A Party that loses an election and blames voters for not showing up at the polls . . .

[branford]

149. I fully support efforts to oppose voter suppression,

but it doesn't change the basic point of the OP or my post.

First, a lot of what people complain about what they claim voter suppression is protected First Amendment activity. Discouraging people from voting by statement and similar conduct is unquestionably terrible, but is not, and cannot, be illegal.

Second, if your argument focuses on issues such as which means of identification are acceptable to vote, you've basically conceded the Republican point that identification is in fact appropriate to cast a ballot. Moreover, often when you dig down, the reasons for not allowing student identification cards to vote makes sense to many voters and the courts. For example, many students maintain their primary residence outside of the state and the risk of double voting is far higher than types of identification, for private schools, the student card is not state-issued, and and if a student claims the given state as his or her residence, they should already easily have (or have access to) another acceptable state identification like a driver's license.

Third, and most importantly, voter suppression is not why we lost so many elections last Tuesday. Voter suppression should be zealously fought when it is illegal, but blaming it, gerrymandering (no less for statewide races), and the actual voters for our loss is nothing more than making excuses for our own failings, and is ultimately self-defeating. In order to improve, we need to acknowledge what we did wrong, so that it does not happen again.