Re:China’s Communist Party and Its American Media Enablers
by bildung on Wednesday May 27, 2020 @03:46AM
(#23320490)
> At least we have real elections with more than one real candidate.
For some definition of "real elections" - the voting suppression techniques employed in the US are study material in politics courses in other democracies.
* gerrymandering
* not allowing for remote votes by letter
* having votes on days that are not free for working people - this is interesting because many other democracies used that to discourage working class people to vote, e.g. Germany in the late 19th century. But most countries now mandate that votes have to fall on either sundays or national holidays.
* (Edit:) Felony disenfranchisement - this in combination with the war on drugs is a very effective way to strip voting rights from minorities, e.g. this isn't even visible in voting turnout comparisons between countries.
And the techniques work: The US has one of the lowest voting participation rates of all OECD countries.
For some definition of "real elections" - the voting suppression techniques employed in the US are study material in politics courses in other democracies.
* gerrymandering
* not allowing for remote votes by letter
* having votes on days that are not free for working people - this is interesting because many other democracies used that to discourage working class people to vote, e.g. Germany in the late 19th century. But most countries now mandate that votes have to fall on either sundays or national holidays.
* (Edit:) Felony disenfranchisement - this in combination with the war on drugs is a very effective way to strip voting rights from minorities, e.g. this isn't even visible in voting turnout comparisons between countries.
And the techniques work: The US has one of the lowest voting participation rates of all OECD countries.