Voter fraud and voter disenfranchisement

Hell, even having those hours once a week, and having normal hours every other day, would be a big help. Especially if they rotated which day of the week gets extended hours.

That would be confusing very quickly.

Hell at a certain point you'd be better off making house calls ;P

Wait, you mean DMV's aren't open from 8-10 already?

I seem to have missed something. What are the current DMV hours? Not 9-5, surely?

8:00 to 4:30, in my area anyway. Closed on weekends.

Yeah, the DMV tends to have pretty poor hours.

It also varies based upon locality, in many cases. Some of the most blatant violations involved DMVs in red-leaning districts receiving extended hours, while hours were cut for blue-district DMVs.

edited 25th Aug '12 1:23:59 PM by Chalkos

Well shifting everything you do with the DMV to digital would also help. Anything with renewal should be digital, that way the problem with the complete lack of frontline service workers at the DM Vs in America is somewhat mitigated.

I really hate going to the DMV, you basically have to make an entire day of it because you never know how long it's going to take, or it by some wave of the wand they need some arcane piece of paperwork that you didn't bring/don't have, whatever.

So they've got a new trick: Putting up billboards in African-American and Latino communities reminding everyone that voter fraud is a felony, with a 3.5 year jail sentence and $10,000 fine.

I don't have a link, since I got this info from a CREDO action e-mail.

If those penalties are accurate, then there's nothing wrong with that, as long as actual legit voters aren't mistakenly punished.

Still, it should be done evenly throughout the state.

@Discar: I have actually seen that. I live in a predominantly white upper-middle class neighborhood (there's a rumor that the middleschool is less than a block from Warren Buffet's mansion) but just west of us, basically on the other side of the north-south highway, as well as south of the river, the neighborhoods become predominantly black with lower monetary means. I've seen no "It's a felony to commit voter fraud" signs in my neighborhood, but in the lower-class areas, there are a lot of them.

Now that I think about it, I'm wondering if those signs are actually for more industrialized areas, where billboards are more populous.

Still, that's a better approach to it, even if it is really presumptive about the assumed actions of minorities and the poor.

edited 19th Oct '12 11:59:08 AM by Enkufka

There's a term that applies here, coined in relationship to harassment in business environments, but it's very much appropriate in this context: "Climate of intimidation". By putting up billboards in specific areas, they are directly implying that voters in those areas are more likely to attempt to commit fraud.

Imagine an office in which there is an unspoken hostility towards female employees. Male employees, especially those near the desks of females, are tacitly encouraged to put pinups on their office/cubicle walls. Water cooler conversation is always macho and testosterone-laden. Company-sponsored activities are always things like sporting events or hunting trips. The women's bathrooms don't get cleaned as often.

It adds up.

I could add this - if only to get some kind of support against this problem: http://sumofus.org/campaigns/clear-channel/?akid=941.188551.sDGw4u&rd=1&sub=fwd&t=3

My (least) favorite voter disenfranchisement was putting the wrong date on Spanish-language materials.

Also more insidious than the billboards: [1]◊ [2]◊ [3]◊

And I live in SC - way to treat a black person like me like a criminal! Now do you see whay I advocate we fight back? Or am I just talking shit?

So, what's the proper way to spread the message?

I mean, it's factual law that voter fraud is felony.

It's also factual that voter fraud is a nonexistent problem being used as a scapegoat to justify widespread disenfranchisement. You don't use scare tactics to deal with a problem affecting less than a ten thousandth of all votes.

edited 19th Oct '12 12:29:36 PM by Fighteer

and That's what I'm trying to say - I don't care if I'm black; I want to be able to vote in the future - if SC continues this shit, I may never be able to do this ever again. Last time I checked, voting IS A GODDAMNED RIGHT, not a fucking corporatist's privelege!

edited 19th Oct '12 12:29:10 PM by LostAnarchist

Yes, but they're implying to these people "If you vote, you might be committing a felony. So better safe than sorry: Don't vote." On its own, it's merely somewhat annoying. Combined with all the attempts to restrict early voting, registration, and whatnot, it's a real problem.

edited 19th Oct '12 12:30:21 PM by Discar

Some of the "requirements" on the posters I linked are wrong and only serve to disenfranchise. The people putting these up are only putting them in certain neighborhoods, giving the message to certain people, and only targeting certain groups. This isn't even-handed treatment at all.

And "spreading the message" is unnecessary when voting and registration fraud are negligible. And think about it rationally. You're risking huge fines and prison stays when statistically, your vote won't even matter.

Also, voter ID laws and such are basically a poll tax. We shouldn't have them; if we do, it might be a good idea to not cut DMV hours, Christ.

e: Oh Texas◊

edited 19th Oct '12 12:32:09 PM by Autumncomet

Calm down, Lost Anarchist.

I'm talking about the standing law. How do you think it should be made aware?

Obviously it shouldn't be done disproportionately.

"where voting is a privilege"

What the actual fuck.

@Trivialis: What in the world makes you think that people don't know that voter fraud is a felony? Are we presumed to be ignorant of the law unless it's shoved in our faces? Most of the time you don't have to tell people that robbing stores is a felony, either, but a person brought up in civilized society ought to be able to figure out that lying about who you are or voting more than once is wrong.

Look, I'm not saying that the current way of presenting is optimal, you know.

I'm just stating that there can be better ways to inform people of the laws, since there could be some people that don't quite take it seriously.

It's a red herring. Even if you're right, the way to educate voters about fraud is not to put up billboards about it in "suspiciously minority" neighborhoods. That's like putting up signs in stores frequented by black people announcing that stealing is illegal. It's blatantly targeting a specific demographic.

edited 19th Oct '12 12:50:07 PM by Fighteer