7 ms·

I have a theory that since that the USA doesn't make election day a federal holiday is one of the major factors the working class of america is not voting, usua

• izacus 10y ago
  Hmm, here the elections are on sundays because of that. USA votes on workdays?
  • cag_ii 10y ago
    No one works on Sundays where you are?
    • lostmypassword2 10y ago
      Plenty of people work on Sundays. Where are you?
      • deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
    • izacus 10y ago
      Hmm, where did you get the idea of noone working? Most people don't work on sundays, but some of course do. Because vast majority of population doesn't work, this makes elections more accessible.
  • igorgue 10y ago
    That's EXACTLY my point, I'm from the "third world" and our election is on a Sunday and Monday is off for everyone, elections are a celebration, it should be a very important moment to everyone, enough to get so drunk the day after :-). It's so confusing living in the USA and looking at so much justified apathy for the political environment. What people here would never understand (and this is due being mostly white nerdy dudes here) is that it's so hard to get time off work when you're a blue collar guy, and even though it's paid off in some states (California for example pays for 2 hours of work that day) it's not enough. And it's stated by many companies that your work is more important, especially since nobody goes to vote anyways. I work at a startup and nobody went to vote, everyone has work to do. I cannot skip a "lunch meeting" cause I don't have "lunch meetings". And finally, I don't want to keep beating the dead horse but whatever, Bernie Sanders reintroduced the concept and hasn't being enacted https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Day_(United_States) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Day_(United_States)
    • rjbwork 10y ago
      >I work at a startup and nobody went to vote, everyone has work to do. Indeed, everyone has work to do. It does not absolve us of our civic responsibility. I don't live in California, but would be surprised for anyone at a startup here in Atlanta to have significant problems taking a couple hours out of their day to go vote were they to want to. Apathy is a definite problem however.
      • mordocai 10y ago
        The main problem is people who aren't allowed to take a couple hours off without being threatened with firing. Even if they are able to, they may get paid less which for someone in/near poverty can be unacceptable. Most retail and fast food workers are in this situation, for instance. Many of them will be working/commuting the entire time the polls are open.
        • rjbwork 10y ago
          Definitely agreed. Tech work/office work in general tend to be a bit more flexible.
        • etjossem 10y ago
          California has tried to solve this very problem by requiring employers to provide 2 hours paid time off to vote on Election Day [1]. I'm not sure how good compliance is, or how many employees are aware of their right. [1] http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/time-vote-notices/ http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/time-vote-notices/
  • hackuser 10y ago
    Tuesdays
• cpeterso 10y ago
  You don't need the day off if you vote by mail.
  • koolba 10y ago
    > You don't need the day off if you vote by mail. Many (most?) states don't allow voting by mail or absentee ballots without a bonafide reason. "I'm busy that Tuesday" doesn't cut it.
    • lotharbot 10y ago
      34 states + DC allow no-excuse early voting or absentee voting: http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/absentee-and-early-voting.aspx http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/absente... I live in one of the three states that mails every voter a ballot, which can either be dropped off or mailed in. If your state doesn't allow this, it's a simple reform you can push for. Write your representative.
• nommm-nommm 10y ago
  How would making election day a federal holiday increase voter turnout among anyone not working for the federal government. Plenty of federal holidays are working days for my company.
  • igorgue 10y ago
    And plenty aren't... Many companies actually respect that every single company I worked at in the 10 years I've lived in America respected Christmas and New Year Day for example. I don't get your point, your situation is not the same as everyone else.
    • kej 10y ago
      His point is that being a federal holiday doesn't mean everyone actually gets the day off, especially among the working class.
    • igorgue 10y ago
      Do you guys know what "increase" means? Seriously...
    • nommm-nommm 10y ago
      There's almost no companies that I know of that give off MLK Jr. Day or Presidents Day off. It's even a joke that only govt workers get those holidays off. Most places are not going to change their time off policy no matter what federal holidays are, if it's important for a company to have election day off they would already give it off, some official stamp of Congress isn't going to change anything outside of public office.
