Why am I seeing "plan your voting day strategy" so often? - eviltoast

As a non-American, I don’t know exactly how your polling works, but why am I seeing “plan your voting day” or “set a voting strategy” like they’ve done on the Cards Against Humanity voting campaign?

Where I live, it’s just show up on voting day and cast your ballot, or ask for a mail in ballot, or go to a special voting station if you need (or want) to vote early. Is it the same in the US, and this is just getting people to gather those last pieces of information early and put a reminder in the calendar? Or is there more to it than that?

Thanks!

  • undercrust@lemmy.caOP
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    14 hours ago

    Wait, you can’t give people food or water if they’re standing in the line? Why the hell not?

    And hours in line?? What? Why!

    • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      “We hate that poors get to vote in our country. Don’t they know that this was a country founded with the ideals that only landowning white men could vote? Apparently they changed that law at some point, so we just make new ones to make the poors not want to vote. Like depriving them of things they need to live if they choose to do so. It’s what they get for being poors. Johohoho!”

      • American lawmakers in poor, conservative states

      In all honesty, it’s fucked. It’s so fucked.

    • Soapbox1858@lemm.ee
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      13 hours ago

      As many have mentioned the real reason is to suppress votes by making the experience miserable.

      The cover story for the rules is to prevent campaigns or other groups from “buying votes” by giving people in line food/water in exchange for a promise to vote for their candidate.

    • expr@programming.dev
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      9 hours ago

      In Nebraska, I get my ballot by mail way in advance. I fill it out at my leisure, doing research on candidates as needed. I can then either mail the ballot back or drop it off at one of several locations around town (including any of the public libraries). I haven’t voted in person in years. This method is so much better.

    • Red_October@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      Because certain people with power find it advantageous to make it difficult for the people in certain areas to vote. If you know that district isn’t going to vote for you, and morality is a thing that happens to other people, you could make the polling place too small with too few workers.

    • Illuminostro@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      So they won’t wait long enough to vote. The excuse used to ban is that they’re being “bribed” with food and water. It’s just pure voter suppression, but who are you going to complain to? The mayor and the police who watch Fox every night?

    • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml
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      14 hours ago

      To discourage people from voting. As was pointed out elsewhere, the Republicans only really flourish when a small number of people vote. So they make it as inconvenient as possible for people who are lower income, usually people of colour.

      • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip
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        12 hours ago

        Wait what? And that sort of things is legal? Are you serious? You know, there are countries where voting is obligatory, and others where it is made as easy as possible.

        • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml
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          11 hours ago

          Wait til you learn about Gerrymandering. I’ll not get into it in depth, but essentially the local/state government in the US will set up voting regions to guarantee that one party has a massive advantage.

        • FeelzGoodMan420
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          11 hours ago

          That’s cool but the post was clearly about the USA where they have made voting a miserable fucking experience.

    • Dr. Bob@lemmy.ca
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      14 hours ago

      It’s voter suppression. By limiting the number of voting locations and understanding them you make long lines where people will wait for hours to vote. By not allowing food or water to be handed out they hope people will get discouraged and leave the line. The official reason is that it could be construed as a bribe to vote a certain way.

    • dcpDarkMatter@kbin.earth
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      14 hours ago

      Because the people making those rules don’t want those people to vote. They figure, if it’s that much of a hassle, they won’t turn out. Meanwhile, in Republican-strong areas, they have multiple voting locations and very short lines.