by Tony Gray
posted: 18 January 2022

It is not racist to require voters to show ID such as a drivers license. If it is, New York is a racist state because I am asked for my license every election. So, why is it OK for New York but not Florida or Texas?

President Joe Biden's home state of Delaware requires ID to vote, although they don't require a photo ID.

Yet, a week ago, President Biden compared Republican efforts to ensure election integrity to racism relics like Bull Connor and Jefferson Davis in a Georgia speech he delivered.

"Jim Crow 2.0 is about two insidious things: voter suppression and election subversion," Biden told his audience. "It's no longer about who gets to vote; it's about making it harder to vote."

What are the terrible crimes committed by the people whom Biden suggests are modern day slavers? Requiring voters to show ID. Banning people from passing out water bottles to people waiting in line to vote. Reducing polling locations and Sunday hours. Tightening mail in ballots and drop-off boxes.

I don't have a problem with any of those things because for most of my life, there was only one day to vote -- Election Day -- and hardly anyone not in the military qualified for an absentee ballot. Voting these days is so much easier. For everyone.

Even if you disagree with legislators making some, or all, of the changes to voting rights, how are they racist?

Is a White person more capable of standing in line without having someone give them a bottle of water than a Black person? I don't think so. Do you? If so, you're a racist.

Does the DMV make it harder for Black people to get a drivers license than they do for White people? Of course not. The people who suggest that Blacks and Latinos are less able to get a license are the real racists. You need a license to enter a lot of bars, to get on a plane, rent a car, open a bank account, cash a check or get a job. Surely, none of them are as important as voting.

Reducing the number of polling places and cutting hours on Sundays are color-blind changes that affect all voters equally. Maybe Biden hasn't heard that there is a nation-wide shortage of workers. It's expensive to staff a polling place. When I got certified as an election workers decades ago, Albany paid about $100 per person, per day. It adds up. If you can find the people to do it.

No, folks, most of the voting law changes in the last year are a reaction to questions about fraud surrounding mail-in ballots, drop boxes and ballot harvesting. You don't have to agree with former President Donald Trump that the election was stolen to agree that election integrity was able to be questioned because of vaguely-worded election law.

It's not rigging the system if everyone plays by the same rules. Just like it's not rigging the system to try and ensure everyone is playing by the same rules.

The real racists are the white apologists who imply that Black people are in any way less capable of doing any of the things White people do.

A perfect example is the video of the White woman assaulting a Black woman pushing a stroller during one of the riots after George Floyd's death. It was like that crazy White woman was telling the Black woman she needs to understand the pain of being Black in America. So, she hit her. Wow. Tell me again, who is the racist?