2018 US Elections

Balu said:
It's one of those things where I can't shake the feeling that US citizens fight it out of principle even though in many ways it would help the country to be a much fairer democracy. It's crazy how difficult it is to vote in the US and how many people aren't allowed to vote for the strangest reasons. I really don't get it at all. It could be so easy.
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It's not easy for some people. Let's consider some examples of people with little need for a driver's license:

  • a person who doesnt drive and takes public transportation
  • an elderly person who doesnt leave the house
  • a disabled person who doesnt drive or leave the house
  • a young person who isnt comfortable driving but is over the legal voting age
  • a native american who lives on a reservation and has no need for a drivers license. they may or may not have a tribal ID which may or may not have a picture which may or may not be accepted by a DMV for obtaining state ID

Then let's consider how a state ID is obtained:

  1. Visit a DMV office (these often operate only during bankers hours, are sometimes hours away by car (and remember, a number of the people above dont drive), have extremely long lines and are run by patty and selma)
  2. Bring your birth certificate (yet another obstacle for native americans who are frequently born at home)
  3. Establish residency at an address (another obstacle for native Americans who sometimes dont have address with numbers or utility bills)
  4. Get a photo ID (some offices only offer paper ids)
  5. Many state also require secondary proof like a vehicle title or home insurance or an employee ID card (things that many groups listed above wont have)


To be honest it's kind of aggravating to see person and person who lives in Germany or England or Denmark or whatever come on here and say "how can you not have an ID? Everyone here has one". The reasons I mentioned are not a secret, anyone can google them and read about it. This is one of the things Americans are often criticized for, assuming the rest of the world operates the way they are used to and here we have the reverse.
 
Believe it or not, this disgraceful sh*t is real news...
BBC said:
The border patrol’s “crowd control exercise” scheduled for Tuesday in El Paso was cancelled.

US Customs and Border Protection scrapped the event shortly before it was set to start at 10am in Chihuahuita, the oldest neighborhood of this city, after receiving criticism.

The agency said it would reschedule the training for another day.

CPB had said the exercise was necessary to prepare for the caravan of Central American asylum seekers heading to the US border, which is still hundreds of miles away from El Paso.

The ACLU in Texas denounced the move as an “election day stunt”.
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The Atlantic had a great piece today on the cost of voter id laws. Most places in Texas end up costing around $90 to get a voter ID.
 
Balu said:
I find that truely odd. In Germany, everyone has to get a German ID card from the age of 16 onwards. I never ever thought of it as something that hinders my freedom. Quite the opposite actually. Most teens can't wait to get their ID card, so that they can go to clubs, buy alcohol and cigarettes. They can move around Europe freely, start traveling on their own without their parents. Getting your own ID is a huge step towards freedom, independence from your parents.

The fact that you have to get an ID doesn't mean that you have to carry it with you all the time though or that you need it to acquire basic necessities. You're registered at a resident's registration office anyway. It's not like you can live completely anonymous without anyone knowing you exist. You could say, the ID card is basically your personal certificate that you're a citizen. It's not a tool from the government to control you in any way.

It's one of those things where I can't shake the feeling that US citizens fight it out of principle even though in many ways it would help the country to be a much fairer democracy. It's crazy how difficult it is to vote in the US and how many people aren't allowed to vote for the strangest reasons. I really don't get it at all. It could be so easy.
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You need photo ID to vote in Norway too, though we don't have national ID cards (they've been in the works for a dozen or so years, and every year they say 'next year for sure'). Until recently, all debit cards had photo ID on the back, and were considered as good as a driver's license or a passport. Some banks have stopped offering that, though, as they don't feel it's their responsibility to supply people with ID cards.

However, if you're going to require ID to vote, first you need to ensure that there's a cheap, fast and painless way to get hold of one.
 
Eboue said:
To be honest it's kind of aggravating to see person and person who lives in Germany or England or Denmark or whatever come on here and say "how can you not have an ID? Everyone here has one". The reasons I mentioned are not a secret, anyone can google them and read about it. This is one of the things Americans are often criticized for, assuming the rest of the world operates the way they are used to and here we have the reverse.
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I specifically replied to a post that startet with this line:
langster said:
Wow! You do realise that is the exact antithesis of "The land of the free" and by forcing everyone to have photo I.D. You are going even further down the paths of Orwell's 1984?
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And I just don't buy it. I didn't say that there aren't valid reasons why it's problematic/more difficult to realise in the US than in Germany. But I'm fairly sure that there are plenty of US citizens who shout that their freedom is limited if they're forced to have an ID card while they pay everything with credit card and run around with a smartphone which tracks every step they make.
 
