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Re:One in 10 ballots rejected in last month’s vote-by-mail e... by tzs on Monday August 10, 2020 @06:32PM (#24114866)
In Sweden, does getting your state-issued ID so you can vote require visiting a government office that is only open during business hours on weekdays, in a place very poorly served by public transit and far away from poor neighborhoods, so that poor people without cars will have to take a whole day off from work to travel there? Is the office understaffed so it might take two or three visits to actually get your ID? In Sweden, when the government reduces the number of places you can get ID or cuts hours under the guise of cost cutting, does almost all that cutting only come from offices that serve high minority areas?

In Sweden, are there limited protections for worked so that many poor workers won't have any paid days off they can use for such a trip, so it will cost them a day or two of pay to get their ID, and perhaps their job if their boss doesn't approve of them taking time off from work?

In Sweden, are the politicians who instituted the voter ID policies the same politicians that have drastically reduced the number of polling places per capita in minority neighborhoods so that actually voting there can require hours of standing in line (and missing work if your employer doesn't give you a paid day off to vote), while not cutting or even increasing polling places per capita in white neighborhoods so that it is a breeze for whites to quickly and easily vote?

Have they cut back early voting programs that opened the polling places during the weekend before election day, so people could vote on their days off?

If the answer to all of the above is "no", then what you see in Sweden is pretty much irrelevant when it comes to understanding voting in the US.

The fact is that the people enacting voter ID laws in the United States (1) are generally the same people who have been working hard to limit minority voting, (2) cannot demonstrate that it solves any actual problem, (3) try to make it hard for poor and minorities to get the ID that they pick for their system while making it easy for white people.

That's why there is plenty of opposition to voter ID--the politicians pushing for it are not acting in good faith. If someone proposed a voter ID system in good faith--one in which it was free to get ID, could be obtained quickly and without the need for a lot of travel, and was easy for minorities to get as for white people, there would mostly only be objections from those who oppose national ID system in general.

Re:One in 10 ballots rejected in last month’s vote-by-mail e... by wdb on Monday August 10, 2020 @07:35PM (#24115491)
In The Netherlands the department which issues IDs have at least one evening opening hour, to allow people to do this after working hours.

Even you can get a new passport or ID at Amsterdam airport and some municipalities while living abroad. Even here in the UK there is an evening opening hours to get your ID (5-7 pm) or open on Saturday morning.

Personally, this sounds the US government is trying to make it unreasonable hard to vote.

Re:One in 10 ballots rejected in last month’s vote-by-mail e... by js2 on Monday August 10, 2020 @10:20PM (#24116568)
The GOP, not the US government.
Re:One in 10 ballots rejected in last month’s vote-by-mail e... by osrec on Monday August 10, 2020 @06:46PM (#24114996)
I'm new to US politics, however I'm extremely surprised at how frequently the concept of voter suppression comes up. It seems completely anti-democracy.

I've never really come across this phrase in UK politics. If it was to come up, I'm certain it would be met with extreme outrage. Why is it just accepted in the US?!

Re:One in 10 ballots rejected in last month’s vote-by-mail e... by dane-pgp on Monday August 10, 2020 @07:37PM (#24115512)
> I've never really come across this phrase in UK politics. If it was to come up, I'm certain it would be met with extreme outrage.

I've not seen "extreme outrage" to any of these examples:

"It could lead to a repeat on the mainland of the Northern Ireland experience where the introduction of individual registration led to a 10% drop in registrations and many eligible voters effectively being disenfranchised."[0]

"The government trialled voter ID in some local authorities during the 2018 and 2019 local elections. It was disturbing to see ministers describe it as a “success”: we know that hundreds of people were denied a vote for not having ID. In 2019, according to official figures, more than 700 people were turned away from polling stations across just 10 council areas."[1]

"A large software company whose shareholders include Brexiter and former Conservative Cabinet minister Peter Lilley has been given a lucrative contract by the Cabinet Office without competitive tendering to revamp the management of the electoral register in extraordinary circumstances."[2]

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/sep/15/new-voter-r...

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/queens-speech-voter-id-...

[2] https://bylinetimes.com/2020/01/07/why-did-cabinet-office-ru...

Re:One in 10 ballots rejected in last month’s vote-by-mail e... by js2 on Monday August 10, 2020 @10:26PM (#24116604)
The US has a long history of opposition to democracy. Here's one example:

https://www.nps.gov/articles/anti-suffragism-in-the-united-s...

It's been a continuous process since the country's founding to enfranchise all citizens with the right to vote:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_rights_in_the_United_St...

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Re:One in 10 ballots rejected in last month’s vote-by-mail e... by amanaplanacanal on Monday August 10, 2020 @07:47PM (#24115604)
You claim it, but where is the fraud? Didn’t the president have a commission looking into this? Are we still waiting for the results?
Re:One in 10 ballots rejected in last month’s vote-by-mail e... by jimmydorry on Monday August 10, 2020 @10:02PM (#24116478)
I believe several states refused to co-operate, and that was the end of any commission... but don't quote me on that.
Re:One in 10 ballots rejected in last month’s vote-by-mail e... by jdm2212 on Monday August 10, 2020 @07:38PM (#24115521)
AFAIK there are roughly zero documented instances of in-person voter fraud by Democrats over the last 20 years. There are, amusingly, a bunch of documented instances by Republican voters who said they were doing it to offset the (imaginary) Democrats doing it.