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Originally Posted by Vector1
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The notion of voter suppression has been bastardized to the point of no one having the same definition, thus it loses it's significance.
To liberals, following the rules (i.e. getting a voters registration on time, providing ID, voting on a particular day, etc.) is all "voter suppression".
Needless to say that is not suppression, rather trying to insure no voter fraud occurs.
This new thing in CA regarding ballot harvesting is very disturbing, not because it likely will be done to increase Democrat votes, but it is ripe for abuse by anyone, and is not even allowed in 3rd world countries and/or banana republics.
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Legal does not mean moral- and passed by law may be found illegal by the courts. Some of the extreme Gerrymanders should be struck down (regardless of party) because the will was to deny voters equal representation. And having a SoS or election chair who purposefully makes polling places more convenient and better staffed for certain groups of voters and not others is also a pretty obvious deviation.
The next question becomes is how strict of a voting criteria do you allow- one day, from 9am to 4pm, with two forms of ID?- before it becomes a tool to narrow the voter pool. Some of the benign measures- such as signature match can actually greatly impact younger voters (who use signatures much less frequently than older ones and still might have changing writing patterns) and voters who vote less frequently. I think purging all voters who do not vote every two years also starts to thread a needle.
I tend to lean left by the standards of this board but I think people need to get past the voter ID thing- the folks this would hurt the most are actually dying off at this point. And politically it is a losing argument since so many of us have a response of 'WTF do you ever do anything financial, buy liquor or rent anything without an ID?'
Vote harvesting needs to be similarly defined and clarified. My understanding is some states do allow third parties to pick up sealed ballots and return them while others restrict that to immediate family or close acquaintance. Part of me thinks if you can't slap a stamp on an envelope and drop it in the mail you will not be the most thoughtful of voters.
And I think the one thing that is really throwing off some Rs is that Dem leaning demographics are tending to be much more likely to mail in their ballots. I have a new boss who thinks my state is bonkers because he lived in Colorado for decades where apparently almost everyone uses mailed ballots. California's coastal and more diverse districts are apparently reaching that point. Oregon has been famous for mail in ballots for a while. What it means is you do not declare victory until the weekend because the workers are still counting and receiving votes for a couple of days.
Ironically- 2016 was actually the exception to that trend as Team Clinton thought they would carry the day based on early numbers and requested mail-ins but Trumps voters swamped the polls in those final four states. Ryan also needs to acknowledge that his tax plan that capped mortgage deductions and campaign against that evil Nancy Pelosi's California values finally came home to roost with California voters. They were the Deplorables of 2018.
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