Southern states have closed down at least 868 polling places for the 2016 election

[babylonsister]

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/4/13501120/vote-polling-places-election-2016


Southern states have closed down at least 868 polling places for the 2016 election
The shutdowns follow a Supreme Court decision that limited federal oversight of elections.
Updated by German [e-mail]@vox.com Nov 4, 2016, 12:20pm EDT


Next week, Americans will hold the first presidential election in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act.

It’s a terrifying fact. The Voting Rights Act targeted policies that purposely kept black voters from the polls. But the US Supreme Court struck down part of the law in 2013, limiting the federal government’s oversight of states with long histories of suppressing minority voters.

As a result, states have passed more voting restrictions over the past several years — including controversial voter ID laws and cutbacks on early voting days and hours.

But a new report from the Leadership Conference Education Fund, a civil rights organization, finds another potential effect: Counties previously monitored through the Voting Rights Act have closed down at least 868 polling places since the Supreme Court’s decision — a 16 percent reduction among the counties analyzed in the study. And out of 381 counties in the study, about 43 percent of them cut back on voting locations. (The report only looked at about half of the counties previously covered by the Voting Rights Act due to some limitations in the available data.)

snip//

It’s unclear just what impact this will have on the election. The research tends to show that making voting harder, whether through voter ID laws or by limiting early voting, has a small to no effect on voter turnout — likely only swinging elections that are really, really close. (The biggest hurdle to getting people to vote, MIT political science professor Adam Berinsky wrote for the Stanford Social Innovation Review, seems to be getting people interested in elections.)

But the shutdown of at least hundreds of polling places certainly seems like it could have a significant impact — especially in a close swing state like North Carolina. And even if it doesn’t have a big impact on the election, it’s totally antithetical to what a democracy or republic should aim for.

[SHRED]

1. A high percentage of assholes live in those states

Racist pieces of shit.

[regnaD kciN]

2. Between this and the Pierce story…

…it sounds like you're telling us NC is hopeless for us, even if we have a lead in the polls.

[babylonsister]

3. Oh, I hope it's not.

And hello! No, not trying to do that at all, just pointing out how brazen and criminal the rethugs have been.

[Snarkoleptic]

6. k&r

[Ilsa]

9. It's why so many are voting early --

To avoid 3 hour waits in line because polling locations were consolidated.

[DFW]

12. This constitutes a shameful confession to America and the world, who IS watching and reporting

The Republican Party KNOWS that a majority of Americans rejects their policies, their ideals (such as they may have any), and their tactics. Therefore, the only way they can win elections is to make sure their opposition can't vote.

"A majority of Republican voters have voted Republican." That's how the headlines should read in their states. How a majority of Americans vote (or wanted to) is not a statistic they are interested in, or want recorded.