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Louisiana voter registration portal mysteriously shuts down on Registration Day

nola.com

41–50 of 77 posts

Re: Louisiana voter registration portal mysteriously shuts down on Registration Day

#41
post #30

As an Australian who lives in the US, the vast chasm between how elections work in the two countries still boggles my mind. First, the US needs mandatory voting. This is what Australia has. The argument against this has always been about uninformed people voting and "fraud". I used to be sympathetic to this argument until I saw the massive scale of voter suppression that occurs in the US. Mandatory voting immediately…

This is a state whose DMV shut down from a ransomware attempt a few years back because they didn’t have cold backups

Re: Louisiana voter registration portal mysteriously shuts down on Registration Day

#42
post #5

Louisiana politics has been corrupt for the entirety of the lifetime of anyone who is alive. That it has become a bipartisan effort is not shocking.

Kyle Ardoin is only in his job because the previous guy couldn’t stop harassing subordinates

Re: Louisiana voter registration portal mysteriously shuts down on Registration Day

#43

I work in election night reporting. While it’s easy to assume malice, so often it’s just that election officials haven’t entirely thought things through. It’s not an easy job and in the past 4 years, positions no one has cared about are being scrutinized by the whole US and election technical teams now have to worry about election interference from foreign governments. And all of their work comes down to one day wher…

Hopefully it's not malice. But then it needs to be communicated. If the issue is a bug that needs fixing, say so. Don't say scheduled maintainance if it isn't.

Like Facebook, at some point organizations lose the benefit of the doubt.

Re: Louisiana voter registration portal mysteriously shuts down on Registration Day

#44
post #16
post #5

Louisiana politics has been corrupt for the entirety of the lifetime of anyone who is alive. That it has become a bipartisan effort is not shocking.

Please put me in my place if I'm wrong here, but isn't it typically the Democrats who have the most to gain with more people voting (e.g. young people more likely to be liberal but less likely to vote)?

I believe the COUNTRY has the most to gain if more people are voting, whatever that party was.

Re: Louisiana voter registration portal mysteriously shuts down on Registration Day

#45
post #39
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My comment didn’t advocate for anything; I am not sure where you got that from.

> if those who are elected are physically removed from their rule-setting positions > you can’t cure fascism by voting Perhaps advocating was the wrong word but I only see one way to interpret those two statements side-by-side.

It seems common for Americans to read or hear statements, infer an unsaid statement X, and then assume X was the thing explicitly being communicated by the speaker, even though X was never said, which then elevates X higher than any other thing that was actually said. It seems to happen automatically and without conscious decision to do so. I’ve written about it before. You should probably be aware of this habit/bias, because I think you may have just performed it.

https://sneak.berlin/20191201/american-communication/

If and when the time comes to take up violence against the state, you may rest assured that I will not be subtly implying it, I will be shouting it loudly.

Re: Louisiana voter registration portal mysteriously shuts down on Registration Day

#46
Note also the story was broken by the Gambit alternative weekly and WDSU (the latter a TV station so gullible they were pranked by a Facebook post into announcing a nonexistent second line for RBG), not the Advocate/Nola.com (hulking right wing wreck of the former Times-Picayune run out of Baton Rouge)

Re: Louisiana voter registration portal mysteriously shuts down on Registration Day

#47

Imagine you live in a country where about 40% of the population wants to destroy democracy. Even if the other 60% regains control, isn't your society basically fucked anyway? Because you can never trust that 40% with any kind of power ever again. Because the moment they would regain that power, they would try to forever cut you off from any power ever again.

It's more like 10-80-10. You've got some small minority of people on both sides who want complete control as a means to their own ends and then the 80% in the middle who don't really care that much and will ally with either side depending on the other specifics of the situation. I'm pulling the numbers out of my ass but pretty much every contentious issue breaks down this way. Most people mostly don't care about most…

That's just another cynical "both sides are bad" argument. Judge the parties by their actions, not some vague handwaving about the Pareto principle and that all politics is corrupt.

From what I've seen, there's one party that has done more to disenfranchise voters and attack our democratic processes in the last year than I can remember in my entire lifetime. Attacking the postal service during a historic mail in election, inviting foreign influence into the election and directly soliciting it in exchange for military funding (and then getting impeached for it), the constant suggestions that the election is illegitimate so that he can scream and shout about it if he loses. The Trump reelection campaign (yes the political campaign itself, not even a neutral government entity) has also been litigating to make it harder to vote across the country.

At this point, coming to an article about a republican administration committing pretty clear voter suppression in the context of the past year of partisan voter suppression and saying "well actually, both sides are bad" is basically gaslighting. All sorts of voter suppression tactics like hardcore voter ID laws, purging the voting record (and "accidentally" getting rid of hundreds of thousands of legitimate voters), poll taxes by proxy, and crazy voting deadlines, restricting resources for polling places, and making it harder to leave your job to go vote leans to one side of the aisle.

Re: Louisiana voter registration portal mysteriously shuts down on Registration Day

#48
post #32
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can absolutely change if those who are elected are physically removed from their rule-setting positions by the disenfranchised. Historically, you can’t cure fascism by voting, even in situations where the elections haven’t been compromised.

Just to be clear, you are advocating removing government officials by violent means? Please explain the difference between that and domestic terrorism. To say American elections are "compromised" is both a gross exaggeration and a Dunning-Krugeresque oversimplification. Gerrymandering is absolutely a problem and needs to be dealt with. It's the primary (no pun intended) reason for the polarization of our elected offi…

You raise an interesting point: How would you differentiate revolution against a fascist government from terrorism?

Re: Louisiana voter registration portal mysteriously shuts down on Registration Day

#49
post #39
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My comment didn’t advocate for anything; I am not sure where you got that from.

> if those who are elected are physically removed from their rule-setting positions > you can’t cure fascism by voting Perhaps advocating was the wrong word but I only see one way to interpret those two statements side-by-side.

You are building a strawman, the observation from OP in no way condones any violent attitude. It is a historical fact that authoritarianism in general (monarchies, despots and so on) has only been brought down through violence, the comment you are replying does not advocate or imply that, you are the one reading that.

Malice is in the eye of the beholder.

Re: Louisiana voter registration portal mysteriously shuts down on Registration Day

#50
post #32
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can absolutely change if those who are elected are physically removed from their rule-setting positions by the disenfranchised. Historically, you can’t cure fascism by voting, even in situations where the elections haven’t been compromised.

Just to be clear, you are advocating removing government officials by violent means? Please explain the difference between that and domestic terrorism. To say American elections are "compromised" is both a gross exaggeration and a Dunning-Krugeresque oversimplification. Gerrymandering is absolutely a problem and needs to be dealt with. It's the primary (no pun intended) reason for the polarization of our elected offi…

Well that is easy. If you succeed it is a violent revolution, if you fail it is domestic terrorism. Nothing new here.
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