Where the far left and far right overlap for fun and enlightenment

Hope: GOP voter suppression has backfired

Today, Friday, October 30, 2020, has been beautiful: the autumn air crisp, the trees about to lose the orange and gold and red leaves. As I walked across the parking lot at 10:20, about 700 people already were in line for early voting.

Sanctimonious horses’ asses say “Not willing to stand in line? You shouldn’t have the right to vote” without argument to support their judgment. Besides, people already have died for the right to vote - that’s payment enough. Plus I like the “I Vote/I Count” stickers they give out.

Casting a vote should not be made difficult by artificial barriers. Example: the polling site at St Luke’s did not open until 11 a.m. By the time doors opened, the line had about doubled. That site easily could have been opened at 8 a.m., and other things can be done.

More polling sites and voting by mail make voting easier, but people who are not affluent are less able to afford a wait of several hours to cast a vote. If the GOP - and that’s where the horses’ asses are - insists on barriers to voting, then they should give people the day off, with pay.

We were lucky the weather was nice. Rain or sleet would have been a bite. People were patient. Only one person, out of over 1,000, wore a maga hat. Otherwise people were polite. By the time our part of the line entered the building, at 1:40, few people grumbled.

The GOP is doing what it can to suppress the right to vote. I stood in line with people who did not have faces that reflected “grim determination” - just determination. That’s what really struck me. We won’t give up our rights - at all, much less easily.

Maybe it’s a good thing to force so many people to experience unnecessary hardship as they seek to exercise their rights - as has been the experience of non-white people and poor people. We can do something about it - vote people out who restrict the franchise.

On my way home, people on the radio talked about how Texas - a dependably GOP State for a couple of decades now - is in play in this year’s election for President.

Hell, the way the GOP “suppresses” the vote - pissing people off so much they’ll show up early and stand in line for several hours to make damn sure they get to vote - Indiana soon could be “in play.” And we didn’t even get any stickers. We voted. We count.

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Comment by pogden297 on October 31, 2020 at 11:52am: You do realize, don't you, that Democrats run the polls in Marion County? The Election Board, controlled by Democrats, decide when the St. Luke site would be open. (The reason they chose 11 am, probably had to do with the difficulty of getting poll workers...people don't want to work the polls with the pandemic going on. There were other sites which offered early in the day voting so they probably made St. Luke a spot where people can vote after work...it stays open later.) How exactly is the GOP suppressing the vote here?

So much of the voter suppression that Democrats have been crying about over the years - such as requiring a photo ID to vote or cleaning up the voter rolls periodically to eliminate dead and moved voters - is complete and utter nonsense. This election though the GOP is engaged in actual voter suppression in a number of states. But that doesn't mean it is happening here. Those long lines for early voting is because of the huge and unexpected interest in the election, concern their mail-in ballot will arrive late, and difficulty recruiting workers to work the polls in the pandemic.