According To A Recent Study By Gossip and Hearsay
Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick is just plain goofy.
Like every other Republican state official in the whole damn country, he’s trying to restrict voting opportunities for people who generally vote Democratic.
In the last election, Harris County tried drive-through voting, citing COVID as the reason. It was wildly successful, with over 127,000 people using the centers. And Dan Patrick is crying us a river over that.
Dan Patrick: “If they’re worried about people of color — on the Democrats side who came up with this drive-in voting — statistics show that more people of color don’t have cars than not. So how do (drive-thru voting centers) help those folks?”
Cringing grammar aside, statistics show no such thing. Patrick is trying to contend that half of people of color in Harris County don’t have cars. The newspaper called his office to see those statistics but he’s not returning phone calls. Because he just pulled those numbers out of his big wiggly butt.
Going to the Census Bureau —
Among the state’s 3.4 million African Americans, 88% own at least one vehicle, according to the 2019 American Community Survey, an aggregation of five years of data, the most recent available.
Quit pulling stuff outta your butt, Dan. It stinks. And it’s generally racist.
One advantage of repugnantican politicians is that make believe facts work with their voters, and making it a racist lie is even more better.
1I just don’t understand why so many people find this guy, Abbot, Screwy Louie, et. al., acceptable. Can that many people have their heads up their butts?
2This is why I had to send you back twice Daniel. You were such a disappointment to everyone. You just never tried hard enough.
Mrs. Wiggins:
36th grade remedial english (ret.)
If Dan Patrick believes “statistics show that more people of color don’t have cars than not” and he’s responsive to the needs of his constituents, Texas should have the best public transit system in the world.
Otherwise it’s a tossup. He’s wrong or he doesn’t care.
4This will come as a shock and might perturb Patrick, but I have a car that seats more than one person. In fact, when I turned in my mail-in ballot at Harris County’s only drop off at NRG, I drove some other ladies who also turned in their ballots. I am almost sure that if there are some Black folk who do not have a car or do not choose to drive, there will be someone who will be happy to take them to drop off a ballot, or to vote in a drive thru center. Dan and Greg need to do something about the grid and all the folks that have been overcharged and stop this incessant whining!
5BarbinDC:
6Yup.
Why would we ever expect anything better from Dan Patrick? He’s an ignorant, hateful piece of garbage, to put it more politely than he deserves.
7Clearly, Mr. Patrick has failed more than English and Statistics. He’s also failed logic. If half of the African American population doesn’t own a vehicle then wouldn’t half of the population also perhaps be lacking a driver’s license? Yet, we want to require that to vote. We also want to limit their opportunities to acquire said license. Interesting how that all fits together.
8Rick @ 4:
9Or both.
Ms. JJ I am in agreement with your opinion here except the opening statement about Patrick being plain goofy. Danny Boy is the high octane, premium, extra enriched, new & improved goofy, cuz everytime he pulls his head out of his butt, he proves that beyond reasonable doubt, along with Fled Ted, Screwy Louie, Cockeyed Cornyn, and the rest of the flying monkeys in the capitol.
10Patrick is the star of the Southern Baptist Church. The denomination apologized for its role in defending and promoting slavery, so I guess Dan thinks he has free rein now.
11If you want to vote, you can.
12Just takes effort. And grit.
Is voting really important to you?
Absolutely wonderful headline. Is is copyrighted??
13I can hardly wait to see what other government services Patrick will object to because “more people of color” don’t have access to them.
Publicly financed stadiums and basketball arenas? Public boat ramps?
Do you suppose the thinks the Democratic party backs only those things which cater to “more people of color” so somehow they are not being “real” Democrats by opening up options for all?
14Ormond @12: effort and grit don’t always suffice. In my state, your employer is required to provide you with 30 minutes off if your working hours cover all of the voting times. And when lines are 2-4 hours long, you’re faced with a choice: lose your job, or stay there and vote. Those lines are even longer from 7 AM to 8 AM and from 5 PM to 7 PM.
Me? I had it easy. In my lily-white precint, there were a dozen voting booths and no waiting: just walk in, do the ID thing, and then start marking the ballot. The poll workers told me that they had never had more than 9 people at a time wanting to vote. At the same time in primarily black precint a few miles away, some voters had wait up to 6 hours to get into the building.
Plus some folks figure that lengthy exposure to large numbers of other people during a pandemic can be worse than unhealthy – it can turn out to be deadly.
Finally, we’re not a third-world country. It should not require grit to carry out your fundamental right to vote in the 21st century. I’ve seen elections in an Indian state where 40% of the population is illiterate, but the voting was done without long lines or confusion. The Republicans want to turn it into a major problem that requires “effort and grit”, because they cannot win without cheating, gerrymandering, and depriving their perceived enemies of their vote.
15Ormond Otvos …
Right now, variations are allowed in many places based on the county election officer’s judgment on prudent use of resources within state law. Unless the state wants to set performance standards based on neutral criteria (e.g., population and distance) AND pay for accomplishing them, criticisms and tinkering will be examined for impacts on different groups.
Of course, there can be systems that allow all registered voters to get a ballot, exercise choices, and turn them in for counting. Colorado does that, and our participation rate in the past general election was 16% higher than the rate in Texas.
16The effort and grit required to vote should be equal across the board. If it can’t be equal then every effort should be made to make it as equal as possible. There’s no reason why I should be able to walk the block to my daughter’s old elementary school, walk in, vote, and walk out while people a few miles away wait hours to vote.
The question as always is why is it so difficult? What efforts are we making to make it less difficult? If this were really about preventing voter fraud and safe guarding our elections then you would make it easier to get the ID required. You would expand hours at the DMV. You would streamline the process of getting that ID. You’d certainly make it more affordable for all. The fact that we are moving in the opposite direction tells us everything we need to know.
The effort and grit it takes me to vote should be as similar as possible for everyone else. The fact that I look like I should be voting for them I’m sure is a coincidence.
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