid partisan skulduggery”. Assuming, of course, it passes the strict statistical and methodological analysis of our resident expert. Well, can you prove 1:108000 isn’t the appropriate ratio for any jurisdiction, anywhere? Can you?? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8937 "2016-03-25T17:22:32Z")
Well, that depends, doesn’t it? Certainly not for those citizens who reside in the more substantial and worthy districts, who provide more property tax money for the process. Our lesser citizens ought to be grateful for the opportunity to express their _willingness_ to vote, so it might well be appropriate for them. But certainly not for our citizens of substance and property. After all, its _their_ country, the rest of us just live here. ---
**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:** [March 25, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8938 "2016-03-25T19:00:10Z")
Well look, it turns out my criticism of dbaFred’s “logic” was, in fact not only correct, but actually the case in real life. One wonders if dbaFred will feel stupid for making his arrogant, “Don’t worry, I got this one, Bricker” post? One further wonders if Bricker will address that his acceptance of dba Fred’s assistance was misplaced. Spoiler alert: “one” refers to me. I try, in all things, to speak as an Elizabethan dowager might. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8939 "2016-03-25T19:26:56Z")
“One never knows, do one?” ---
**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:** [March 25, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8940 "2016-03-25T19:33:48Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > “One never knows, do one?” Indubidably, my dear scalawag. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943.md?page=446) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943.md?page=448)