I really like the idea, although it could create a nasty barrier to entry for hypothetical small, upstart parties wanting to partake in the system.
That king remark came from Strollen who seems to not only blame the general populace for our every 4 year there are massive line problems somewhere, up to 10 hours, but also wants to restrict whose allowed to vote on whether or not they can parrot the bullshit politicians voice on TV.
Yeah, I thought of this too, but ended up with the following considerations:
- Small upstart parties are already basically shut out
- upstart parties would have members who were basically subsets of at least one of the major parties, and so their voting districts would be served by virtue of one of the major parties ensuring coverage of that district.
As things stand, we have states which hold primaries for the major parties, and then have the parties literally say they don’t even count.
Like Washington, where they hold both a primary AND a caucus… and the democrats only respect the results of the caucus, and the republicans only respect the results of the primary. But the populace pays to run them both. Or maybe the parties pay to run the caucuses? I forget, maybe someone from Washington can chime in, but I know it’s stupid on some level.
5+ hours to vote in Arizona?
I believe the parties have to pay for caucuses. The counting is done by the party officials.
That’s correct. and caucuses tend to be events that have worse wait time, not enough ballot problems etc. I know they “feel” like election, but I don’t believe they technically are. The constitution only enumerates elections every two years. So I imagine that state laws govern most of the rules for other elections.
As I remember reading about the Iowa caucuses they were pretty much an “all evening” thing. It’s not like everyone shows up and they instantly have some kind of vote.
The voting should take place over the weekend instead of Tuesday, but that would require an amendment, I believe. Not likely to happen, especially since the Republicans will dig in and fight to the death to stop anything that makes voting easier.
Why not just move Columbus day or MLK Day to election day so it’s a federal holiday?
Or Veterans Day?
What percentage increase in voting do you think you would see if election day was a holiday? I bet in reality the results would be disappointing.
Until 100% of people vote, the reality will always disappoint, but if having the voting day fall on a federal holiday allows an extra 1 or 2 people the chance to vote, than I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s worth it. There is nothing more valuable in our nation than our ability to vote for our leaders and make our voices heard.
Considering those we’re worried about not being able to vote easily enough probably don’t work jobs that close on most holidays to begin with, I do agree it probably wouldn’t help that particular issue much (unless you actually managed to completely shut down all workplaces nationwide barring absolute “guy who keeps the nuclear power plant from melting down”-level mission critical personnel).
I have to work on all the federal holidays mentioned so far, and I make a decent living at a good job. The only federal ones we get are Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.
True. Perhaps a limit to a single four-hour shift for hourly workers?
Or I DUNNO MAYBE EXPAND SUPPORT FOR EARLY/ABSENTEE VOTING oh wait there’s all that widespread fraud we need to crack down on at all costs.
Topic makes me angry.
lol - it’s okay, Adam. We all understand.
The one thing I think is sufficient is having enough early voting. Retail workers don’t usually work more than 56 hours per week (2 * 28 hrs so they don’t get full time). They can find time to vote somewhere in there.
The big thing the crooked red state governments like to do is restrict Sunday voting- because black churches loved to do service then vote. I’d say minimum of 12 days with full hours on one Sunday would be sufficient.
Would do more than a holiday, as most service workers don’t get holidays ever.
I get angry too, even if I’m on the opposite side of the liberal spectrum as Adam.
Oh yeah, for sure. When I was working at a credit card processor, we did not close. Full-stop. In a blizzard of the century scenario, the company would rent 4-wheelers and pick staff up and stock the building with sleeping bags and pizza till things blew over.
But on the flipside, the general argument here (the poorest and most disadvantaged of us are often those held back from voting both by crummy, law-skirting bosses who’ll fire 'em for not showing on Election day or asking for time off AND by the myriad other crappy circumstances in their lives, like not owning cars and having to work multiple jobs and dealing with public transit and crazy home life etc etc etc) sort of presupposes that someone possibly tasked with working any day, 24/7/365 will be more able to vote by some other means (either a boss conscientious enough to abide the law and give them an hour at lunch, or by early voting, or by stopping by the uncrowded suburban voting precinct after their predictable 8-hour shift is up and they can drive home in their nice, reliable car).
Which isn’t to diminish the sort-of-crumminess a fairly nice 365-days-a-year type workplace can entail, but rather to say it’s a little different from the folks who bus from their shift at Walmart to their shift at Hardees each day.
Not that I’m opposed to having a federal holiday for voting (rather, I strongly support the notion). Just wanted to note that it–like most proposed solutions–isn’t a 100% silver bullet by itself.
And yet people can’t find time every 2 and 4 years to show up as it is.