First Alabama passed a law requiring a driver’s license or similar state-issued ID to vote. Then they closed all but four DMVs in the state, and all of the DMVs in majority African-American counties. Sounds bad. It’s worse than that.
The whole process disproportionately disenfranchises African-Americans, rural voters of all races (who are generally more distant from DMVs), poor people of all races (who may not have the means to take time off work and travel across the state), and people with disabilities (who also may not have the ability to travel long distances, in public or borrowed transportation, to get a license). It’s racist and it ultimately limits the franchise to middle-class urban and suburban non-disabled folks of any race.
[T]he agency says by next March there may only be four driver’s license offices open in the state.
“Well unfortunately what citizens you know could expect is longer lines, or often times scheduling way in advance to get an opportunity, and probably the worst is some have to travel a significant distance to be able to get that driver’s license serviced,” Spencer Collier, Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Secretary said.
The focus has naturally been on the effect this has on voting, without stopping to think about the effect this has on DRIVING. That’s right, that privilege the state grants you to get behind the wheel of a vehicle and do things like drive to your job, drive the equipment you might need to be able to drive to DO your job, drive to hospitals and doctors’ offices, drive to the grocery store, and of course drive down the highway with the radio up and the windows down trying to forget that YOU LIVE IN THE MOST BACKWARD STATE IN THE NATION.
The economic impact of the inability to drive is huge, and will now fall disproportionately on African-Americans, and people of any race who are disabled and/or poor and/or live in rural areas.
Not just Mississippi Goddam, but Alabama WTF?
Source: Alabama DMV closings draw call for federal voting rights probe | MSNBC
Thought Snax 