Several (voter restriction laws) have been ruled unconstitutional because they are, in fact, discriminatory, having a disproportionate impact on blacks ...

delta1 wrote:

I'm at a complete loss to understand how having to present ID at the polls is construed as having ANY discriminatory effect on anyone and why the impact on blacks is somehow "disproportionate" ....

SteveS wrote:

I'm at a complete loss to understand how having to present ID at the polls is construed as having ANY discriminatory effect on anyone and why the impact on blacks is somehow "disproportionate" ....

SteveS wrote:

Well, in Alabama counties that are 80% black with 60% unemployment and a high percentage living under the poverty line where someone would need to make a 100 mile round trip to get an ID, I would say that impacts people. And not just black folks, just more black folks in some of the few counties that might go Democrat. YMMV.

SmokeMonkey wrote:

Have to hand it to the GOP...they are masters of American politics and twisting the rules to benefit their party...voter restrictions (not just ID) and practices: including cutbacks on mail-in ballots and absentee votes, reducing the numbers of polling places, numbers of clerks at polling places, hours for voting, week-end voting, number of days the polls are open...GOP believes the fewer people who vote, the better they do...and the statistics bear that out...

But their most adept power retention tool is gerrymandering...they are masters at designing voting districts that carve up blocs of Dems and turn majorities into minorities...

Guess it's all legal, except those rare instances of over-reach that are challenged in court and ruled unconstitutional...and as long as those states with small cities and large rural populations remain solid red, the GOP will continue to rule, at least Congress...the minority (in total population) ruling a majority...

delta1 wrote:

I forgot that the GOP can do no wrong, nor takes actions that benefit only their party. Only Dems do that. Silly me. That's why Alabama is a conservative paradise.

SmokeMonkey wrote:

this is being ignored and minimized here. Responses simply ignore these factors because ignoring the breakdown of voters affected leaves the simplistic "just get an ID".

Yeah, no problem for all of us, but we actually never read posts from those these hindrances do affect...rendering them invisible.

frankj1 wrote:

Let's be fair, though, Al. Dems perfected gerrymandering during the middle of the last century. The GOP learned from the left.

SmokeMonkey wrote: