# Will Republican voter suppression efforts impact the race? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 28, 2016, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264 "2016-08-28T12:31:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2016, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/1 "2016-08-28T12:31:35Z")
> **[The GOP's Stealth War Against Voters](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/the-gops-stealth-war-against-voters-247905/)** > > Will an anti-voter-fraud program designed by one of Trump’s advisers deny tens of thousands their right to vote in November? I was well-aware of efforts to keep blacks, Latinos, and others away from the polls, but I had no idea that it was this widespread and this sophisticated. It’s enraging to think that this can occur, but the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has become almost worthless. If you even occasionally lean left, you cannot waste your vote on Jill Stein this year. We need Hillary to load the bench with progressives who will put an end to this right wing putsch. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2016, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/2 "2016-08-28T13:23:52Z")
Is it wrong? Certainly. But think of it this way. The conservative movement - energized by the Reagan era - is now running so far behind demographic trends that they have to resort to efforts like this - efforts that are transparently unethical and immoral - to defend their ability to be competitive at the national level. This is the sort of thing that tells the non-right wing - moderates and progressives - that we’re winning. Slowly but surely we’ll drag this nation into enlightenment. It won’t be pain-free, but it will come. Come the day, baby. Come the day. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2016, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/3 "2016-08-29T20:43:23Z")
It’s not immoral, it is in fact entirely consistent with current law. Rather than try to appoint justices who will define voting rights as more sacrosanct than even free speech or freedom of religion, why not have the balls to change the law? The Help America Vote Act mandated purges and ID requirements. Do Democrats not stand by the laws they pass? Of course not, half the laws Democrats pass are just to satisfy the rubes and dutifully ignored by Democratic officials charged with implementing them. > [@](#): > > HAVA requires any voter who registered by mail and who has not previously voted in a federal election to show current and valid photo identification or a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the name and address of the voter. Voters who submitted any of these forms of identification during registration are exempt, as are voters entitled to vote by absentee ballot under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. > [@](#): > > HAVA requires states develop a single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter registration list defined, maintained, and administered at the State level. (Previously, voter registration lists could be maintained solely by local officials.) HAVA requires the statewide list be coordinated with other agency databases within the state. HAVA also requires regular “maintenance” of the statewide list including removing ineligible voters and duplicate names are eliminated in accordance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA). > **[Help America Vote Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_America_Vote_Act#Computerized_statewide_voter_registration)** > > The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 107–252 (text) (PDF)), or HAVA, is a United States federal law which passed in the House 357-48 and 92–2 in the Senate and was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 29, 2002. The bill was drafted (at least in part) in reaction to the controversy surrounding the 2000 U.S. presidential election, when almost two million ballots were disqualified because they registered multiple votes or no votes when The g... We’ve gone from insuring the integrity of our elections to making it a moral and civil rights issue that we NOT take any steps to insure the integrity of elections, since all regulations are by definition an obstacle. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/4 "2016-08-29T20:45:53Z")
Ensure ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/5 "2016-08-29T20:51:25Z")
Yes, thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2016, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/6 "2016-08-29T21:35:09Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > We’ve gone from insuring the integrity of our elections to making it a moral and civil rights issue that we NOT take any steps to insure the integrity of elections, since all regulations are by definition an obstacle. This is pure bullshit. No Democrats are attempting to disenfranchise Republican voters. All their efforts are directed towards trying to stop Republicans from disenfranchising Democratic voters. The ideal should be “let everyone who’s eligible vote and let the majority win.” But the Republican plan is “let’s make sure that only a majority of people who vote Republican are allowed to vote.” ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/7 "2016-08-29T21:38:29Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > But the Republican plan is “let’s make sure that only a majority of people who vote Republican are allowed to vote.” And also “Let’s spread disinformation and outright lies about “voter fraud” in order to make this disenfranchisement of voters palatable to our base” ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2016, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/8 "2016-08-29T22:48:52Z")
You know, look at it a certain way, its becomes totally clear that **Addy** is correct. Really, what appears to be voter suppression on the part of the Republicans is actually a totally moral and reasoned effort to correct error and injustice! ETA: Took my meds. No. It isn’t. Not even close. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2016, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/9 "2016-08-29T23:51:55Z")
