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3/27/2021 5:39:44 PM

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Section 5: States
Subject: Voter Suppression Msg# 1118298

From:

Jim Matthews

Joined 6/10/2008

To:

Ed Moran (Read)

Joined 12/31/2005

Reducing the number of polling places in poorer areas, where many residents rely on public transportation, appears to be intentional in Texas and many southern states. Reduced hours make it more difficult for poorer people who cannot afford to take time off from work to vote.

Every voter should inform him/herself about candidates and issues of importance, but unfortunately, not everyone will. And, all voters should be protected from intimidation. But neither of the above deny a citizen the right to vote. That would be un-Democratic. Education and security (for voters and the voting process) are very important.

Except for this year, I have always voted in person on election day. There have not been long lines here when I voted. But with COVID, printing a ballot and envelope at home and dropping it in a box at the convention center was the way to go.

For reference, the above message is a reply to a message where:
I've stayed out of this conversation because I'm in my troll cave but, let's talk and maybe you can educate me.

Reducing polling places and drop boxes, on the surface, seem to be a terrible thing but who maintains them and secures them? There used to be a term, ballot box stuffing. Has it gone out of fashion so much so that we can trust that it will not rear its ugly head again? It was quite successful in LBJ's first run for the Senate, but that's history and we can agree on that. After all, it took place 70+ years ago. It couldn't happen again, could it? Black activists wouldn't be outside polling places displaying batons again as they did in the far off Obama administration, would they. (Obama's self described wingman, the AG, said that it wasn't a big deal since that happened in reverse all the time in the bad cold days in the South.) Georgia's still in the South, I think.

Longer hours and mail in ballots certainly have an attraction. Who could resist giving voters unlimited opportunities to exercise their constitutional obligation, sorry I meant right, but doesn't that obligation carry with it an obligation to be informed of the developments in the races at hand? Let's take the 2016 presidential race. Anyone who voted before Comey dropped his pre-election bombshell voted with incomplete information. Anyone who voted before Comey retracted his bombshell a week later, again voted with incomplete information. Democrats complained loudly that the initial bombshell cost Hillary the election. Still, they are in complete agreement that the earlier the voting, the better.

Everybody Ikes to toss around the word "existential". Here's my one time use of that overworked word. I think that uninformed and/or intimidated voters are an existential threat to our democracy.

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