Eboue said:
Visit a DMV office (these often operate only during bankers hours, are sometimes hours away by car (and remember, a number of the people above dont drive), have extremely long lines and are run by patty and selma)
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I’ve always found this so weird, especially in a country as big as yours. Wouldn’t it make much more sense for everyone to be allowed to post the documents.
 
A lot of posters don't get it because they've been issued a mandatory national identity card since age 14 , and that has been the case for their parents and the parents of their parents, etc.

One should consider the unique way the USA was assembled as a country and how it is co-governed at federal and state level to at least begin to understand why the above is not the case there.
 
Please America do the right thing. It'll be depressing to wake up tomorrow to Trump gloating
 
Kaos said:
Is the voting suppression as bad as it sounds? I mean from here it looks like they’re flat out making it impossible for some folk to vote, and the fact this is happening in predominantly poor and minority areas (ie those more inclined to vote Dem) hardly makes it subtle either.

Is the media even making a deal out of this?
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I remember the same happening in 2016. Didn't really pay attention to US Elections before then but I guess it'd still be happening in certain states/parts of the country.
 
Balu said:
But I'm fairly sure that there are plenty of US citizens who shout that their freedom is limited if they're forced to have an ID card while they pay everything with credit card and run around with a smartphone which tracks every step they make
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How are you fairly sure? What do you base that on? Because I've never heard that so I think you are just speculating in order to continue thinking what you want.
 
Carolina Red said:
There was an older fellow in front of me today that didn’t have an ID when asked to present it to sign in at the polling place. He had left his drivers license in his car, but said that he’d been coming to that polling place for every election since 1994 and had never been asked for an ID before to vote. I found that interesting, since it’s been the law in this state since 2011.

He went back to his car, retrieved it, and voted. (Sorry there's not a more exciting ending)
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:lol:
Bit of a bummer I admit.
 
The ID card thingy is pretty much everywhere. You need some document with a photo on it, released by some government agency in order to vote. Don't see why this is seen as a bad thing in US.

Of course getting a document should be quite straightforward, but on most of cases I have been you need to have a residency to get a document. And yes, Native Americans might struggle a bit to get a document but again it is hardly unique, you can say the same for gypsies in Europe. Still rules are rules, and I don't see any harm at all to ask for a document in order to vote.
 
Pexbo said:
Looking at all the reports of closed polling stations, broken equipment, voters turned away because of ID, votes changing, mail ins being discarded without notification and electronic voting machinery being open to hacking. I’m resigned to this being a bloodbath for the Dems and there’s not going to be anyone with the motivation or jurisdiction to care.

Mueller will be quashed, Trump will be emboldened and protected and life is about to get a lot more miserable.
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If I didn’t know already i would say that you’re talking about some third world place. USA is supposed to be the biggest and the bestest! Crazy!
 
langster said:


Hope?
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It would be glourious if there was an equivilant of the shy Tory/Trump supporter.

Women who are keeping their heads down because husbands/boyfriends/fathers/brothers push their Trump support publicly but privately they cant stand him and vote against him.
 
I want O'Rourke to beat Cruz so much it's mad. I'm not an American and i'm even less of an Texan but I hate Cruz so much. His smarmy, fake, creepy, slime ball manner is horrendous.
 
The Firestarter said:
Exactly what it is. Blatant.
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Hard to say (but likely). What if the Georgia officials said up front that they were not supplying power chords to any of the polling stations around the state and it's up to each polling station to bring x number of cables? My guess is, it didn't happen that way but I will keep an open mind about it.
 
So the vote is even about sherrifs and university directors? That's just silly.
 
Revan said:
Like many other things, the idea sounds good but in practice, it will be terrible.

And obviously it will favor Republicans. With their cuntiness, in red states when they make the law, the exam to vote will consist only of questions from the Bible and how often you go to church. As many other things, it is subject to interpretation.
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So true!
 
What do people without ID's do if they're making a largish cash withdrawl from a bank?
 
MarylandMUFan said:
Hard to say (but likely). What if the Georgia officials said up front that they were not supplying power chords to any of the polling stations around the state and it's up to each polling station to bring x number of cables? My guess is, it didn't happen that way but I will keep an open mind about it.
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:lol:
 
MarylandMUFan said:
Hard to say (but likely). What if the Georgia officials said up front that they were not supplying power chords to any of the polling stations around the state and it's up to each polling station to bring x number of cables? My guess is, it didn't happen that way but I will keep an open mind about it.
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Who do you think runs the polling station?

Btw voters, remember to bring a 240v 10A power cable so you’re not disappointed!
 
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