North Carolina ended sunday voting to reduce black votes

[Worffan101]

These kinds of shady tactics aren't fair or moral, but honestly I have a hard time mustering much sympathy. The majority of states allow for early voting or for no-excuse absentee ballots. North Carolina is a state that allows for both. The reason most people don't vote isn't because it's that difficult, but because they don't care enough to put up with even mild inconvenience in order to do so.

Nah, it's because these options are rarely publicized; I'm fairly well-versed on American politics, but I had to do 30+ minutes of research just to find out if I was in a state that allowed absentee voting. And even then, the state fucked up my form TWICE so even though I registered online a month before election day I might not be able to vote this year.

That's an upper-class white guy with regular easy Internet access who's currently trying to get into grad school and isn't working full-time. Imagine how hard it is for a lower-class black person who may or may not have easy Internet access, may not know that absentee ballots EXIST, and is working 2 jobs to make ends meet.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

These kinds of shady tactics aren't fair or moral, but honestly I have a hard time mustering much sympathy. The majority of states allow for early voting or for no-excuse absentee ballots. North Carolina is a state that allows for both. The reason most people don't vote isn't because it's that difficult, but because they don't care enough to put up with even mild inconvenience in order to do so.

Nah, it's because these options are rarely publicized; I'm fairly well-versed on American politics, but I had to do 30+ minutes of research just to find out if I was in a state that allowed absentee voting. And even then, the state fucked up my form TWICE so even though I registered online a month before election day I might not be able to vote this year.

That's an upper-class white guy with regular easy Internet access who's currently trying to get into grad school and isn't working full-time. Imagine how hard it is for a lower-class black person who may or may not have easy Internet access, may not know that absentee ballots EXIST, and is working 2 jobs to make ends meet.

I don't know, if you google "*insert state name* voting", a .gov site will be one of the first couple of results and give you all the information you need. If you don't have easy internet access, you can always ask someone. And honestly, ignorance only works as an excuse for so long. If you're new to an area or voting for the first time, sure, I can see the need to put in a half hour of research at some point, or failing to vote because you didn't understand registration or absentee requirements. But this has been a story in every election cycle for years. Once you or someone in your household figures it out the first time, then there's nothing else stopping you in most cases.

For example, College students have a reputation for not voting- I read an article not long ago that college students don't vote absentee because they don't know where to buy stamps. The thing is, there might not be a professor or academic advisor in the world who won't help you out and at minimum start you on the right track. So is this lack of information or lack of intelligence? No, it's simply not caring enough to change from a passive interest/complaining to active participation in the democratic process. The fact is that a lot of younger viewers think of it in terms of practicality ("one vote doesn't matter") rather than in terms of civic responsibility.

[Worffan101]

Problem is, in these households, which again are mostly lower-income, there isn't really the CHANCE for someone to figure it out due to the exhaustion and need to work.

and having been a college student recently, that's quite frankly not the case. EVERYBODY at my college voted if they were a citizen (we had a lot of exchange students), the school made damn sure of that. Depressed youth turnout is typically due to disillusionment, lack of funds and opportunity among those not in college, and first-time mistakes like I made in '14 by sending my registration form in too late. I wouldn't trust any think pieces by old dudes that say otherwise.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

These kinds of shady tactics aren't fair or moral, but honestly I have a hard time mustering much sympathy.

Try harder.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

Problem is, in these households, which again are mostly lower-income, there isn't really the CHANCE for someone to figure it out due to the exhaustion and need to work.

and having been a college student recently, that's quite frankly not the case. EVERYBODY at my college voted if they were a citizen (we had a lot of exchange students), the school made damn sure of that. Depressed youth turnout is typically due to disillusionment, lack of funds and opportunity among those not in college, and first-time mistakes like I made in '14 by sending my registration form in too late. I wouldn't trust any think pieces by old dudes that say otherwise.

Going to the DMV is a colossal waste of time, but people who want to drive prioritize getting there. If voting is a priority, anyone who wants to learn has two years between major elections to find out how to vote.

Those thinkpieces on college students are usually made in reaction to the numbers. And the numbers clearly show that the youngest voting demographic (whether it's 18-24 or 18-29) has had substantially lower turnout for decades. According to one study, 17% of students voted during the last midterms, compared to something like 37% of the general voting population.

[Worffan101]

Problem is, in these households, which again are mostly lower-income, there isn't really the CHANCE for someone to figure it out due to the exhaustion and need to work.

and having been a college student recently, that's quite frankly not the case. EVERYBODY at my college voted if they were a citizen (we had a lot of exchange students), the school made damn sure of that. Depressed youth turnout is typically due to disillusionment, lack of funds and opportunity among those not in college, and first-time mistakes like I made in '14 by sending my registration form in too late. I wouldn't trust any think pieces by old dudes that say otherwise.

