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aecarol1 t1_ixila1h wrote

What's funny is that conservative counties, in solidarity with the Republican message against Saturday voting, may not offer Saturday voting, while Democratic stronghold counties will.

The Replubicans lost the case, and then will double dip by denying voters that tend to support them the chance to vote on Saturday. While their opponents will vote in great numbers of Saturday.

Hoisted on their own petard.

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Apprehensive_Ad1744 t1_ixiuzzx wrote

I fully support Republicans making it hard for Republicans to vote for Republicans to own the libs.

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RockerElvis t1_ixj5xuz wrote

I normally would, but it’s a statewide election. There are plenty of liberals living in conservative counties and I want them to be able to vote on Saturday.

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Apprehensive_Ad1744 t1_ixj73oy wrote

Yeah, I don't actually support even self-imposed voter suppression; it sets a terrible precedent, and will only exacerbate the baseless claims of electoral malfeasance the Republicans will predictably make if they lose, further weakening our democracy.

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PokemonSapphire t1_ixje13s wrote

If they win I bet they'll say the general election was rigged that's why they did so poorly in it leading to a runoff. At this point if they think lying about the election will benefit them they will do it regardless of the facts.

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impy695 t1_ixjlkpz wrote

The election is always rigged, when they win, it was rigged because it should have been a blow out. Both Trump and Bolsonaro made comments like that the last time they each won.

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PokemonSapphire t1_ixjmhgm wrote

Yeah that's my point they're gonna bitch and moan about it no matter what we do. If they wanna make a galaxy brain move and hurt themselves in their own confusion I say we let them.

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impy695 t1_ixjn51a wrote

It wouldn't be the first time they've done it. Their messaging about not trusting elections probably caused a lot of Republicans to not vote (just speculation).

I also read a report that looked at expected political affiliation and death rates of covid by population and there was a bug enough gap in the right states that it could have given trump the win.

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PokemonSapphire t1_ixjocw1 wrote

I would fully believe their rhetoric hurt them enough in the last two elections it caused them to lose. It could be the mainstream republicans know this and is why they're trying to distance themselves from Trump and the election conspiracy stuff now.

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Different-Music4367 t1_ixke5z7 wrote

It's not setting a precedent at all; it's a continuation of the same Republican rhetoric and tactics around voter suppression that they've been running on for over a quarter of a century.

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Apprehensive_Ad1744 t1_ixkhjy6 wrote

Republican officials suppressing Republican votes would be a new one.

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Different-Music4367 t1_ixkifbq wrote

Not really, recent data shows that more Republicans have died from Covid than Democrats. So plenty of Republican policies have already led to the suppression of Republican votes to a permanent end.

To be serious though, vote suppression for Republicans has similar logic as running attack ads--it brings votes down for both candidates, but on the whole the net result favors your side.

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Apprehensive_Ad1744 t1_ixkk92i wrote

Yes, voter suppression by design disproportionately suppresses the vote of one group over another. Not sure what your point is?

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Different-Music4367 t1_ixkld67 wrote

I'm responding to your comment about "suppressing Republican votes," and how there's nothing new about Republicans suppressing Republican votes as a means of suppressing even more Democratic votes, even if only in theory and it potentially backfiring.

Not sure what you are confused about, but this conversation feels like it's kind of going in circles. Take care buddy .

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Apprehensive_Ad1744 t1_ixkrmw0 wrote

I was talking about Republicans specifically targeting Republican majorities with voter suppression being a new thing. You're saying it's not because when Republicans have targeted Democrat majorities with voter suppression, a small number of Republicans were affected via collateral damage.

I have no idea why you think an incidental amount collateral damage is the same thing as being the large, explicit target, but that's where the confusion comes from.

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1live4downvotes t1_ixjj6kt wrote

idk... voting sounds like a lot of work to put on the general populous. It makes a whole lot more sense to just have one guy run the show and not worry the people. Now of course they will also need a special police force to make sure no one is trying to make trouble, but that is just the price we need to pay for freedom.

