"Our Voting Process Shouldn't Accommodate Black Voters"

[MyNameIsJonas]

I saw this first on my Tumblr dash:

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/ ... mment_link

He also removed Democratic members of the election board for voting for keeping the polls open on weekends :

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/ ... nd-voting/

I know that I've gone on a little bit about race before, but I can't help it. Incidents like this breed an almost refreshing kind of anger in me, and I know that's not necessarily a good thing, so I come here to vent. :oops:

[Dark Matters]

Just more proof that the GOP/TP want to take the country back - back to before women had the vote and before the slaves were freed.

[Guest Anonymous]

I saw this first on my Tumblr dash:

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/ ... mment_link

He also removed Democratic members of the election board for voting for keeping the polls open on weekends :

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/ ... nd-voting/

I know that I've gone on a little bit about race before, but I can't help it. Incidents like this breed an almost refreshing kind of anger in me, and I know that's not necessarily a good thing, so I come here to vent. :oops:

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, either. In the immortal words of Zack de la Rocha - "Anger is a gift." I think getting pissed off about injustice is healthy. Letting anger eat us up all the time, not so much maybe, but venting about fucked up stuff is better than holding it in, in my opinon.

[thoughtful]

I'm angry with you.

They have no shame anymore.

[slickcat79]

From the article:

In 2008, 82 percent of early voters in Franklin County voted on nights or weekends.

:shock: Even if he weren't being a racist POS, what is the freaking point of taking away the voting hours that the overwhelming majority of early voters actually use? If he really wanted to cut hours to save money or for some other legitimate reason, how about ONLY having them open on nights and weekends? I guess he's not even trying to hide his motivation, but it's staggering that anyone could not see this farce for what it is. And yet people will defend him.

[PennySycamore]

I'm angry with you, MyNameIsJonas.

Voter suppression is happening all over the country. It's been going on at least since Florida in 2000 and it's just gotten worse with voter ID laws and such.

[julie paradox]

Ignorant foreigner asks: do you have postal voting in the US?

[Hane]

Ignorant foreigner asks: do you have postal voting in the US?

We do have a thing called an "absentee ballot." Voters who are away from home (traveling, in the military, or at college, for instance) can order an absentee ballot in advance of an election in order to vote.

What I find interesting, in the current right-wing furor over "voter fraud," is that people like the person cited above are concentrating on issues like mandatory photo ID at voting places. In-person voter fraud in the US has been proven to be virtually non-existent, but absentee ballot fraud is far easier to accomplish--and no one seems to be concentrating on that. I believe that's because the urban poor overwhelmingly vote in person, while Rich White People are more likely to use absentee ballots.

MyNameIsJonas, I still cannot believe that there weren't (wholly justifiable!) nationwide riots over the situation in parts of Ohio in the 2008 Presidential election, when voters in urban, predominantly black districts were made to wait in line for hours, and polling places actually ran out of ballots.

[Rowan]

How sad is it that I knew this would be about Ohio before I even opened the topic?

I live in the suburbs and there's a large black population in my city. It will be interesting to see how things go at my voting location.

[JenniferJuniper]

To paraphrase Bill Maher from his Friday night show. "It used to be in this country that on voting day both parties would want to get out the vote. But with the Republicans today it’s "You want to vote? Get out!"

[Lady_M]

Absolutely sickening. How do people like this wind up in charge? This just makes me angry.

[Guest Anonymous]

Simply voting the POSes out is a start, and a good one, but not enough. It's only a temporary reprieve. The voting public needs to make it abundantly clear to their potential successors that the same fate awaits them if they repeat the clusterfuckery.

[Lady_M]

Simply voting the POSes out is a start, and a good one, but not enough. It's only a temporary reprieve. The voting public needs to make it abundantly clear to their potential successors that the same fate awaits them if they repeat the clusterfuckery.

[JenniferJuniper]

Absolutely sickening. How do people like this wind up in charge? This just makes me angry.

IMO, a large part of it is that they have Fox News masquerading as a "fair and balanced" legitimate news organization when it's really just the propaganda arm of the Republican machine. I live in a very blue state, but I still know many people who only get their news from it, and of course, Rush. And the propaganda, both subtle and overt, has led to the Republican party being hijacked by Straight Jacket wing of the loony bin.

[lilah]

Ignorant foreigner asks: do you have postal voting in the US?

We do BUT absentee ballots aren't counted on election night and only get counted if the election is very close, usually in a recount. So the Republicans in ohio trying to get more people to vote in a way that their vote won't be counted. Its maddening because early voting benefits people of all stripe whose schedules don't allow them to come down to a polling location (and wait for upward of an hour) on one weekday from say 9 to 5 due to school, work or family comitments. To say that early voting is accomdating for black voters or poor voters is awful and prejudicial

[keen23]

Ignorant foreigner asks: do you have postal voting in the US?

