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Been thinking this for over a decade (i.imgur.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[+] -25 points 2 years ago (9 children)

What? Don't you get like 16 hours to vote on polling day?

We have elections on Thursdays in the UK and no one claims not having the whole day off is "voter supression" because you've got plenty of time to vote and it only takes five minutes.

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  • [–] 49 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    and it only takes five minutes.

    Not here it doesn't. There are constant intentional efforts to shut down polling locations in communities with a disproportionate amount of minorities. The intent is to force minority voters to travel further to get to a polling place (which may not be an option due to our joke of a public transit network), and to force them to wait in line for hours at a time to vote.

    https://www.npr.org/2020/10/17/924527679/why-do-nonwhite-georgia-voters-have-to-wait-in-line-for-hours-too-few-polling-pl

    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/04/upshot/voting-wait-times.html

    In some jurisdictions, they've gone so far with their voter suppression tactics that they make it a punishable offense to provide food and water for those waiting in the hours long lines to vote.

    https://www.americanbar.org/groups/senior_lawyers/resources/experience/2024-january-february/is-line-warming-legal/

    And that's all before accounting for the fact that many people need to have two jobs to be stable, which makes it hard to get to the polls even if the lines are short.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/8-7-million-americans-now-193011733.html

    The U.S. election system is a joke, and a sham democracy.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Everything about your comment is wrong. No we don't get guaranteed time off of any kind but even if we did, the amount of time it takes varies wildly.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    They are saying that you have all day to vote, not that you get 16 hours of time off.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    I see. Well, still, polling centers may not be open or accessible 24/7. What people outside the US don't get is that we have federal state and local laws so you can rarely say anything is true across the country.

    Not to mention that people work long or double shifts sometimes.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    But what you don't have is stuff like a way for people to watch your kids when you're off work so you stand in a line for 2 hours in order to vote, something kids are not known for being able to put up with easily.

    And then there's the transportation they may not have. If you have to walk an hour to get to that two hour line, that's even more time used up.

    And then there's the fact that someone exhausted from a day of work may not have the energy to stand in line for 20 minutes, let alone 2 hours.

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