Going to the DMV is a colossal waste of time, but people who want to drive prioritize getting there. If voting is a priority, anyone who wants to learn has two years between major elections to find out how to vote.

Those thinkpieces on college students are usually made in reaction to the numbers. And the numbers clearly show that the youngest voting demographic (whether it's 18-24 or 18-29) has had substantially lower turnout for decades. According to one study, 17% of students voted during the last midterms, compared to something like 37% of the general voting population.

Driving is objectively more important to a poor person's wallet--the thing they spend the most time worrying about--than voting in the immediate term (which is all poor people have TIME and MONEY to think about). I'm sorry, but I don't think you fully understand what the economic stresses of poverty are like. If you're poor, you need to spend 95+% of your time worrying about where the next meal is coming from and how to scrimp and save so that your kids can eat. You simply don't have time to spend a few hours doing something that isn't directly related to your economic situation--a situation that's eternally getting worse because thanks to Reagan cost of living is going up much faster than wages.

Those thinkpieces are hackwork by 50something rich idiots without real jobs (since they weren't smart enough to make it in academia, not disciplined enough to make it in business, and not strong enough for physical labor), and are typically just snooty supercilious speculation about why Kids These Days are all lazy oafs.

Seriously, if you take a David Brooks column at face value, you aren't getting anywhere near an accurate picture of the world.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

I don't know if you get how simple my point is here re: poor people voting. I'm not denying at all that they have a tougher time learning crucial information. I'm not denying that there can be legitimate ideological reasons not to vote either. All I'm saying is that if voting is a top priority for you, you have ~700 days between each election cycle to figure out what you have to do. If you're saying that the reason a poor person might not prioritize voting is because their immediate personal needs take precedence, then fair enough. But the idea that a poor person doesn't have one moment of time within that two-year span to ask a co-worker, friend, pastor, local official, or search online to learn what they have to do is absurd.

The piece I read was from The Hill, actually, but I'm less concerned with that than with the actual numbers those pieces are trying to explicate. The numbers are more valuable than your or my anecdotal experience, and they all agree that the youngest demographic groups vote the least. This time around college students will almost certainly turn up in greater numbers than the 17% that voted in the last midterms, but the fact remains that they have been incredibly unlikely to vote.

[Worffan101]

I don't know if you get how simple my point is here re: poor people voting. I'm not denying at all that they have a tougher time learning crucial information. I'm not denying that there can be legitimate ideological reasons not to vote either. All I'm saying is that if voting is a top priority for you, you have ~700 days between each election cycle to figure out what you have to do. If you're saying that the reason a poor person might not prioritize voting is because their immediate personal needs take precedence, then fair enough. But the idea that a poor person doesn't have one moment of time within that two-year span to ask a co-worker, friend, pastor, local official, or search online to learn what they have to do is absurd.

The piece I read was from The Hill, actually, but I'm less concerned with that than with the actual numbers those pieces are trying to explicate. The numbers are more valuable than your or my anecdotal experience, and they all agree that the youngest demographic groups vote the least. This time around college students will almost certainly turn up in greater numbers than the 17% that voted in the last midterms, but the fact remains that they have been incredibly unlikely to vote.

You claim to understand, but you simply aren't grasping how the typical person is affected by poverty. When you are poor, the immediate need to keep your family fed overrides ALL other impulses. Every. Single. One. Voting will not even enter your head unless it's brought to your attention--for example, at the one social event that you have time for in a week. Poor people don't have the luxury of idly thinking about things, or searching online to find stuff that isn't of near-term importance to their immediate financial situation, or considering asking a local official (who won't give a shit about them anyway) how to register to vote, which is a big part of why rallying lower-class support has historically been nearly impossible except in periods of extreme unemployment or truly absurd abuse by the bourgeoisie (hence why socialist movements surged in the late 19th century and political radicalism in general became a huge thing in the Great Depression). Unless you can connect the far-off political situation to a cratering personal food and money situation, if you're poor you're going to think only of keeping treading water.

The numbers do show that young demographics vote in low numbers, yes! That's been a thing for a long time and it's been a bigger thing post-Nixon, but it's starting to correct to the mean. Being a student bears some psychological similarity to being poor--and being a poor student, well, that's obvious. If the school doesn't shuttle your starving ass to the polling place, you probably won't bother to vote just because you don't even think about it in between studying and getting drunk to cope with the stress.