Our preconceptions about the world tend to influence the way we interpret so-called “objective” data about external reality. Today, one of my neighbors, a frail elderly lady, provided me a perfect illustration of this.

She recently gave up her driver’s license because her age had made it difficult to operate a car. When election day approached, she found out that without that photo ID, she could not vote, or even register to vote under Governor Scott’s new voter supression laws. She had to bring documentation, like a birth certificate, to get a new photo ID, in order to even register. Her previous voter registration was no longer valid, under the new law she had to re-register.

Without transportation, getting down to a voter registration site was very difficult for her, not to mention the hassle of locating and assembling the relevant documents and the inconvenience of standing in line and getting an approved photo ID at the DMV. She was very incensed by this. She was convinced that it was being done to “keep white people from voting”.

I have to admit, in her case at least, that’s exactly how it worked out.