A federal judge on Friday narrowed a section of Georgia election law that banned the practice of handing out food and water to voters waiting in line to cast ballots, as well as halted enforcement of a requirement that voters put their birth dates on the outer envelope of their ballots.
I can’t help but feel this is an optimistic view. There’s plenty of things everyone has to do in America that are still much more convenient or differently funded in rich or white areas. For example, going to school or getting government ID.
If you’re legally required to vote but voting is made into a very painful experience, who are you going to vote for? The guy that made it very difficult?
Sure, if you haven’t been brainwashed into believing it was the other guy who made it very difficult.
Yeah, most people would believe the bad guy was the one who made it mandatory.
Sweet child…
If the voting experience is sufficiently onerous, people will still not vote and pay the penalty (or go to jail). Then it’ll be just another tax/burdon on people in disadvantaged areas.
Looks like Western Australia charges $50 for repeated failure to vote. $50 Australian ($31 USD) to not take off work to stand in line for 3 hours getting sunburnt? That’s less than minimum wage in my state. It would make financial sense to just go to work and pay the penalty, ignoring the less tangible potential long-term benefit of effecting change in favor of paying rent.
Except voting day in Australia is on a weekend, not during the week. And there are also pre polling centres, where if you plan to be away on vacation or working on voting day, you can go along to a pre poll centre and vote weeks in advance. Australia also has mail in and even telephone voting for those unable to visit these centres.