      • maxerickson 10y ago
        You could make it a really angry federal holiday by making it a Constitutional amendment. People will still need to work on election day, but the amendment could specify a minimum amount of time be available to participate in the election. (still, early voting makes more sense to me than that)
    • 10y ago
• darpa_escapee 10y ago
  Polls close very early. Good luck getting there on time if you work far from your district.
• pixelatedindex 10y ago
  I am inclined to agree. During election days, I struggled to get time off from my retail job to go vote. If young people are encouraged to vote, they should not be financially penalized for doing so. Also, you have to go to a polling place next to your neighborhood. Most of the time work is not anywhere close to just take off during lunch and get the vote out. It almost ends up being a hassle. Sundays would be better, but there is still a substantial part of the population that works on Sundays. Additionally, the "closed" primaries vs "open" primaries are bullshit. As a citizen I should be able to go to a polling place, choose a candidate and get out.
  • igorgue 10y ago
    Yes, it's very much bs, also take a look at the way districts are laid out in America for congressional and presidential races... It's just A LOT OF THINGS are a little fucked up with our voting system and the combination of ALL OF THEM makes it a HUGE MESS!
  • st3v3r 10y ago
    "Additionally, the "closed" primaries vs "open" primaries are bullshit. As a citizen I should be able to go to a polling place, choose a candidate and get out." Depending on the state, though, it's the party choosing who the candidate they want to put forward is. So it should be that party's right to decide who gets to partake in that decision. I mean, would it make sense for a whole bunch of Republicans to come and vote in the Democratic primary?
    • pixelatedindex 10y ago
      >So it should be that party's right to decide who gets to partake in that decision. I mean, would it make sense for a whole bunch of Republicans to come and vote in the Democratic primary? It shouldn't matter if a Democrat is voting Republican or the other way around. People can change their minds, and should not be disallowed to vote if they find that the other party is doing a better job in making the country a better place. If a whole bunch of Republicans vote Democrat, it means that the Republicans have failed to do their job! Saying you can't vote because of that is like a childish loser saying you can't play for the opposing team. My point is that such a decision should not be made and it segregates our democracy and makes it an "us vs them" fight, when in reality we're all in this together.
• hansjorg 10y ago
  The obvious solution to this is online voting. This also removes any hope of a fair election, so expect this to be pushed pretty hard in most locales soon.
• erispoe 10y ago
  People can vote by absentee ballot. They have plenty of time to do it. It's a consistent pattern that in places with frequent elections, turnout is low. There is a form of voter fatigue. Switzerland votes every six months, and has very low turnout.
• hackuser 10y ago
  > what are your thoughts about it, and how can it happen in America? I've seen every single proposal be rejected in congress. The Republican Party has, for decades at least, had a program of making it more difficult to vote. I'm not saying that to be partisan, it's just a fact (sometimes facts favor one party or the other, but we shouldn't ignore them, twist them, or try to create a false equivalence). I believe it's because they are the minority party, especially among working class people. A law called the Voting Rights Act was passed in the 1960s that restricted many of those practices, which had been used to prevent minorities from voting in much of the South. In the last few years the Supreme Court said the Voting Rights Act was no longer valid, and many of the practices (though in different forms) quickly returned in Republican-controlled states. For example, in many places they increased the documentation required to register to vote, and then made it harder to obtain the documentation. And then they dramatically reduced the voting locations, so that registered voters have to travel further and wait in long lines in order to vote.
  • chimeracoder 10y ago
    > In the last few years the Supreme Court said the Voting Rights Act was no longer valid That is not what they said. They did not overturned the VRA. What they did was overturned a section which labeled specific states and counties that were subject to increased scrutiny and protection, on the grounds that demographics have changed in the last 50 years, and that now that list is out of date and includes too many districts which no longer need the increased protection. They noted that the law could and should be amended to specify districts which previously were not in need of protection and now are, but that is outside the role of the Supreme Court, so they left it up to Congress to fix that.
    • TheCoelacanth 10y ago
      They did not overturn the VRA; they just overturned the part that allows the whole thing to be enforced in a timely manner.
      • dragonwriter 10y ago