Sfdebris.net

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/26/politics ... term=image

It's now illegal to give food or water to people waiting in voting lines in Georgia, but I'm sure there's a totally innocent explanation for this. I mean, it's not like they'd try to make it harder for people to vote, right?

The claims on both sides are overblown. It's mostly a Republican power grab, taking the administration of elections away from the local boards that have traditionally run them and consolidating it in the hands of politicians in Atlanta.

My solution is more sitting areas, more benches, more water foundations and vending machines. Past that, I stand on the idea of voting IDs, but with easy accessways to obtain them without endless bureaucratic backlog.

I mean, this is supposed to be on the same level as the DMV for politics, and no one likes the DMV.

Make it more comfortable, but I could walk to my workplace and not find a bench within two square kilometers. Maybe hyperbole, not by much. Some cities desperately need more.

Captain Crimson wrote: ↑Fri Apr 09, 2021 1:27 am I stand on the idea of voting IDs, but with easy accessways to obtain them without endless bureaucratic backlog.

Then you must do that first, have it as law, make sure it's functioning as intended, and only then could we even begin to consider whether it's a reasonable requirement.

You most certainly cannot require it first and just assume the rest will work itself out.

Captain Crimson wrote: ↑Fri Apr 09, 2021 1:27 am My solution is more sitting areas, more benches, more water foundations and vending machines. Past that, I stand on the idea of voting IDs, but with easy accessways to obtain them without endless bureaucratic backlog.

You're just utterly determined to find a compromise so you seem "reasonable" without ever conceding that the left has a point

Captain Crimson wrote: ↑Fri Apr 09, 2021 1:27 am My solution is more sitting areas, more benches, more water foundations and vending machines. Past that, I stand on the idea of voting IDs, but with easy accessways to obtain them without endless bureaucratic backlog.

I mean, this is supposed to be on the same level as the DMV for politics, and no one likes the DMV.

Make it more comfortable, but I could walk to my workplace and not find a bench within two square kilometers. Maybe hyperbole, not by much. Some cities desperately need more.

Umm, have you ever been in a line before?

Frankly the obvious answer is that you have way too few polling stations. Usually if there are big queues at a polling station in the UK it's a scandal because it means someone's fucked up. I've never had to wait for more than a couple of minutes to vote, and I would be shocked if I had to wait more than 10.

We have so many polling stations that most people have one within walking distance. They're usually things like village halls, schools, sometimes pubs, sometimes places of worship (yes, not just Christian churches), basically any reasonable public space that can be commandeered for the day. Polling stations have a small handful of staff, usually about two to four people actually running the thing, obviously overseen by officials, politicians, and volunteers interested in democracy to ensure they're doing their jobs properly. We don't have any form of computerised voting in our elections — voting is done by making marks on paper ballots and counted by hand in school sports halls and the like. Though I understand that in the US you tend to vote for a huge number of different positions in elections, so I do see why hand-counting paper ballots is seen as less practical in many states.

Thebestoftherest wrote: ↑Sat Apr 10, 2021 9:51 pm

Captain Crimson wrote: ↑Fri Apr 09, 2021 1:27 am My solution is more sitting areas, more benches, more water foundations and vending machines. Past that, I stand on the idea of voting IDs, but with easy accessways to obtain them without endless bureaucratic backlog.

I mean, this is supposed to be on the same level as the DMV for politics, and no one likes the DMV.

Make it more comfortable, but I could walk to my workplace and not find a bench within two square kilometers. Maybe hyperbole, not by much. Some cities desperately need more.

Umm, have you ever been in a line before?

I have. I said before, more benches and sitting areas.

Captain Crimson wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 2:22 am I have. I said before, more benches and sitting areas.

Yeah, a couple more benches are going to help with this:

Muzer wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 12:41 am Frankly the obvious answer is that you have way too few polling stations.

Yes. That's by design. One of the larger parties wants to discourage voting by people who live in highly populated areas. The other one used to want to discourage that and put lots of policies in place that are now used against them.