Voter suppression or voter protection?

I don’t know if there is a problem with voter suppression in terms of people actively trying to stop people from voting through intimidation or violence. There is a problem of voting access for some groups of people. First of all why do we vote on a random Tuesday when people have to work? For some people missing work to vote is not an option and they may not have time before or after work to vote. And some polling places have massive lines like several several hours long. That makes it harder to vote than it should be. Some people can’t make it to the polling place on that day for many different reasons and they should still have a method by which they can vote. My state moved to universal mail in ballots due to COVID which is convenient but opens up some concern for fraud.

I thought all employers are required by law to provide time off for people to vote, also often public transportation is free if you're going to vote, at least I thought uber had some kind of option like that. I'm not sure. My question is more along the lines of how difficult is it for people to register to vote and provide ID. That's where I hear most people complain about voter supression.

Funny, I was discussing this with someone just the other day....

How difficult? Got a gov't job? Ok. Got parents with car and driver's license? You're halfway there to getting your own license - as long as you're a minor.
If they don't have it, you won't either. Nor your children, and so on. If they do but you didn't go for one till after you turn 18, you're gonna have ahard time of it getting one, ans thus ID.

btw, when you get voter mailings about an election approaching, it HAS an quickie ID copy in the cover, yes? You need ID to register, so redundancies are superfluous.
However, what we should do is what every. single. country. on. Earth. does. And that's get voter ID - not your gov't job or passport if you're monied enough to travel, but REAL actual VOTER ID - when you turn 18. Even Afghanistan does this! For women! But the US that invented this crap, doesn't. And no, no gov't is paying cab fare for a poor person to travel to the next county, etc, etc not getting anyone the day off - another thing other countries do or they vote on Sunday or something.

If you're ever in the NY area, I can introduce you to folks in non-ID purgatory, starting with me. I'm registered to vote, but didn't go to get my license renewed in time, so that's gone.
And yes, they tend to be poor, but not always. This includes someone who didn't take my advice and get a license before he turned 18 via his dad, and another whose social worker mother (family friends) told me it was easy to get ID till one of her daughters went through mission impossible after waiting till after she was 18. I know a couple of brothers who lost everything in a fire decades ago and can't have theirs replaced, and a whole poor neighborhood full of people whose folks didn't drive so they won't either. Ever. Nor vote.

Perhaps if we could pretend that voting was a right equal to that of guns, we can stop playing around with this silliness and get this done like a civilized nation.

That includes not closing polling stations in poorer areas so that we can open additional ones in affluent ones to cut suburbanite wait times so they can get back to their tax deductible lunch on their paid day off.

So yes, we should all automatically get voter ID when we turn 18. Not show additional ID so they have an excuse to block us from voting, GET. Like everyone does.

Agreed, voter ID should be an automatic thing at 18. It makes me mad how difficult it is to just get a birth certificate. They used to just give the mom one soon as she pushed out the baby now you gotta fill a bunch of forms proving that yes, that was a live human being you just pushed out, then you have to get it signed by a doctor or medical professional who was at the birth, not sure what happens if you give birth at home or on n the side of the road it something then you'll get a certificate that must then be sent to a government building with a fee upwards of 30+ dollars (not including shipping) then a few weeks later you'll get a certificate in the mail, hopefully it doesn't get lost, only after then can you get a social security card for your new bundle of joy. I can't imagine the process after you've been around awhile. It's insane how difficult our country makes it to just prove you're an alive human being.

I looked on the New York website for anabsentee ballot, does that only apply if you have the birth certificate and such?

“I thought all employers are required by law to provide time off for people to vote”

I think the law differs state to state.

“public transportation is free if you're going to vote, at least I thought uber had some kind of option like that.”

Some places transportation is more or an issue than other places.

“how difficult is it for people to register to vote and provide ID.”

My understanding is they decided making people pay for a license constitutes a poll tax, which is illegal.

I know! Tuesday is so random. Why not a weekend, at least make it a federal holiday where everyone is off work or make it last 24 hours instead of 7am-7pm or whatever. Although we do have early voting and mail in options.

Anarchy