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Texas declared war against 'anti-fossil fuel' banks that could cost taxpayers $22 billion
(www.houstonchronicle.com)
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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That’s not entirely true. Gerrymandering can affect statewide elections in two ways.
The first is turnout suppression. If voters feel that their votes do not matter (for instance, if they constantly end up voting for local/district positions that they “lose”), they’re less likely to vote. That’s why people interested in vote suppression make such frequent use of the “both sides” memes. This is part of a larger effort that includes ID laws, registration restrictions, and disallowing vote by mail.
Second is resource restrictions based on districts. I know that in both TX and AZ there have been around-the-block lines with multi-hour waits to vote in some districts, while others were basically walk in and walk out. Yes, high density populations will require more resources than low density ones, but you generally don’t see state legislatures passing bills to remove polling places from low density areas so that rural voters are required to drive for hours to get to the closest urban polling place.
I had this exact same conversation with someone the other day that just refused to understand and thought gerrymandered districts should be super simple to flip. I'm not as good with words as you are. Do you mind if I just outright steal this and paste it every time I have to have that argument?
I live in Harris county. In my middle class suburb it's pretty easy to go vote during lunch. But many of my friends who are actually in Houston proper absolutely deal with multi hour lines and voter despair because they don't feel like it matters because we're "red". If you are in despair because it doesn't seem to make a difference and you have to take time off to go vote then of course you're not going to go vote.
Yeah, they should vote. No argument here. But even if I get all my dozen or so friends to stick with the line (and I can't, I'm not their daddy and don't tell them what to do) there are literally tens of thousands of others who won't.
Edit: I don't know why I can't see the reply comment here but I can in my replies, but let me go ahead and address it. Yes, we have early voting. It opens at 7am and closes at 7pm. If you've got kids and don't work near your home then you're busy during those hours and can't get by there. With fewer polling places in Harris, odds are a lot of people literally can't get by the polling place until they extend the hours for voting day.
People that keep claiming that it's easy to vote have never talked to someone who is disenfranchised.
You want to fix it and never have this conversation again? Allow mail in voting for everyone. You want to tell everyone how easy it is to vote? You're part of the problem.