Republican Voter Suppression Omnibus Thread

The Baptist Churches also have Wednesday prayers services. This is significant, because those most likely to support voter suppression also are most likely to support the Blue Laws, and a vote on the Blue is sacrilegious. Wednesday carries no connotation unless you’re serving Prince Spaghetti.

Yup.

Secret ballots mean that you actually can't force people to vote, so there's no my freedom!!! issues there, and having to tick a box every couple of years acknowledging you have been given the chance to vote is a tiny imposition compared to taxes and the like.

Don't be so sure about it wiping one party out though, in two party democracies the two parties always adjust to increase their chance of winning.

I can, legitimately, make one. However, it raises issues that I can't answer because I don't know the details of how voting on Sundays works in GA.

Presumably, anyone working the polls on a Sunday would be paid extra compared to someone working the polls any other day of the week. So, one could argue that it's a cost-saving measure. Of course, poll workers might not be paid extra for working on Sundays so that raises the awkward question of why Republicans were okay with that happening for so long now.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Act is good, but it doesn't go nearly far enough. Mostly it's about bringing back preclearance for changes in voting procedures; it also allows judges to intervene if a measure has lopsided impact based on race, but with a conservative-dominated judicial branch, all the judges have to do is say "yeah, I'm allowed to intervene, but I don't wanna."

What we really need is a bill that:

• Requires jurisdictions above a certain size (say, 25,000 registered voters) to offer at least 10 hours of early voting on each of the Saturday and Sunday before any federal election, with more hours required for larger jurisdictions.
• Sets a maximum number of registered voters per available voting booth.
• Sets up some kind of formula to ensure that polling places aren't located unreasonably far from population centers.
• Requires states to allow no-reason absentee voting for all federal elections.
• States that ballots shall not require postage.
• Requires states to offer same-day registration.
• Says that if a jurisdiction wants to require photo ID, that jurisdiction (a) must demonstrate that said ID is easy to obtain free of charge, and (b) must provide a way for a voter to cast a provisional ballot if they don't have one.

I don't see why someone working Sunday would necessarily merit more pay than someone who works M-F or certainly Saturday, even in the Bible Belt.

But even assuming that they are, the first challenge is: why make it a statewide requirement that all counties must follow? If Fulton County wants to and can afford poll workers on Sunday, why not let them?

The second challenge is: how do you tie the (presumably marginal) increase in pay for Sunday work to election security?

Are there places where you get paid extra for working on Sunday? When I was working retail, that definitely wasn't a thing. We only got time-and-a-half for working on -- I think -- New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Sunday, shmunday ... Sabbath or not, workers getting paid more is something Republicans will never support.

A long article, but some interesting and scary stuff:

https://www.vox.com/22286213/suprem...emocratic-national-committee-republican-party

See, this is why unions matter. At my job, if we have to work a Sunday (regardless of if we've worked the previous day or not) we get paid extra. Why? Because the assumption is that if you're working on a Sunday, you're giving up on the ability to attend religious services so to compensate for that, they offer you extra money. So, if you're working the polls on a Sunday, you're not going to church, and if you're really worried that you serve Mammon and not gawd, you have extra money to throw in the collection plate the next time you're in church. Not to mention, you're giving up one of the few socially accepted days you can spend with your family and not working for an employer who doesn't give three shits about you.

I can't defend it. It's ridiculous and wrong at every level. That said I'm amazed that there is (or ever was) any voting on a Sunday by anybody. When does the government at any level work on a Sunday (Congress the only exception)? But hey, if poll workers are willing to stay open on Sunday then let people vote. I am on record (many times) saying that even if some people do cheat, it's not enough to change an election. Strong turnout beats cheating every time.

That said if anyone is interested here are what legal actions are being taken on voter shenanigans (various levels of elections) here in Georgia:

Breaking down the 24 election fraud cases in Georgia - WDEF

fuck you - see post #39 - then eat shit and die.

