Voter suppression and other strategies to rig the election : massive ID checks Last week, in the first article of this thread, I explained how parties already in power can rearrange the polling map in order to make the election tip in their favor (gerrymandering) by deciding on making up convenient polling areas or straight up suppressing voting sites. This strategy already seems unfair to a non-American observer, but it’s not the only LEGAL way to rig elections: in several states polling sites have new regulations to make the election results more ‘reliable’ and avoid ‘electoral fraud’ (which is overall extremely rare), including massive ID-checks. ‘Not a problem’ will you probably think as a French voter. You most certainly own a blue ID card (or a red passport) (complete with an embarrassing ID photo from when you were very little or an awkward teenager), and subscribing to your polling site is automatic at your 18th birthday, and a renewal if you change your address only takes roughly 15 minutes at the Town Hall; so why are the Americans taking this massive ID-check thing as an attack against their right to vote? That answer is fairly simple: you only had to provide a birth certificate and your previous ID, pay literally nothing and wait 4 to 10 days to obtain a solid official national ID, and with this, you can obtain an electoral card on the spot. For the average American, it is not that easy. There are no “official national ID card” (as it was considered the first step to a totalitarian society according to federalists) apart from the passport or the passport card. However the state you live in can refuse your application without reason (and also aforementioned application costs from $110 to $210 which I do find a tad expensive for something that is not a sure thing). Instead of those, Americans are identified through a plethora of various ‘official cards’ issued by the federal or the local government with a photo ID : such as a driver’s license, or a non-driver driver’s license (which provides an identity but not the right to operate a vehicle (and no this is not a joke)), a college student card, a government employee card, or an elder-resident facility card, your weapon permit, or any ‘official’ document with your name on it even without photo, such as you electricity bill ! Most of these “free” ID-cards also come with a price, often ranging from $75 to $175, and up to $1.000 with every legal fees factored in. In order to vote however, things can get even more complicated. Every state gets to decide whether or not they require an ID-check, and in this case, which ID. Which leads to another problem: not everyone can obtain the ID required to vote. Even worse, in eleven states, independent people cannot vote, which means that you have to be registered a Democrat or a Republican AND own an acceptable ID to be given a ballot. As a result the Brennan Center for Justice states that there are more than 16 million registered-voters who do not own a government-issued photo ID and therefore won’t be able to vote. “You know, if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID. You go out and you want to buy anything, you need ID and you need your picture” said President Trump. The Republican party pushes a lot on the issue of ID-checks, with the unwavering (although ridiculously out of touch with reality) support from the President, because, when it is not really effective against almost nonexistent electoral fraud, it does affect effectively voters turnout. For example, Wisconsin (which was the second state with the most voters) turnout has dropped by 3.3% since 2012, the largest decrease in turnout for any state other than Mississippi. In these 3.3%, about roughly half of it was in the city of Milwaukee, and 23% concerned poor black neighbourhoods. In the whole state,there was a 19% decrease in turnout for black people only. One of ten non-voters explain they have been effectively deterred by the new ID-check laws. And isn’t that fortunate for Mr Trump that so little black people (or any other minority for that was just one example ) are able to vote when they massively vote Democrat ((88-8) in 2016) ? A real “electoral fraud” indeed. AuteurSouad Takhtoukh
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