What a weird headline and story frame.
It makes it sound like stripping the right to vote is just a little bump in the road for a party that wants to take its ball home now that no one wants to play with them anymore.
Our national media (which is our only media these days. See: Gatehouse) continues to fail us.
@joshsternberg Conservative government in the UK planned an autmn General Election at the time which would be most difficult for university students to travel home to vote
See also photo ID for voting, when the people least likely to have such ID are the youngest and the poorest (and least likely to vote #Conservative
#TorieOut#Disenfranchisement#VoteRigging#Cheats
@quercus24 Do any places in the UK or US that require IDs to vote make it particularly difficult, or not free, to get an ID?
@ech I've attached a UK gov't link for acceptable forms of ID. Student and younger people's ID and transport passes are noticeably absent. Those on a low income are less likely to have a passport (£82.50) or provisional driving licence (£34) and both services take many weeks from application to delivery. Local councils will provide ID if you apply for it in time... (1)
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter/voter-id/accepted-forms-photo-id
@quercus24 driving licenses I'm guessing cost a lot more than that if you also count the classes & training? 😂
Is there a free easy-to-get alternative? I know in some times & places it hasn't been, so that's a poll tax.
@quercus24 Are you worried about perpetuating this sort of stereotype that conservatives are more likely to have their act together enough to do basic adulty things like get a free id, register, and mail in their ballots? IOW if conservatives (Tories? Whatever you call them over there) are actually doing this for this reason – will it work? It sounds... unlikely.
I mean, maybe your point remains that it is a pointless barrier to voting, and bad just for that reason, but does it really bias the results of elections?
Here's a study (US, but still) showing that yes, despite what old curmudgeons think of kids and hippies, progressives can actually manage to vote even in the face of such overwhelming odds: https://www.cato.org/blog/do-voter-id-laws-matter-much. (Link has an amusing anecdote about DeSantis' ballot getting thrown out.)
@ech Thanks for the link - didn't know about DeSantis! 🤣
The YouGov link shows the age-related voting preferences in the 2019 general election.
Historically, UK voter turnout has been higher amongst older people
The Times link (may be paywalled) shows that Johnson's attempt at voter suppression was deliberate, not accidental. Gerrymandering by age.
@quercus24
So we have these three ~facts
* old people are more likely to vote
* young people are less likely to be "conservative"
* Johnson (admittedly?) was trying to squelch young people vote (very patronizing, in addition to shady)
But what I said could still be true: it just doesn't work. Even if some of Johnson's aides admit intent.
In the past, voter suppression was more effective: you have to own land, or the ids cost money, or straight-up poll taxes, or ... But these days it seems like voter id laws just don't really work as a suppression tactic. (I don't know whether they work for other purposes, so I'm not like trying to argue for voter id laws here.)
@ech can get one from the local council, but it's getting young and time time voters to realise this and act on it - in time - that could reduce the number of votes against the #Conservatives 🙁 which is what they're banking on