Take my advice and skip ahead to at least 2:45 in this. The beginning is preposterously meandering.
If you can’t stomach the Maddow style, here’s a brief summary. Due to a budget problem in Alabama they’re closing a number of gov’t run facilities, such as some state parks and even DMV locations. Counties that are included in, but do not entirely comprise the list of locations, are some with the highest population of black residents in the state.
Alabama is a voter ID state. The most common form, not the only form, but the most common form of voter ID is a driver’s license. Insert theatrics here. And they were very theatrical.
“Hope springs eternal,” says Maddow, “that Alabama Republicans did not just deliberately zap the ability to get the most common voter ID in all of the blackest counties in that state. Hope springs eternal that it wasn’t specifically that racist.”
Hillary Clinton has already condemned this as well, says Maddow, to the great satisfaction of her viewer, no doubt. “It’s a blast from the Jim Crow past,” said Clinton.
Still, here are a few additional facts for you to consider before you jump all the way on the Maddow bandwagon:
1) The counties included in the so-called “black belt” are not the only counties in Alabama with black residents or even black voters. Segregation ended some time ago, Rachel.
2) According to her own report, the counties in question make up less than half the total locations where there are DMV closings. That means an equal number of DMVs are being closed in what – we can only assume from Rachel’s report on where the black population lives – are pretty darn white counties.
3) Not mentioned in Rachel’s report is the fact that you can renew your license online in Alabama. Here is a link.
4) There are still open DMV locations all around the state where you can get a driver’s license.
5) You can get a photo voter ID, with or without having a driver’s license, by going to a county registrar’s office. THESE OFFICES ARE NOT CLOSING. In other words, in every single county, including the “black belt” counties, there is a local office where you can show up and get an ID for voting, just exactly in the same way that you would get a driver’s license.
6) UNLIKE a driver’s license, the photo voter ID you can still get locally in every single county in the state IS FREE.
So maybe, just maybe, Rachel will admit it’s not really quite so racist after all? Probably not. But, as they say, hope springs eternal.