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Also reminder: If Republicans are accusing someone of something, it's because they're already doing that something.

This strategy of challenging and removing voters in communities that are largely oppositional isn't unique to the Republican Party, but it is a favorite of theirs. And the argument always boils down to claims of "illegal voting" to swing the election, which they then leverage into claims that any Democrat advantage on voting day was won fraudulently.

That's more likely a function of your age and voting district than your registration. This kind of disenfranchisement is just a numbers game, so if you're living in Houston's Third Ward or you are trying to vote from the UT 40 Acres in Austin as a registered Republican you still run the risk of being purged or having your registration "lost", because you're in a community that's overwhelmingly liberal-leaning.

By contrast, if you're out in The Woodlands or Beaumont or Midland, you'll have local Republicans actively encouraging you to register. One of the savvier moves Abbott did after the nail-biter Senate race in 2018 was to get a bunch of organizers and registrars out to South and West Texas gun shows, signing up anyone with a passing interest in firearms. 2020 and 2022 have been much more favorable to Republicans, as a result.

You can get the same result by being unaffiliated but without the stain of being a registered republican.

I really hope that there are at least some official or public figures who are tasked with the job of doing something about it

It's all by design.

A federal id would mean that they can no longer pull this bullshit

How come it is so difficult in the USA to exert your democratic right?

Because half of the population of the country (republicans) don't want the other half to have any rights at all. They no longer care about freedom or this country. They only care about screwing over those who don't agree with them. Yes, they're that stupid.

"Why does one of the parties fight against people voting?"

In general, high voter turn out leans left.

And each state determines the rules for voting. I'm in Illinois, so when I register I'm assigned a polling place. When I go there to vote, I give them my name (no need for ID) they find it in a book, I sign a thing and they give me a ballot and tear off a receipt that I keep. I'm in a traditionally Democratic/blue State.

Republican/Red states tend to do what they can to make voting harder, like frequent purging of voter registration (and not notifying people that they're not registered anymore) or making it nearly impossible to vote by mail, then require voting in person and limiting the number of places you can vote to the point people stand in line for hours. Oh yeah, then make it illegal to offer people waiting in line a bottle of water.

Its difficult to vote to keep people from voting. When people are allowed to vote Republicans lose elections.

Do you have to pay for your ID, and are there any barriers to getting one?

Republicans love to make it hard for poor minorities to have indentification. Hell, I am above the median age but we have to shuffle utilities around between the adults in the home just to renew our fucking driver's licenses here because of bullshit 'proof of address' requirements.

Many European countries (at least the one I live in) have mandatory registration of residences which doubles as voter registration. In my country only homeless people and I think citizens living abroad have to explicitly register to vote.

My understanding is that this is not so in the US, the government doesn't reliably know where people currently live and whether they are entitled to vote, so most people have to register to vote.

In Europe I get a voting pass sent in the mail for every election. To vote I have to show both this pass and a valid ID.

In the Netherlands it doesn't even have to be a valid ID. If it hasn't been expired for more than 5 years it's fine for voting purposes.

In the UK we didn't even need that until recently.

You just turned up, told them your name and address, they tick you off on their form and you vote.

Now you need to show ID as well, which is just not needed. There was no evidence of fraud to start with, and almost all the ID checks are pure theatre. The woman who checked mine at the polling station was about 80. She barely glanced at the passport, but then spent ages squinting at the paper form which was right in front of her. They had a woman who couldn't see checking the IDs. I sincerely hope she wasn't driving home.

In South Africa it's even easier.

There are multiple voter registration weekends 2 times a year. Or you can register any time at an election commission office.

You go with your ID document and register to vote in the district, DONE. You never need to do it again, unless you move to another district.

Come voting day, you pitch up with your ID document and you vote.

As with many American "problems" they just want to solve because it's "too hard"

"Too hard" stopped being a valid excuse in Kindergarten.

Texas is really fucky. My wife needs a new ID and has to go in in person. Ever since the pandemic the DMV has been by appointment only. When I went to make one the soonest I could get was almost February of 2025 and that was something like 40 miles away. I decided to check Austin and San Antonio as I'm between both. Neither had any availability for the foreseeable future.

Texas requires that you present you driver's license or state ID to vote. If you need either and can't renew by mail, you either have to travel a hundred or more miles to a DMV in the middle of no where or not be able to vote. Maybe it's the tin hat wearing part of me talking but this all seems awful coincidental.

Not just this sort; many other sorts of bullshit cheating as well. At this rate, we will be incredibly lucky if the election is actually decided by normal means (Electors chosen by popular vote) at all, as opposed to the winner being decreed by SCOTUS or the decision being thrown to a "one state, one vote" poll in the House because the MAGAs caused enough states to refuse to certify that nobody got to 270 EC votes.

The prime Republican demographic is rich white christian men.

Voters that don't provide proof of citizenship are very likely to be poor. It's a hoop to jump through that's a lot harder when you don't have money, time, and a car.

I'll also point out that it's completely unnecessary as the great state of AZ has all the resources they'd need to go name by name and verify that these people are indeed citizens. Making them provide it during registration is a filler for the poor.

Much like literacy tests were there to filter out black people.

Is this a joke?