[RD] Gerrymandering

[onejayhawk]

That's because the US doesn't have a functioning ID system. If getting a national ID takes a lot of time and energy and it's only used to vote the people who aren't super eager to vote will have another excuse to stay home

Who needs an excuse? There is little pressure from peers.

Anytime anyone suggests a national ID as a requirement to vote here, they're called racists. So not quite the same.

That too. It's part of the platform.

Turnout is highly correlated to education. So much so that one wonders about calls to make voting compulsory.

From the same report Metatron cited.

 

[sophie]

That is the case I believe in the vast majority of states. Some states have online or mail-in only voting but they are a small minority. California does have an extensive (and awesome - they even send a voter guide to explain all of the measures on the ballot) mail-in ballot system and also requires employees to give time off to people to vote if they request. I can't remember if it's paid time off or not but I'm pretty sure it is.

Unfortunately that is not the case in most states and many states are making things worse by closing as many polling stations as they can get away with to force people to drive to polling stations (they should be in walking distance) and then wait in line. Oh then they cut polling station operating times so that they can turn away people in line when the doors close.* Again, this is being done as part of the theory that anything that makes it harder for the poor to vote helps the Republicans who are passing these laws.

And there is even videos of various Republicans admitting to both voter suppression and gerrymandering as cornerstones of their election strategies. I'm not kidding, you can find the videos online. You have to be willfully ignorant to see it any other way.

*It's rarer for the Republicans to mandate that polling stations turn people away who are in line but it does happen. In any case they know that there is a very high probability that if they herd enough poor people into far away polling stations with 5 hour lines then a large proportion of them will give up and go home because of a million valid reasons like having to get up early the next day to go to work.

It's not paid time off.

 

[.Shane.]

There are really 2 questions to consider:

1. WHO makes the districts. I think it should be pretty obvious the massive conflict of interest when the people being elected make the districts that they are elected from.

2. HOW the districts are made.

You have to solve question 1 first. In, CA, we've done a great job doing that. We have a citizen commission comprised of a balance of Dems, Reps, and independents (14 members on the commission). When they developed new boundaries in 2011, it passed the commission by votes of 13-1 and 12-2. This has resulted in very competitive seats/elections.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

And yeah hobbs, your response was pretty condescending. I expect better from you. And it's certainly not the way to convince people to what you're trying to say.

Like I said, it was intentional. Part of why it was so condescending is precisely because I know I cannot convince a single person that voter suppression is a real, powerful force in our country if they're already convinced that it's really all about lazy dumb poor people being lazy and dumb.

It's not paid time off.

That sucks but at least it something.

 

[sophie]

That sucks but at least it something.

Yeah. It's really sad that the fact that "we promise we won't fire you for performing your civic duty" is something that has to be specifically enumerated in state law, and that states which do so are commendable for doing so.

Meanwhile voting day is a big holiday-type deal in the Philippines and many stores give you free/discounted stuff for showing up with your "I Voted" stamp/sticker.