Again, I know this is an N of 1, but I’ve been “disenfranchised” as a Republican voter. My vote was not counted in the 2008 Presidential election. In 2007, I moved to a new state, a swing state, into a solidly (almost notoriously) liberal-Democrat-“blue” area. I registered to vote there when I got my new driver’s license, and voted in the Republican primary in 2008 without a hitch. Come the November 2008 general election, I went down to the exact same polling place, not having moved nor changed my registration in any way, and was told my name wasn’t in the book. They checked both books (there was an A-L book and an M-Z book, or something like that,) and checked for several possible misspellings of my name, but found nothing. I showed them my voter registration card, having brought it with me, but they told me that without my name in the book, they couldn’t give me a ballot. They got on the phone with someone downtown, who said I should cast a provisional ballot–a ballot that could be counted once my registration was verified at the county office later. So I filled out and deposited the provisional ballot. In December, I got a letter from the county saying they had been unable to verify my registration. I called them, and the person I got on the phone went to check the records and told me the problem was that I’d never signed my voter registration. She couldn’t explain in light of that how I’d voted in the primary and was currently holding a voter registration card in my hand. She said she could check the book from the primary, and would call me back. She never called back. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were a _lot_ of election officials out there trying to suppress voting–and not only Republican ones. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2016, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/10 "2016-08-30T00:41:49Z")
It did in the year 2000. Tens of thousands of black voters were purged, flipping the election. In 2016 it shouldn’t make much of a difference for president. I have no idea about house, senate or governor races. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2016, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/11 "2016-08-30T00:42:41Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > It’s not immoral, it is in fact entirely consistent with current law. We’ve secretly replaced **adaher’s** sense of right and wrong with 200 years of kludgy, lowest common denominator partisanship and cronyist political patronage. Let’s see if he notices the difference. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/12 "2016-08-30T02:29:34Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > Again, I know this is an N of 1, but I’ve been “disenfranchised” as a Republican voter. My vote was not counted in the 2008 Presidential election. > > In 2007, I moved to a new state, a swing state, into a solidly (almost notoriously) liberal-Democrat-“blue” area. I registered to vote there when I got my new driver’s license, and voted in the Republican primary in 2008 without a hitch. Come the November 2008 general election, I went down to the exact same polling place, not having moved nor changed my registration in any way, and was told my name wasn’t in the book. They checked both books (there was an A-L book and an M-Z book, or something like that,) and checked for several possible misspellings of my name, but found nothing. I showed them my voter registration card, having brought it with me, but they told me that without my name in the book, they couldn’t give me a ballot. They got on the phone with someone downtown, who said I should cast a provisional ballot–a ballot that could be counted once my registration was verified at the county office later. So I filled out and deposited the provisional ballot. In December, I got a letter from the county saying they had been unable to verify my registration. I called them, and the person I got on the phone went to check the records and told me the problem was that I’d never signed my voter registration. She couldn’t explain in light of that how I’d voted in the primary and was currently holding a voter registration card in my hand. She said she could check the book from the primary, and would call me back. She never called back. > > It wouldn’t surprise me if there were a _lot_ of election officials out there trying to suppress voting–and not only Republican ones. Or maybe you didn’t sign the voter registration card and the provisional proctors missed it. Jus’ sayin’ I assume you have rectified the voter registration and are now good to go, correct? ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2016, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/13 "2016-08-30T02:40:01Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > Or maybe you didn’t sign the voter registration card and the provisional proctors missed it. Jus’ sayin’ > > I assume you have rectified the voter registration and are now good to go, correct? The card wasn’t something to be signed. The card was totally irrelevant; it existed only to tell you where your polling place was and that you were registered. As I said, at the polling place, they didn’t care about the card, only that your name was in their book. If it had been a matter of signing the card, I could have done that right then and there in front of them. The person on the phone was talking about some registration form that initially got you registered. Also, I forgot to mention, at the end of December 2008, I received a new voter registration card in the mail, without my ever having heard back from them or taken any action myself whatsoever. I just moved to yet another new state in June, have changed my driver’s license over and gotten my new voter registration card, so it will be interesting to see how voting goes in November. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2016, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/14 "2016-08-30T04:00:46Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > It’s not immoral, it is in fact entirely consistent with current law. Because ‘legal’ always equates to ‘moral.’ Please. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2016, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/15 "2016-08-30T04:12:49Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > Again, I know this is an N of 1, but I’ve been “disenfranchised” as a Republican voter. My vote was not counted in the 2008 Presidential election. > > In 2007, I moved to a new state, a swing state, into a solidly (almost notoriously) liberal-Democrat-“blue” area. I registered to vote there when I got my new driver’s license, and voted in the Republican primary in 2008 without a hitch. Come the November 2008 general election, I went down to the exact same polling place, not having moved nor changed my registration in any way, and was told my name wasn’t in the book. They checked both books (there was an A-L book and an M-Z book, or something like that,) and checked for several possible misspellings of my name, but found nothing. I showed them my voter registration card, having brought it with me, but they told me that without my name in the book, they couldn’t give me a ballot. They got on the phone with someone downtown, who said I should cast a provisional ballot–a ballot that could be counted once my registration was verified at the county office later. So I filled out and deposited the provisional ballot. In December, I got a letter from the county saying they had been unable to verify my registration. I called them, and the person I got on the phone went to check the records and told me the problem was that I’d never signed my voter registration. She couldn’t explain in light of that how I’d voted in the primary and was currently holding a voter registration card in my hand. She said she could check the book from the primary, and would call me back. She never called back. > > It wouldn’t surprise me if there were a _lot_ of election officials out there trying to suppress voting–and not only Republican ones. You shouldn’t have had to face these problems. No eligible voter should be disenfranchised. But disenfranchising other voters wouldn’t have done anything to help you. