Not that this isn’t already exceedingly obvious but:
The reality of Voter ID in Wisconsin
Disenfranchising almost 10% of registered voters
Nine percent of registered voters in Wisconsin don’t have a valid voter-ID
and many are still struggling to get the documents they need to vote in
November. It appears that Wisconsin is violating multiple court orders
by not promptly giving eligible citizens free IDs or certificates for
voting. This is particularly concerning since early voting began this week in cities like Madison and Milwaukee and > thousands of Wisconsinites are casting ballots…
On September 22, he went to the DMV to get a photo ID for voting, as required by Wisconsin’s strict voter-ID law.
He brought his Illinois photo ID, Social Security card, and a pay stub
for proof of residence. But he didn’t have a copy of his birth
certificate, which had been misplaced by his sister in Illinois, so the
DMV wouldn’t give him an ID for voting. “I’m trying to get a Wisconsin
ID so I can vote,” Moore told the DMV. “I don’t have my birth
certificate, but I got everything else.”
Under Wisconsin law, the DMV should’ve given Moore a credential
he could use for voting within 6 business days. But that never
happened. They told him to “drive down there [to Illinois] and get [a
birth certificate] and come back.” That would cost Moore money he didn’t
have. If he entered what the state calls the ID Petition Process (IDPP), it would take 6-8 weeks for him to get a voter-ID and he most likely wouldn’t be able to vote by Election Day.
Working as intended.
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!
Edit: NVM, slow on the uptake.
Working as intended.
Democracy in action. GG NC.
Did they even go so far as to prohibit foldout out chairs and bottled water?
How fucked up does Election Day polling have to be that people would wait 4 hours to vote early?
Everyone should keep in mind that the local election officials that screw up that badly are themselves elected officials. Vote them out for someone that can pull their head out of their ass enough to conduct a proper election. This is a solved problem.
I think this is a result of closing polling stations. From memory, from 16 to 1 in Greensboro. I’m just gobsmacked this kind of shit is happening.
Just voted in Cornelius, NC the day before last. It’s not really that bad anymore. The early voting lines were mostly on the first day or two, now, at least here, the lines are non-existent. More people should go vote right now. I walked straight to the desk to give them my name, then straight to a voting machine. Zero line.
I’ve not seen what it looks like in Charlotte though, nor near UNCC.
My mother-in-law voted early here in Virginia yesterday… which I didn’t even realize was a thing.
Turns out that you can vote early here in the Commonwealth if you have a reason that you can’t possibly vote a week from Tuesday. My MIL’s excuse was a very minor medical procedure that she’s worried might keep her from the polls. Her say-so was plenty enough for them to hand her a ballot.
She said there was no line, which doesn’t surprise me.
It’s the same in Michigan. I wish they’d just give everyone the choice to go in and vote in the week or two before the election. But that would be making it easier to vote, and our state government has no interest in that.
In PA our voting laws suck. I wasn’t able to even vote in our primaries, because I was traveling for business, and that doesn’t fall into the tiny list of things which allows for an absentee ballot.
I’m partway through the latest games podcast with @tomchick and @olaf (it’s good, listen to it!) and they’ve spent a good chunk of time talking about voter fraud. Here in Michigan we are backward in many many ways (see two posts above, for instance) but this is one spot where I think we’ve actually got it right. When you got to your polling place, they do ask you for a government-issued ID. If you have one, they scan it and off you go to vote. If you don’t, then they have you sign an affidavit that basically says “yeah, I’m who I say I am” and they scan that, then you get to vote. The tallying system knows which votes were confirmed by ID, and which by affidavit. As far as I know there’s never been a case where the affidavit votes made the difference in a particular race, but if they did, election officials would be able to hand-verify proper registration, citizenship, and so forth.
Perfect system? Of course not. A properly motivated villain wouldn’t have too much trouble voting, I’m sure. But it does mean they’d have to work at it, which as I understand it is pretty much what the much-maligned voter ID laws are meant to do. At the same time, someone who can’t get an ID or simply forgot it at home isn’t prevented from voting, and in the rare case that non-ID votes would make the difference, there’s a paper trail to verify.
Voter fraud at the polling place has been debunked to such an extent that any time I hear someone mention it I put it up there with denying global warming. They’re too far out of reality to have a meaningful conversation.
A post-truth world.
I mean Michigan’s system sounds a hell of a lot better than most, but the reality is that fraud isn’t the problem they’re trying to solve so other states aren’t going to adopt it. The “problem” is the wrong people voting the wrong way, not fraudulent votes and the MI system isn’t going to help there.