There is no question these “voting security” laws are aimed at making it harder to vote for people who are likely to vote Democratic. Sure, some republicans may be negatively affected or inconvenienced, and some democrats may not, but voter suppression is carefully crafted to statistically favor the fascists
and encumber the progressive voter. It is designed to do exactly that, with the figleaves of “fairness” or “security” because Republicans know they can no longer win in a fair fight. They have to cheat, and they don’t even care who knows it.

If you can’t see this, you’re a fool. If you see this and are trying to sneak it past the rest of us, you’re insulting our intelligence, which is worse. I can forgive the former, but not the latter. What is wrong with the Republican Party? In my lifetime, they may have championed policies I may have disagreed with, but I don’t recall them shamelessly cheating and not caring if its obvious. This is new, and its fascism, yes, FASCISM is the only word for it. The only thing I’ve seen remotely close to it is the way Democrats in the Deep South used to sabotage the Black vote in the Jim Crow era. You know, back when I was a fucking teen-ager, a half century ago.

You people are really starting to piss me off.

The GOP would have you believe the big bad gummint wants to take over everything. What they’re really scared of is the local boss will finally have to be accountable for his crimes and corruption.

It’s the age-old Magna Carta Malarkey. Sure, King John may have been a tyrant and an incompetent, but do you really think the barons gave a shit about the rights and freedoms of their serfs? No, all they really cared about was running their fiefdoms as profitably as possible without any supervision and not paying their fair share of taxes.

Canada’s ID requirements show that they aren’t trying to suppress certain votes. They allow three classes of ID: Formal government photo ID; “contextual” ID like utility bills, student ID, and bank statements; and as a last resort, a “referral” from a poll worker who personally knows the voter. Category 2 acknowledges that a formal government ID disenfranchises everyone who can’t obtain one, and accepts documentation that establishes you get mail and do business in the place where you’re registered. And category 3 recognizes that you still don’t have true democracy with only 1 and 2, because 2 amounts to a poll tax: You have to be able to pay rent and utility bills and have a bank account, and means tests like that have already been ruled unconstitutional in the US.

Georgia’s version of that infographic bluntly reveals its true agenda: Only a government-issued photo ID will do, disproportionately disenfranchising both poor and young people–a lot of the young don’t drive, and rely on rideshares or public transit (Georgia does not accept student ID, of course).

Oh, the second page does show what looks like a good-faith effort to accommodate everyone, with a “Georgia Voter ID Card”. It’s a government-issued photo ID that requires the voter to show…a government-issued photo ID. AND a birth certificate AND a voter registration card AND something like a lease proving your address.

The obstacles to getting the Voter ID Card are even worse than the obstacles to vote.

Georgia’s law stinks to high heaven of voter suppression and barely-hidden bad faith. It drips contempt for the voters.

To be clear, I think any voter ID requirements to vote are suspect, and need a damn good justification. Trumpublicans have never come within a light year of making their case. “Voters are uncertain” about election integrity only because rightwing politicians and rightwing media tell them to be uncertain. The actual evidence shows that election and voter fraud are so statistically insignificant they don’t really exist.

The wave of ‘voting security’ laws being shoved through republican statehouses is being done solely to suppress the vote of minorities that tend not to vote for republicans.

Republicans had NO problem with mail voting until now, when minorities made heavy use of it.

There is no subtlety here, there is no ‘reasonable people can disagree about the motives behind these laws’… the goal is simply to suppress the vote, specifically the minority vote. I know it, YOU know it… so don’t try to excuse it- either you support disenfranchising minorities, or you don’t…

But don’t insult everyone’s intelligence by telling us it’s about voting security.

https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=ids&document=index&lang=e

And their theology is becoming more and more violent- on any conservative message board there are plenty of examples of posters fantasizing about the violence they want to do…

I am not sure how it will turn out, but unless we take the threat VERY seriously it will turn out very badly…