I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog writing about purges and other forms of voter suppression, but Ezra‘s right that the most time tested way of driving down votes has to be the “time tax,” dearth of voting machines that force lines of voters to stand for several blocks just to cast a vote. I’m currently in line in Silver Spring, Maryland that stretches several blocks and is moving like a snail through a snowstorm. This is a relatively wealthy area, so I can only imagine how it looks in more urban and rural districts where there’s even less money to conduct an election properly than there is here.
What makes it all so heartbreaking is how inspired people are to vote. The line is long because people care enough to be here, it’s only right that they should have a government that cares enough to meet them halfway.
–A. Serwer
