Friday, April 11, 2014

Voter Suppression tactic: No Restrooms. Ohio flurry of restrictions leaves no doubt intent.

I think this bizarre attempt at voter suppression might be the best tactic yet:
During the 2012 presidential election, voters reportedly waited on line for upwards of six hours. That wait alone is enough to deter would-be voters from going to the polls. But now residents in Florida’s most populous county will have another disincentive: they won’t be able to go to the bathroom.Earlier this year, the Miami-Dade County Elections Department quietly implemented a policy to close the bathrooms at all polling facilities … the policy change was in “direct response” to an inquiry … whether they had assessed accessibility of polling place bathrooms to those with disabilities.

The county would close all restrooms at polling places “to ensure that individuals with disabilities are not treated unfairly,” a January email stated. “[T]he Department’s policy is not to permit access to restrooms at polling sites on election days,” Assistant County Attorney Shanika Graves said in a Feb. 14 email. Elections Department officials did not immediately respond to ThinkProgress inquiries. 

The state’s next-most populous counties, Broward and Palm Beach, told the Sun Sentinel they would not implement this policy. 
Ohio is still working on holding down the vote. This is already beyond surreal. Rachel Maddow explains:



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