I will note that this seems to be a widespread problem across Houston — I’ve heard similar from some affluent white neighborhoods, too. But I also heard of some really short lines.
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The line at TSU, Houston, for the Texas Democratic primary, 30 min after the polls closed. The line continues inside the building. From the front doors to the voting booth took me over 2 hours in line — and nobody in this picture has made it that far yet.pic.twitter.com/KvG0raAojv
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(And while the people who I’ve talked to voted in city limits, this has nothing to do with city government — elections are run by Harris County
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Texas Tribune did a great piece on what happened at this polling station. It points out multiple problems that created these unacceptably long waits.https://www.texastribune.org/2020/03/04/harris-countys-texas-southern-university-voting-delays-what-happened/?utm_campaign=trib-social&utm_content=1583457724&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter …
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The problem here is not, as many people have supposed, closing polling stations. Harris County had a lot of polling stations in this part of town. The problem was not enough machines. There was space at TSU for dozens, but there were only 10 for the Democratic primary.pic.twitter.com/uqjKByo8jq
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Closing polling stations in Texas, is a huge issue, especially in counties with Republican county clerks. And the state made it worse by disallowing pat time early voting locations. But that's not the problem at TSU.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/02/texas-polling-sites-closures-voting …
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The statewide Republican leadership (legislature, Secretary of State, Governor) is, for passing laws that make voting more complex (like voter ID, which purports to solve an issue that doesn’t exist) and for setting the parameters of voting (like early voting dates)
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The Democratic county clerk is at fault, for not allocating machines well, not correctly updating the online live maps with correct information on lines, and the general inefficiency of the process.
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The county Commissioners Court (Republican until last year, now Democratic) is at fault for not buying enough voting machines.
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The company that sold Harris County the voting machines is responsible, for making unreliable equipment.
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The local Republican Party is at fault, for vetoing a joint primary and for pushing to put so many locations in Republican areas.
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The local Democratic Party is at fault, for not pushing for more locations (or machines) in Democratic areas.
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We can debate what intents are — who here is trying to suppress votes? I know for sure the Republicans are. But the Democrats aren’t looking good here either. (FWIW This is probably a part of town with a lot of Biden votes.)
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But it doesn’t really matter. The final result is suppression, regardless of whether it was intentional.
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And that supressison is not equitable. And there seems to be a pattern that lines were longer in the denser inner city neighborhoods than in the suburbs — which disproportionally affects low income and minority voters.
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On an institutional and political level the US just doesn’t value democracy (at best) or outright opposes it (at worst). That’s what the incompetence and the deliberate suppression have in common.
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And everyone who responded to this thread with “they should have voted early” is part of the problem.
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In a true democracy, voting isn’t a privilege. It’s a fundamental right. And it has to be as easy as possible.
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It shouldn’t matter when you show up to a polling location, or where — you should be able to vote quickly. It that means buying more equipment, or more staff, if we care about democracy that should be a top budget priority.
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End of conversation
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