Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The NYT Released an Oregon Trail Style Game about Voter Suppression

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 71 posts

Re: The NYT Released an Oregon Trail Style Game about Voter Suppression

#11

Post by ones_and_zeros »

travmatt wrote: post #10
ones_and_zeros wrote: post #3

I was excited to see this but this game is crazy partisan and does nothing but to further divide us.

Is it factually accurate? Is it giving a full picture of voter suppression, or do you believe that Democrats engage in the practice and this fact is being omitted? IMO complaining about partisanship is just dodging a conversation on the merits, if in fact the objective truth is partisan. Back when Republicans were the Party of Lincoln it would have been both factual and partisan of me to say they were the political p…

The DNC are no saints[0].

"Others complained about long lines, shuttered polling locations and inexperienced polling-place employees. Entire blocks and buildings of voters in some districts were purged from the voter rolls, de Blasio said."

[0] http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/officials-investigating-...

Re: The NYT Released an Oregon Trail Style Game about Voter Suppression

#12

Post by newshacker47 »

The game pretty much consists of "do you want to turn back from voting, or continue to vote and have $BAD_THING happen" (if you are not a white programmer from California).

The game format doesn't really do much here. Of course extremely long lines, abusive bosses, distant polling locations and abusive election observers are bad. Clicking yes/no doesn't really get the point across better. I'd rather read an article with some research about how different demographics are impacted. Heck, ending the game with a link to some statistics would have been good (correct me if I missed them).

I want to juxtapose this with another game with a social message: Cart Life. It had you making decisions as a low income worker. As the game went on your series of problems and decisions start accumulating in a way that helped communicate that small problems in the right place for people with no safety net can be disastrous.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that a game is a good way to communicate interactions between things or events in an easy to digest way, but probably a bad way of communicating a simple "this exists" message, since a game can contain whatever you imagine.

Re: The NYT Released an Oregon Trail Style Game about Voter Suppression

#14

Post by baldeagle »

24gttghh wrote: post #9

Shouldn't polling officials only ask for ID when registering to vote?

I recently moved to Texas from California. In my new district, I waited 90 minutes to vote, because although there were 8 voting machines there was only 1 person checking IDs to verify we could vote. So basically there were 6 empty voting booths and a single bottle neck. One of my co-workers in a less diverse part of town experienced 3 checkers and no wait times. I'm not sure it is suppression; it could just be poor staffing due to a shortage of applicants. Either way, it was pretty frustrating and very different from my experience in California.

Re: The NYT Released an Oregon Trail Style Game about Voter Suppression

#15

Post by lambda »

ones_and_zeros wrote: post #11
travmatt wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it factually accurate? Is it giving a full picture of voter suppression, or do you believe that Democrats engage in the practice and this fact is being omitted? IMO complaining about partisanship is just dodging a conversation on the merits, if in fact the objective truth is partisan. Back when Republicans were the Party of Lincoln it would have been both factual and partisan of me to say they were the political p…

The DNC are no saints[0]. "Others complained about long lines, shuttered polling locations and inexperienced polling-place employees. Entire blocks and buildings of voters in some districts were purged from the voter rolls, de Blasio said." [0] http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/officials-investigating-...

That's not the DNC, that's the New York Board of Elections. The DNC doesn't run the actual voting of the primaries, that's done by the local election commissions, just like for the general elections. This varies by state, it's generally the state parties that decide how primaries are run in their state, not the DNC.

Re: The NYT Released an Oregon Trail Style Game about Voter Suppression

#16

Post by mchannon »

It'd be nice if they'd included "A disabled retiree from Washington State". Since Washington, Colorado and Oregon vote exclusively by mail, there are no problems associated with polling places because there are no traditional polling places. Note the correlation with recreational 420 and mail-in elections.

It'd make the white programmer from California seem like the unlucky one.

Re: The NYT Released an Oregon Trail Style Game about Voter Suppression

#18

Post by nomoreaccoubts »

24gttghh wrote: post #9

Shouldn't polling officials only ask for ID when registering to vote?

Is an ID required at all to register to vote in CA? I know they make you check a box to say you're a US citizen, and they ask you to provide an ID # if you have one. But is there anything to stop a non-citizen from voting?

Re: The NYT Released an Oregon Trail Style Game about Voter Suppression

#19

Post by nomoreaccoubts »

frostburg wrote: post #6
ones_and_zeros wrote: post #3

I was excited to see this but this game is crazy partisan and does nothing but to further divide us.

It's not like voter suppression of vulnerable groups is a tactic that can work at the same time for both of your major parties. This "golden mean" line of reasoning is not worth much.

The reasoning on the other side is that you should do something to ensure the integrity of your elections. What stops non-citizens from voting?

It's telling that the party opposed to voter verification laws stands to gain from the potential votes of tens of millions of illegal residents. As far as I know, no one is checking outside of states with voter ID laws.

Re: The NYT Released an Oregon Trail Style Game about Voter Suppression

#20

Post by noer »

Pigo wrote: post #5
ones_and_zeros wrote: post #3

I was excited to see this but this game is crazy partisan and does nothing but to further divide us.

I played all three to see if they tried to show other perspectives, but no. It's just a hit piece.

It's an opinion piece and says as much in the intro.
Post reply on HN