Why do black people vote Democrat?

The fourth word in your post is "observation," which makes the subsequent snark kind of silly.

How is that relevant? Deciding to purchase a gun is a personal choice affecting oneself and family. The right to vote without interference is a foundational element of a healthy democracy and has more far reaching impacts than your hobby.

Getting a valid ID is interference?

Swing and a miss.

Republicans in North Carolina were caught red-handed requesting data on which methods of voting were used most disproportionately by African Americans versus white voters, and then targeting those methods for elimination or cutbacks with what a judge later called almost surgical precision.

For Republicans to do things like that and then protest innocence while wondering why black people don't vote for them very often ... is the height of either ignorance or dishonesty.

Making people drive three counties over to get a valid ID is, as is severely reducing DMVs hours. See the above posts in this thread for more examples.

As I've consistently stated here for years, I would be totally fine with voter ID laws so long as we give every single eligible voter a free valid ID, automatically sent to them with no work required on their part other than registering to vote.

fair enough - all the bullshit junk mail I get in my box they could easily send ID cards through the mail.

Remember the racism of low expectations.

Horseshit.

It is a fact that African-Americans are more likely to be low-income than white people (a fact that derives from years of discrimination at all levels of society). It is also a fact that if you are low-income, things like getting to a distant DMV office require a much greater sacrifice and time commitment than if you are high-income. This is for any number of reasons, including car ownership, access to childcare, the fact that white-collar jobs are generally more flexible about time off than blue-collar jobs, and just generally speaking, the fact that if you have a low income, your daily life is full of dozens of things that are far more stressful and time-consuming than they are if you have a higher income.

So you can take the old "if you notice the effects of racism, that must mean you're a racist" routine and shove it up the nearest tailpipe.

So it’s mean ole whitey keeping brothers down? How about treating them like adults and not children like leftists tend to do?

Is it “years of discrimination” that keeps poor whites from voting too?

is it "years of discrimination" that keeps my balls in your mouth?

Yes. Most racism is an excuse for class warfare against the poor. It enlists the poor to fight one another in arbitrary teams.

I have to agree that having a valid I'd would be a huge roadblock, but there is a lot of well founded distrust for the government in the black community.

Not to mention to establish identity for an ID may be costly. Getting a copy of your birth certificate can be hard to do, and it costs quite a lot of money in a lot of cases. You have to have some mail coming to you, but if you don't buy things from that address you may not get enough junk mail to get it. If someone else is covering utilities where you live you would have a hard time establishing your address. For some poor people who live between homes it is not possible for them to get official state I'd to vote.

You can't get any of the alternative forms of ID mentioned without having a valid state issued photo ID. Plus you still have to have one in order to register to vote. You can argue the motives until you are blue in the face, it doesn't change these basic facts. If you want to be a part of society, then get a government issued photo ID. Demanding a little personal responsibility from the citizen is not asking for much.

I've worked blue collar jobs most of my life and never had a problem scheduling time at the DMV on a day off.

Some people seem to think black people can’t get their shit together long enough to do simple things. So they blame “systematic racism”.

Imagine that you do not have your birth certificate and social security card. Now try to get your id. You are not going to get very far.

If you can't even produce simple documents like that, then it's probably better off not voting. A person like that isn't a productive member of society anyway.

See, we could have gotten to this point much sooner if you had just opened by pointing out that you disagree with the fundamental principles of the US Constitution and believe that franchise should depend on income. We wasted a lot of time there thinking you might be open to pro-American arguments.

There's the racism. Right there. If they want to require id for voting the Fed should step up and give everyone free identification. Not a driver's license, a free easy to get federal id.

"I believe voters should present legal IDs, which are part of a government database that keeps track of my personal information."

"I believe we need the right to have any gun we want in case the government oversteps its authority."

Mutually exclusive statements?

That is good, but you need to direct their attention just a bit more. Put an opinion out there so they have something to attack and that way you will get the attention you seek.

My mother is a very intelligent person. Scholarship to Vanderbilt, Masters Degree, co-founder/owner of a telecommunications company w/over 100 employees, etc.

I say that not to brag, but to give context for the below.

A few years ago Alabama decided to pass that ALEC asshole anti-immigrant bill. It didn't last. Took one failed harvest season and a Toyota Senior Engineer and the VP of Mercedes Benz spending nights in jail b/c they were travelling without their papers and then the law was gutted. Anyway, didn't last but still wreaked havoc. My family had a farmhand Clint that worked for us since the 80s. He can't read or write so no DL. Someone would pick him up and drop him off and he rode a fourwheeler during the day. Anyway he doesn't have a birth certificate. In fact doesn't even know his exact birthday. To make matters worse, he was from Wilcox county, which is about as Boonie as you can get. No records. Under the new law, he couldn't prove he was a US Citizen and my family couldn't employ him. My mother spent MONTHS trying to navigate the system and get Clint legalized. Eventually gave up and just paid cash.

America!

I don't want attention, I just find it interesting that people will rail against government overreach in some areas but not in others.

Shut up, gturner.

some people seem to think you can't get your shit together long enough to put my balls in your mouth, but i believe in you

Because government has legitimate functions. In America's case, they're spelled out in the Constitution. What we rail against is the bloat that has taken government far beyond its legitimate functions.

Such as conducting fair elections?

Then there's gerrymandering. This article just caught my eye about a Georgia Mayor (black) who is one of only a handful of black officials in the city. Despite being 70% black/PoC, the city has NO black police and only 3 black officials at city hall (none on city council). The city cemetary rules that blacks can't be buried next to whites, ffs!

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/12/welcome-post-racial-america-elected-black

Now someone in the comments questioned how this could be given the voting power of a 70% black/PoC populace. Answer?

They gerrymandered the fuck out of the place:

http://camillanews.com/index.php/feature/8-general/17-camilla-gerrymandering

Almost all of that 30% white vote - 450 voters - has been packed into one district. Since there are only 300 PoC voters there, they lose every election.

Georgia as a whole has form on this shit too: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/07/georgia_republicans_pass_racial_gerrymander.html

As for the Mayor? He's been boycotting council meetings in protest, so they've locked him out of his office.