“He has barely voted over the past 40 years, not because he hasn’t wanted to but because it has been too difficult. The only sure way to register to vote, he says, is to make a 157-mile round trip from his home to the nearest county seat. There is no public transport, and most people can’t afford the trip – even assuming they have a working car with valid license plates and insurance, which is rarely the case. The few who do make the journey have to run a gauntlet of racism and hostility that, they say, can often land them in jail on charges of drunkenness and public disorder.”
Curious why he can’t registered to vote by mail or print an online application. Here is the tribe’s application for an absentee ballot. It seems odd that someone would make the trip drunk and show up to register to vote. Did Gumbel look at any of the charges? Did he get names of those charged, or did he accept this assertion at face value? Andrew Gumbel left a lot of open questions on the sideline. Any thoughts welcome.