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trinityvixenNot again.
What is with Republicans and this bullshit about people voting who shouldn't be? The problem is people who are registered being denied! For every yahoo who manages to spend at least eighteen years of their life in this country not knowing that you have to register to be a voter and who walks into a polling place in November, you have thousands of people who registered and did the right thing being disenfranchised unfairly. For every one voter who votes illegally on purpose to skew an election, you have people who lose track of where they're registered and aren't trying to sabotage anything but are just honestly mistaken. I mean, I hate the vapid know-nothing scum, but didn't Ann Coulter have that problem?
So what, precisely, the shit is with this:
On Monday, the Ohio Republican Party filed a motion in federal court against the secretary of state to get the list of all names that have been flagged by the Social Security database since Jan. 1. The motion seeks to require that any voter who does not clear up a discrepancy be required to vote using a provisional ballot.
Republicans said in the motion that it is central to American democracy that nonqualified voters be forbidden from voting.
Do I believe they're really and truly worried about this? Yes, they're stupid enough to assume that's where vote discrepancy comes from. What worries me is that I am sure that they know that! They are aware that facts are against them! Voter fraud is not the problem, but it's a convenient cloak to challenge voters in hotly contested areas; who are probably new, young votes and therefore less likely to vote Republican; and as a way to cut down the slight lag their candidate is suffering in the polls.
Barring catastrophe--Rovian or real--McCain is going to lose this election if we can trust the trending we've seen now. (That's another can of worms, one marked "DO NOT OPEN.") If things stay the same (and they won't because jesus look at the last few weeks), the only way he could win is if voter monkeying happens en masse. We've already had two elections in a row decided in ways that left sour grapes. If it goes McCain's way, there'll be hell to pay.
(If everything stays the same, which: see above.)
What is with Republicans and this bullshit about people voting who shouldn't be? The problem is people who are registered being denied! For every yahoo who manages to spend at least eighteen years of their life in this country not knowing that you have to register to be a voter and who walks into a polling place in November, you have thousands of people who registered and did the right thing being disenfranchised unfairly. For every one voter who votes illegally on purpose to skew an election, you have people who lose track of where they're registered and aren't trying to sabotage anything but are just honestly mistaken. I mean, I hate the vapid know-nothing scum, but didn't Ann Coulter have that problem?
So what, precisely, the shit is with this:
On Monday, the Ohio Republican Party filed a motion in federal court against the secretary of state to get the list of all names that have been flagged by the Social Security database since Jan. 1. The motion seeks to require that any voter who does not clear up a discrepancy be required to vote using a provisional ballot.
Republicans said in the motion that it is central to American democracy that nonqualified voters be forbidden from voting.
Do I believe they're really and truly worried about this? Yes, they're stupid enough to assume that's where vote discrepancy comes from. What worries me is that I am sure that they know that! They are aware that facts are against them! Voter fraud is not the problem, but it's a convenient cloak to challenge voters in hotly contested areas; who are probably new, young votes and therefore less likely to vote Republican; and as a way to cut down the slight lag their candidate is suffering in the polls.
Barring catastrophe--Rovian or real--McCain is going to lose this election if we can trust the trending we've seen now. (That's another can of worms, one marked "DO NOT OPEN.") If things stay the same (and they won't because jesus look at the last few weeks), the only way he could win is if voter monkeying happens en masse. We've already had two elections in a row decided in ways that left sour grapes. If it goes McCain's way, there'll be hell to pay.
(If everything stays the same, which: see above.)
no subject
Date: 2008-10-09 09:37 pm (UTC)I don't actually agree, but granting it for the sake of the argument, let's go on and ask: Is one fraudulent vote just as bad as ten disenfranchised votes? A hundred? A thousand?
If someone came up with a way of preventing ten fraudulent votes, at the cost of disenfranchising a hundred qualified voters, would you approve of it?
Actual fraudulent voting is a pretty marginal phenomenon, and the specific kind of vote fraud that this law is designed to address -- in-person voter fraud at the polling location -- is almost non-existent nowadays. (Most actual modern fraudulent voting is done by absentee ballot.)
Disenfranchisement of qualified voters, on the other hand, is a thriving practice, demonstrably having thrown at least one recent presidential election, and I don't know how many lower-level elections.