Some states do. And therein lies the problem. There is no single voting procedure that is consistent across the United States. I live in Arizona. I have registered to vote by mail in all elections- Early Ballot Voting. Some states don't even offer this as an option. Polling hours change from state to state. How come New York's polls stay open until 9 PM, while the polls close at 6 PM in Indiana and Kentucky? North Carolina closes at 7:30 PM. States also open their polls at different times in the morning too- some at 6 AM, others not until later. The rules can even change within a state from county to county. If you vote in person, your polling place can change from year to year based on district boundaries. Last election, I had to go to three different polling places before I found out where I was supposed to vote. Not because I had moved, but because the boundaries had been changed. I was so frustrated after going to the second wrong place that I almost gave up and went home. The entire voting system in the US is a mess, and needs a complete overhaul.

[Coconut Flan]

Some states have permanent mail-in voters. I live in one and everyone in my area is a permanent vote by mail person. They deemed it was financially impractical for us to have a physical polling place. We can take our mail in ballot to any physical polling spot in the county if we choose. Our ballots are all counted also.

[JenniferJuniper]

We do BUT absentee ballots aren't counted on election night and only get counted if the election is very close, usually in a recount. So the Republicans in ohio trying to get more people to vote in a way that their vote won't be counted. Its maddening because early voting benefits people of all stripe whose schedules don't allow them to come down to a polling location (and wait for upward of an hour) on one weekday from say 9 to 5 due to school, work or family comitments. To say that early voting is accomdating for black voters or poor voters is awful and prejudicial

Absentee ballot rules vary throughout the country, however, the issue in Ohio is not about absentee ballots, it's about early in-person voting.

Many might recall the long lines and the lack of ballots mostly in urban areas of Ohio in 2008.

Since then, there has been an even more concerted effort to mimimize voting windows in predominantly black districts while expanding hours in predominiantly white districts. Because it's harder to vote - in some cases even to get your hands on an actual ballot - in urban areas, by not allowing early voting the black vote will almost certainly be surpressed, and because African Americans tend to vote Democratic, this gives the Republicans a signficant - and unfair - advantage.

See here: http://thegrio.com/2012/08/15/how-early ... ck-voters/

[She Who Laughs]

It happens the other way around too with the New Black Panthers intimidating voters in Nov 2008 and calling for the killing of white babies. Racism goes both ways although most people prefer to always see the white people as the only ones who are racist.

[Austin]

It happens the other way around too with the New Black Panthers intimidating voters in Nov 2008 and calling for the killing of white babies. Racism goes both ways although most people prefer to always see the white people as the only ones who are racist.

OMG, I can't even. :shock:

[Visionoyahweh]

I'm in FL and I always vote absentee. I believe Oregon is 100% mail in voting? We need Bacon Bra to weigh in!

[JenniferJuniper]

It happens the other way around too with the New Black Panthers intimidating voters in Nov 2008 and calling for the killing of white babies. Racism goes both ways although most people prefer to always see the white people as the only ones who are racist.

Oh, please, you ridiculous tool.

How many "New Black Panthers" even actually exist, never mind how many white babies were threatened with death if their parents voted?

I am so fucking sick of racists screaming that they are real victims. You're the same as the fundies constantly whining about “Christian persecution†and your agenda is just as transparent.

[emmiedahl]

I'm in FL and I always vote absentee. I believe Oregon is 100% mail in voting? We need Bacon Bra to weigh in!

My county is entirely absentee and it is so damn awesome. I don't know if all of Washington state is like that.

It is nice to take children to the polls and explain the significance of what you are doing, but convenience is also a good thing.

[Austin]

In 2008 we participated in early voting, as it worked with our family schedule. It was our eldest son's first time to vote for a presidential candidate and he had worked on the Obama campaign, so we wanted to take photos, etc.

Typically, though, I vote on election day. I have an inexplicable attachment to voting on election day at my local polling location. I don't do absentee ballots because here in Central Ohio, those votes are not counted until after the election.

[She Who Laughs]

Oh, please, you ridiculous tool.

How many "New Black Panthers" even actually exist, never mind how many white babies were threatened with death if their parents voted?

I am so fucking sick of racists screaming that they are real victims. You're the same as the fundies constantly whining about “Christian persecution†and your agenda is just as transparent.

I don't care if it happened at only one polling place. I can just imagine if it had been a bunch of KKK people outside the voting place blocking and intimidating people from voting and saying that all black babies should be killed. You'd all be up in arms screaming and raging and wondering why they weren't being arrested.