“If the purges [of potential voters], challenges and ballot rejections were random, it wouldn’t matter. It’s anything but random. For example, an audit by the State of Washington found that a Black voter was 400% more likely than a white voter to have their mail-in ballot rejected. Rejection of Black in-person votes, according to a US Civil Rights Commission study in Florida, ran 14.3% or one in seven ballots cast.”

"[…] Democracy can win* despite the 2.3% suppression headwind.

And that’s our job as Americans: to end the purges, the vigilante challenges, the ballot rejections and the attitude that this is all somehow OK."

  • @gAlienLifeform
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    262 days ago

    The voter suppression problem is a symptom of the spineless and bought out DNC problem. Dems should be talking about nationwide voting laws and how red states aren’t democratic and don’t have legitimate rule of law constantly, but that would be too radical and unpredictable for the corps to feel comfortable with, so instead they focus their legislative efforts on just cutting checks to all the state governments for this infrastructure initiative or that climate bill or whatever, which helps assholes like Ron DeSantis and Brian Kemp run the systems of patronage and oppression that keep them in power (also, those checks are eventually ending up in the corps’ accounts, so they’re happy too).

    • @Serinus
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      162 days ago

      They don’t talk about voting laws during the campaign because it loses.

      Contrary to popular belief, they’re not idiots.

      If you get all the corporations to turn against you, especially the media companies, you lose. Ask Bernie.

      They’re not doing everything right, certainly, but it’s also not a simple problem to solve. There are some very fine lines to walk for Dems. Kamala tried to walk those lines and failed.

      She offered a $50k credit towards buying your first house. Does Gen Z remember that?

      Meanwhile Trump could shout “hail Hitler” tomorrow and all the corporate media (and then 50% of the voters) would make excuses for him.

      We need voters to seek out primary sources. We need them to be more resistant to manipulation. The problem isn’t getting the information out there; it’s getting people to hear it. How many people who didn’t vote for Kamala went to KamalaHarris.com? And how many of those seriously considered what she had to say?

      The problem is that saying nothing is more of a winning strategy than saying something. People always want to tear you down, and more words give them more ammo. So every politician’s website is filled with fluff and platitudes.

      The problem is Fox News telling people what to think 24/7 in a way that they actually listen.

      Honestly, The Daily Show and Colbert Report of around 2000-2015 were one of the best things this country had going for it, and we were hardly aware of it.

      • @[email protected]
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        fedilink
        111 hours ago

        Because no Gen Z sees 50$k towards a house and is impressed. That offer alone shows such a ridiculous disconnect between the dems and the populace. Yes that would be beneficial for a very select minority of Gen Z, but for the vast majority.

        Not close to helpful, radical or on level to Trump’s promises (lies).

        They want sweeping change, they expect politicians to lie and embellish. If the politician offers something so minor when they are expected to embellish then the avg voter probably expects even less or nothing at all.

        At least significant promises can get people excited. Even if they are obvious lies to those paying attention. Sad reality is vast majority of people of any generation pay almost no attention whatsoever.

        I think people seeing her message might have helped. But the difference maker would have been a message people actually want to get behind. That would have spread organically.

        Now whether the DNC was cooked either way following the publics perception of Bidens term is another thing. But a strong message will always prevail - even if it is a lie.

    • @blackbelt352
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      62 days ago

      You’re right, the DNC should be working to expand voter protections and ensure that freedom is protected and it sucks they’re bought out by corps.