It's interesting how only one of those 24 cases involves actual fraud during the 2020 election, and that one was committed by a Republican.

see post #39 then join the "eat shit and die" club fuckwad.

draw whatever conclusions you want - it's just for informational purposes. I'm not a fan of voter suppression or cheating no matter who does it. And notice I said "shenanigans" meaning all voting improprieties and I said "various levels" meaning not just the 2020 presidential election.

Historically, when Republicans are more successful at voter suppression, they are more successful in elections. When Democrats successfully remove barriers to voting (imposed by Republicans), they are more successful in elections.

Also, minorities have historically been the target of voter suppression. Starting around 80-90ish years ago, there was a massive swing of African-Americans shifting from the Republicans (party of Lincoln and all that), to the Democrats. Part of it was due to ongoing voter suppression.

Well yeah, because their current strategies are as much based around getting their opponents to not vote as they are about getting their supporters to.

If voting suddenly became easier you'd see a cycle or two benefiting the Dems, and then likely see things swing back more to the middle as the Repubs have to adjust policies to attract voters.

The Census did.

American politics have pretty much been on their current trajectory for about five decades or so. Tend to doubt that if voting opened up that we'd see the Republican party adjust policies to attract voters. But we almost certainly won't get to test the hypothesis, though.

It's certainly possible that American Exceptionalism(tm) would kick in and produce a different outcome to other Democratic countries, but seems unlikely.

If things started to swing back to the middle because Republican policies became less shitty, that'd help too.

Supply and demand. Presumably most of your core poll-working contingent in the Bible Belt doesn't want to work on Sunday for religious reasons. If there aren't enough others emotionally/philosophically invested in being poll-workers, counties would have to pay more to get more mercenary workers, who might otherwise be doing, eg, construction, or freelance work of some kind.

I tend to doubt that even in the South there isn't a sufficient supply of laborers who aren't willing to work on Sundays for the same $X that people are willing to work the other days of the week. Is there evidence of government paying anyone for a Sunday shift more than they pay for a Saturday shift?

As someone who's lived in a religiously conservative part of the South (and not nearly as conservative as parts of GA), I can say that it is, in fact, an issue. Remember, being a poll worker isn't a year-round job. It's a couple of months, at best, and then, often only every two years. So nobody is looking at this as a career. It's just a little extra money every now and then.

I've worked in places where they've talked about having the night shift work Sunday - Thursday, and people have piped up that they'd quit or go to days if they were made to work on Sundays. If a place is paying well above the prevailing wage, then they can find folks willing to work on Sundays, but if they don't, then it gets difficult.

The pool of potential poll workers is already pretty low since you need people who can work long hours for a couple of months and then not work again for another two years (or so). That limits potential workers considerably. Generally only retirees, or Stay-at-Home-Parents with kids old enough to be in school. Your retirees tend to be the most religious while Stay-at-Home-Parents are a rarity anymore.

*ahem*

https://wordforge.net/index.php?thr...ion-omnibus-thread.121145/page-2#post-3321305

But don’t take my word for it, here is the Office of Personnel Management’s Sunday Premium Pay info page:

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-ove...dministration/fact-sheets/sunday-premium-pay/

Now this is Fed not state, I have no idea about GA, but there is definitely a federal policy.

Republican legislators around the country seek to strip governors and officials of emergency election powers

@Paladin is overjoyed.

I see a GOLDEN opportunity for the Republican party: do a complete 180 on voting rights/rules/etc. Yep, beat the Dems at their own "we want everyone to be able to vote" game.
Make voting incredibly easy - indulge any and all voting opportunities even if they could be abused and shenanigans pulled. Would there be cheating? Yes there would, but you would gain Republican voters in the long run.

Because if there's anything the GOP has expertise in, it's cheating.

One thing, I still don’t get. The Republicans kept on and on about the Dominion voting machines. In person voting ended at 6 est or 9 pst, By two am, Trump self congratulated his victory. The mail in hadn’t yet been counted. You can’t send a machine though the post. All the vote that overturned his victory were mail ins. So how could the machines have called it wrong if Trump had all the States to declare victory?

Logic! I'm sick to death of your logic!