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2016, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/16 "2016-08-30T04:32:39Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > It’s not immoral, it is in fact entirely consistent with current law. I’m looking forward to seeing you apply this logic to the actions of Hillary Clinton. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2016, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/17 "2016-08-30T04:36:35Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > It’s not immoral, it is in fact entirely consistent with current law. Rather than try to appoint justices who will define voting rights as more sacrosanct than even free speech or freedom of religion, why not have the balls to change the law? You’re often wrong, **adaher** , but sometimes in the same ballpark as reason. This time, however, you’ve got it _ **completely backwards** _. :smack: Congress **did** “have the balls” to pass a law; it was called the **Voting Rights Act of 1965**. The Supreme Court of the U.S. recently upheld that law by a vote of 3-2 … until two assholes who never saw a partisan trick that didn’t give them wet-dreams were allowed to cast their ugly insipid votes to restore Jim Crow voting laws. An honorable Court, like the Warren court that ruled on Brown v Board, would have upheld the 1965 Law by a 9-0 vote. [Here’s an article that discusses the effects of _Crosscheck_ on the 2014 election.](http://america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2014/11/14/voter-purges-alteruspoliticalmap.html) (Isn’t it a shame that in the self-proclaimed Cradle of Democracy/Land of Liberty, to get information on evils like _Crosscheck_, Americans need to look to alternate or foreign news sources?) > [@](#): > > The Crosscheck list purges could easily account for Republican victories in at least two Senate races. In North Carolina, the GOP’s Thom Tillis won over incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan by just 48,511 votes. Crosscheck tagged a breathtaking 589,393 North Carolinians as possible illegal double voters (though state elections officials cut that down to roughly 190,000). The Crosschecked exclusions are sprung at the last moment; it is no surprise that many excluded voters won’t try to fight it. Among the hundreds of thousands of attempted double-voting that Crosscheck supposedly prevented, how many of these felonious double-voting attempts resulted in prosecution?Zero. Twenty-seven states (all with GOP legislatures — coincidence?) are using _Crosscheck_ for this election. Even if the cheating is inadequate to elect Trump, it will still increase GOP representation in Congress and state governments. [Here are some videos on the topic.](http://addictinginfo.org/2016/03/19/how-republicans-plan-to-steal-the-2016-election-video/) And even Trump defeat is far from a certainty. GOP White House is still selling for 23% at BetFair. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2016, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/18 "2016-08-30T06:38:02Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > This is pure bullshit. No Democrats are attempting to disenfranchise Republican voters. All their efforts are directed towards trying to stop Republicans from disenfranchising Democratic voters. > > The ideal should be “let everyone who’s eligible vote and let the majority win.” But the Republican plan is “let’s make sure that only a majority of people who vote Republican are allowed to vote.” And you verify eligibility how? With ID and proof of residence as part of the registration process, and regular maintenance of databases, which means purging voters who are dead or who have subsequently registered elsewhere. These things are current law nationally, with some states having tougher, and perfectly legal rules that go back decades. Democrats are against these rules, but are too chicken to actually try to repeal them. Septimus, the voting rights act does not shield voters from ID requirements or mean that states do not have to keep their databases maintained. Believe it or not, Martin Luther King does not have a right to vote in 2016 and i’d hope he isn’t currently registered. Although if Democrats had their way, he would be. ---
**Author:** ![ganthet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@ganthet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ganthet)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2016, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/19 "2016-08-30T07:08:53Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > And you verify eligibility how? With ID and proof of residence as part of the registration process, and regular maintenance of databases, which means purging voters who are dead or who have subsequently registered elsewhere. If Republican legislatures were truly concerned about the tiny handful of voter ID fraud in elections in the past 20 years (and wanted to make sure no one was disenfranchised since Congress refuses to make federal election days a national holiday to ensure that most people have a full opportunity to vote), then they would make voting by mail the default system as Oregon does. Voting in person is still allowed there, but that would be the place where proper ID and proof of residence could be insisted upon without unduly putting either a financial or logistical burden on people exercising a constitutional right. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2016, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264/20 "2016-08-30T07:14:46Z")
I’d also note that the Crosscheck program isn’t some nefarious Republican conspiracy. There are Democratic states in the program as well, as Rolling Stone notes(Washington and Virginia). If Democrats truly think this program is some evil Jim Crow returns plot, then how come they won’t end their participation in the program? Only Oregon seems to have pulled out. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republican-voter-suppression-efforts-impact-the-race/764264.md?page=2)