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

Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters. It Was Wrong About 20%

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 244 posts

Re: Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters. It Was Wrong About 20%

#71

Post by makomk »

empath75 wrote: post #2

Anybody who thinks these schemes are about anything other than removing legitimate voters from the roles is deluding themselves.

Not really. Remember that news story a few years ago about Trump's "voter fraud expert" being registered to vote in three states? These schemes were why he would not, in fact, have been able to vote in the two states he wasn't living in - his other two voter registrations had been suspended via purges like this one. I wouldn't be surprised if there were news headlines out there counting the registrations removed from him as votes suppressed by the Republicans too...

Re: Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters. It Was Wrong About 20%

#72

Post by crooked-v »

not_a_cop75 wrote: post #40
spamizbad wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because this is HN and you're probably young-ish: When you're older and you've set down roots the last time you updated your voter registration was probably a few decades ago. Chances are your polling place hasn't likely changed either. So you know when elections come, you go to your usual polling place, give your name, get your ballet and "pull the lever" so to speak. You're not thinking "Oh I better double-check my…

I update my voter registration sometimes twice a year to match the party I most like at the time, It's always been online - easy peasy. I expect to get downvoted to hell but I also don't get why showing an ID to vote is such a big deal. After all, I have to look up the numbers in my drivers license to vote. Also, how is it hard to vote? Absentee ballots are totally easy to get. If I was blind, I might have to plan ah…

> Also, how is it hard to vote? Absentee ballots are totally easy to get.

Certain political factions put a lot of work into making it actively more difficult to use absentee ballots. For example: https://www.apnews.com/ae1c8f1af38f4b4fb0187553be7a6e72

Re: Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters. It Was Wrong About 20%

#73

Post by fzeroracer »

not_a_cop75 wrote: post #40
spamizbad wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because this is HN and you're probably young-ish: When you're older and you've set down roots the last time you updated your voter registration was probably a few decades ago. Chances are your polling place hasn't likely changed either. So you know when elections come, you go to your usual polling place, give your name, get your ballet and "pull the lever" so to speak. You're not thinking "Oh I better double-check my…

I update my voter registration sometimes twice a year to match the party I most like at the time, It's always been online - easy peasy. I expect to get downvoted to hell but I also don't get why showing an ID to vote is such a big deal. After all, I have to look up the numbers in my drivers license to vote. Also, how is it hard to vote? Absentee ballots are totally easy to get. If I was blind, I might have to plan ah…

Because generally it is very hard to commit voter fraud and adding an ID check does nothing but add an additional hoop for poor people to exercise their constitutional right.

Re: Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters. It Was Wrong About 20%

#74

Post by biomcgary »

pknopf wrote: post #42
biomcgary wrote: post #35

According to the article, moderate Republicans in Ohio insisted on transparency for purging voter rolls. They sent out the proposed list to various voter advocacy groups across the political spectrum, which reviewed the proposed changes and flagged mistakes. 80% were purged correctly. 20% were not. Rather than condemning Ohio, they should be praised for bringing transparency to the process (as long as the mistakes ar…

I still don't think it's a coincidence that the 20,000 were in a democratic strong-hold.

Possibly not, but if they were trying to be nefarious, they shot themselves in the foot with transparency. More likely to be a mistake OR the conspiracy of a single individual.

Re: Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters. It Was Wrong About 20%

#75

Post by scrooched_moose »

wongarsu wrote: post #65
rdtsc wrote: post #33

> She went online and discovered that her name had also been flagged as an inactive voter. The state was in the process of removing her from its voter rolls. > “I voted three times last year,” said Ms. Miller. I am still baffled at the election system in this country. Every state does its own thing. One state uses paper, other uses some machines which can be easily hacked, some use both. Somehow voter ID is controver…

In Germany every person eligible to vote just gets a letter telling you the day of the vote and your voting station (and a list of stuff being voted on, local elections usually coincide with more important ones). At voting day (a Sunday) you go to your polling station with that letter and photo id and after five minutes you have cast your vote and are on your way. It's dead simple. But it hinges on the state having a…

I mean, that's largely what voter registration is - a database of every citizen's address.

The problem comes in when those addresses change. There's no requirement to inform your old state you left, so millions of inactive voters are left in the database. Generally there's a requirement to register in the new state (drivers license) within 30 days which is often missed, or not required for temporary moves like college students.

These purges do serve a legitimate purpose, but are often used as a political tool to alter turnouts.

Re: Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters. It Was Wrong About 20%

#76

Post by maxerickson »

scrooched_moose wrote: post #52
maxerickson wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people have to register to vote at all? The state has a sort of pretty solid idea of where they live...

Not really. You can easily move without informing the new state. Millions of college students do it every year. The last move I made was in September so I hadn't changed licenses or filed income taxes yet, so they had no awareness of me yet. Luckily I'm in a fairly permissive state and was able to register with a couple utility bills without any hassle. Some sort of voter registration is a necessity when you can move…

So the utility bills are sufficient to jump through the hoops before the fact but not at the time of voting?

Re: Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters. It Was Wrong About 20%

#77

Post by crooked-v »

ahbyb wrote: post #69
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To make it more difficult for prospective voters who are perhaps not white, poorer, younger, are working multiple jobs, or are a single parent, just to name a few examples. You can connect the dots on why groups like these are disenfranchised by the state.

My favourite conspiracy: you only know you have to register to vote if you are white.

That's not what the comment you're responding to said.

Re: Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters. It Was Wrong About 20%

#78

Post by biomcgary »

microtherion wrote: post #50
biomcgary wrote: post #35

According to the article, moderate Republicans in Ohio insisted on transparency for purging voter rolls. They sent out the proposed list to various voter advocacy groups across the political spectrum, which reviewed the proposed changes and flagged mistakes. 80% were purged correctly. 20% were not. Rather than condemning Ohio, they should be praised for bringing transparency to the process (as long as the mistakes ar…

They should be both praised for bringing more transparency, AND condemned for purging nearly 50k eligible voters.

Did they purge eligible voters? My reading of the article was that they proposed purging voters, but got input from advocacy groups first. Did I misread it?

Re: Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters. It Was Wrong About 20%

#79

Post by maxerickson »

wingspar wrote: post #57
maxerickson wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people have to register to vote at all? The state has a sort of pretty solid idea of where they live...

One purpose for registration is to lock the person into voting in a particular district. Why? Ballots can and do vary by district. Different districts have different representatives (on both state, county and town/city level) Different districts have votes for different issues (state amendments, county amendments, town/city amendments) Different districts have different local offices (county officers vs city/town off…

You are arguing from presumption of massive fraud. There's barely any fraud.

It's sort of ridiculous that some of your rejoinders are basic civics.

Re: Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters. It Was Wrong About 20%

#80

Post by swsieber »

scrooched_moose wrote: post #52
maxerickson wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people have to register to vote at all? The state has a sort of pretty solid idea of where they live...

Not really. You can easily move without informing the new state. Millions of college students do it every year. The last move I made was in September so I hadn't changed licenses or filed income taxes yet, so they had no awareness of me yet. Luckily I'm in a fairly permissive state and was able to register with a couple utility bills without any hassle. Some sort of voter registration is a necessity when you can move…

You can still do it automatically for a majority of voters though. Having to register should be the exception, not the norm.
Post reply on HN