GOP’s chilling new assault on voting: Why this man wants to close Georgia voting sites

[DonViejo]

Georgia's Barry Fleming says he's worried about having to pay for 3 poll workers in small towns. So here's his plan

SPENCER WOODMAN



Republicans in Georgia’s General Assembly are advancing a bill to dramatically scale back early voting for elections in hundreds of cities across the state. The bill’s sponsors argue that cash-strapped municipalities cannot afford to staff polling places for up to three weeks before Election Day. Crying foul, civil rights activists call the bill a thinly veiled assault on voting access for the state’s minorities in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent weakening of the Voting Rights Act.

One thing beyond dispute is that Georgia’s robust three-week length of early voting has been used time and again to justify controversial and oft-successful proposals to eliminate polling places in localities across the state. Now, town officials fear that state lawmakers will pull away the very rationale that closed their cities’ voting sites.

Shuttering election precincts to cut costs is a measure that, despite concerns from civil rights activists, has seduced officials across Georgia. In visits to local elections offices around the state, Brian P. Kemp, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, has pushed the idea that, because Georgia’s long days of early voting increases voter access, localities can go ahead and eliminate Election Day polling sites. If the new bill passes, residents in cities that have pursued this logic could see their already truncated election infrastructure matched by a slash in voting days.

Surging minority participation in Georgia elections has been attributed to increased poll access brought by early voting. In September, the Justice Department sued North Carolina over its own attempt to scale back early voting, asserting the move would disenfranchise minority voters. Similarly, civil rights activists argue that eliminating polling precincts can have a disproportionate effect on poorer communities (which are disproportionately black and Hispanic in Georgia) with limited access to transportation.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/02/20/gops_chilling_new_assault_on_voting_why_this_man_wants_to_close_georgia_voting_sites/

[Historic NY]

1. Stealing your right to vote.

[ladjf]

2. On thing is for sure, Republican politicians are relentless in their attempts to

steal elections from Democrats. Where are the Courts? Why are they allowed to do this?

[DetlefK]

3. If transportation is the issue...

Solution 1: All elections have to be held on weekends.

Solution 2: Any election-day, and the day before, is automatically a holiday for residents of that precinct.



Seriously. The US can shoot a guy to the Moon, but elections are dragged out over 3 weeks and held with hackable slot-machines, but first check which of your 10 IDs you could use to identify yourself...

In Germany, we have national photo-IDs, elections are always held on Sundays, always with pen&paper and if 5!!!!!! people stand in front of you, that's already a long queue.

[1StrongBlackMan]

7. Elections should be held ...

over a 7 day period with polls open 24 hours/day.

It would cost less than $7,000 per polling place; but enable everyone able to vote, that wants to vote, to do so.

[gopiscrap]

4. assfuck repukes

can't win on your merits, either steal the vote which it seems that folks are voting so overwhelmingly against them , that they have to suppress the vote!

[Scuba]

5. "We can't afford fair elections."

[leftyohiolib]

6. had no problem spendiong 25 billion on a shut down

Here’s a breakdown of some of the economic cost by our calculations:

About $3.1 billion in lost government services, according to the research firm IHS
$152 million per day in lost travel spending, according to the U.S. Travel Association
$76 million per day lost because of National Parks being shut down, according to the National Park Service
$217 million per day in lost federal and contractor wages in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area alone

http://swampland.time.com/2013/10/17/heres-what-the-government-shutdown-cost-the-economy/