Voting rules affect election outcomes
Scholars and practitioners of politics are probably more familiar with how voting rules affect election outcomes than the average person. Since I am a member of this group, Ari Berman’s Rolling Stone article on The GOP War on Voting made me nauseous. The nickel version of the article is that Republicans in many states, under the guise of reducing voter fraud, are putting onerous demands on who can vote, despite the fact that voter fraud is nearly non-existent in the US. Not surprisingly, these demands don’t fall equitably along the political spectrum, but target likely Democrats. For example, in Texas a concealed weapons permit is acceptable ID for voting, but a student ID is not. FYI, gun owners are far more likely to vote Republican than college students.
What is perhaps more interesting than Republicans manipulating voting rules to increase their chances to win elections is the sales pitch: reducing vote fraud. Most people in the US I suspect have no idea how much of a problem it is and few are pro-fraud. Voter suppression, I suspect, doesn’t test as well in focus groups.
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Well said Barak, these wonderful routes to voter suppression have irked me for quite some time unfortunately I don’t really know what can be done if anything to debunk this nonsense. On a certain level it strikes as just another campaign of misinformation and one more way to manipulate people’s fears against their interests.
Well, I don’t think that giving up is much of an answer. Ultimately, as in so many other areas, the answer is rebuilding Democratic Party structures and encompassing interest groups. I think this is why the declining power of unions is a structural problem for the left in the US: it was the main interest group that had the reach to mobilize along a range of related issues. No outside interest group has filled this void and I don’t see one emerging any time soon.
I’m curious as to your opinion regarding the ability to “rebuild” Democratic Party structures? Does this really seem feasible anymore? While I certainly agree that doing so would solve many of our present political problems, I can’t help but wonder if the Democratic Party like the Republican Party has become largely detached from the political ideology of their theoretical constituency. Its somewhat hard to imagine a leftist equivalent of the Tea Party being successful in the United States, but it certainly doesn’t seem like the Democratic Party has had the interests of the working class in mind for quite some time. Having read much on labor and unions recently given the President’s speech yesterday, I can’t help but think that the possibility of unions starting to separate themselves from the Democratic Party might honestly be for the best. In so many ways it seems that politicians on either side of the aisle take for granted that people will vote for them purely out of desire not to see the opposition elected rather than any genuine support of their chosen candidate.
Great attention paid to an interesting piece and a hot “trend.” There was a similarly nausea-inducing article published in the American Thinker (surprise) blog last week titled “Registering the Poor to Vote is Un-American.” No, it is not a piece from The Onion.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/09/registering_the_poor_to_vote_is_un-american.html
Yes, Geneve, somehow a rich person voting for his or her economic interests is more acceptable than a poor person doing the same. Sort of undermines the concept of equality under the law.
Imara, I am not sure I agree with your suggestion that the base abandon the party. This would likely cause democrats to lose elections in the short run or mover even farther to the right. I’ve never agreed with the pain caucus (i.e., pain causes reform). I think more active pressure, not threats to leave, are the answer.