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Bizzle7902 t1_ixilywa wrote

Didnt they also drastically limit the length of time to resolve a runoff just last year, leading to things like this being necessary to give ppl the chance to vote again?

Edit, fat thumbs

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aecarol1 t1_iximpej wrote

Yes. They figured if they made it harder, people who have to work, and have trouble taking off from their job, and might have trouble getting to the polls, or might not be willing to stand in long lines in undertstaffed urban places, might not vote.

While their demographic of white collar. retired, work-at-home, etc could have an easier time voting in well staffed convenient suburban voting places.

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PapaBless902 t1_ixm5ad4 wrote

Are you not entitled time off to vote? It’s not a holiday in Canada but it is your right to get time off to vote if you work during election days.

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aecarol1 t1_ixmafup wrote

You are entitled to unpaid time off to vote. But people work quite some distance from their polling place and many people don't own cars. They have to decide if getting a few unpaid hours off is worth it, or will even provide enough time to get to the polling place in time.

Even in places where it's a holiday won't help the poor. Big businesses and companies close on the holidays, but low wage jobs run every day of the year.

Suburban polling places are well funded and abundant. Most people need not wait but a few minutes. But poorer areas have fewer polling places per person and waits of many hours is not uncommon. This is by design.

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PapaBless902 t1_ixmso7a wrote

That all makes sense, thanks. Where I live (semi rural Canada) there are plenty of stations and its never takes me more than a few minutes to vote, although I always vote early.

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Sebekiz t1_ixin0kj wrote

> Didnt they also srastically limit the length of time to resolve a runoff just last year, leading to things like this being necessary to give ppl the chance to vote again?

Exactly. They were/are gambling that these changes will be a bigger problem for Democratic voters than Republican voters and will help them to win the runoff.

Why bother to try to court new voters by adjusting your message to what they want when you can just prevent them from voting, or at least try to keep their votes from being counted? Isn't that what Democracy is all about?

/sarcasm

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critically_damped t1_ixji7sz wrote

The conservative counties that don't offer saturday voting generally don't need to, as their small population is generally not difficult to serve during the normal voting times. The saturday voting helps cities, with greater populations and greater densities of strict schedules with significant travel times to get to and from work.

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Viper67857 t1_ixlika1 wrote

Yeah... When there's no line, it's no big deal to just swing by the community center and cast your vote after work. I was in and out in 7 minutes, and 6 of that was reading through a dozen ballot measures.

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120z8t t1_ixj2x9t wrote

They want to lose so that they can fight "the stolen election". It is all they have now as a party. It is the entire platform of the GOP right now.

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ScienceLivesInsideMe t1_ixkjtfl wrote

Uh, no they don't. They are already fighting "stolen" elections. If they win it isn't stolen.

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Undisolving t1_ixlbm3m wrote

Just the fact that voter suppression is seen as a valid strategy by republicans is just insane.

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Graega t1_ixjmhvk wrote

"What, the other guy gets to vote? Fine, in protest, I won't vote! That'll show 'em!"

"Uh... yah, you do that."

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Malaix t1_ixkldsp wrote

Reminds me of those rightwing folks who declared they weren't voting anymore because its all rigged. Nice messaging GOP.

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sariisa t1_ixlm9nf wrote

> What's funny is that conservative counties, in solidarity with the Republican message against Saturday voting, may not offer Saturday voting, while Democratic stronghold counties will.

And then when poll results show that Saturday votes tilted heavily Democratic, they'll scream and howl citing it as evidence that the Saturday votes are faked and that the election was rigged.

"Break it on purpose and then complain that it's broke" is the only strategy the GOP has toward anything in government, ever.

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docmedic t1_ixjgzqf wrote

They’re not necessarily stupid in that regard. Saturday voting could still turn out more Warnock voters than Walker even in red counties. So although voting is more inconvenient in red counties, Republicans would still come out ahead.

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