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>voting days mandatory time off. Think about that for a minute. If it were a full mandatory day off, then basically no retail could possibly be open. And peopl

>voting days mandatory time off. Think about that for a minute. If it were a full mandatory day off, then basically no retail could possibly be open. And people who are paid hourly are often those who can't afford to take a day off at all. Maybe a mandatory paid two hours? Making it trivial to vote by mail, on the other hand, means that people can vote whenever. Like they do in Colorado: Universal vote-by-mail packages are sent to every registered voter. [1] [1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/23/colorado-all-mail-election_n_6037028.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/23/colorado-all-mail-e...

gus_massa 10y ago
Here in Argentina we vote on Sunday, so most of the people have a free day anyway.
- soneca 10y ago
  In Brazil too. We also have mandatory voting (not defending this idea here, just stating)
jcbeard 10y ago
You know, some small cities in Europe (thinking of Germany) shut down for "quiet time" after lunch. Guess what happens? Nothing bad, life goes on. You know what would happen in America, we couldn't buy stuff for an hour or two. You know what else would happen? The voices of the people that make this country run would be heard. Make it half days for two days. You can easily identify "critical" services like medical/fire/police and stagger them or have early voting. Things like this work, and they work well. Doesn't matter how long, two hours would likely be fine. I've had problems getting to vote in that amount of time. I've waited in a line at a Texas polling station for more than that (which is why I said a day). These voting laws are only half the problem. Maybe via mail would fix the issue. I doubt people who decry "voter fraud" would trust mail-in ballots.
- SomeCallMeTim 10y ago
  >we couldn't buy stuff for an hour or two To be clear I'm not saying a two hour shut-down would be bad. Just that vote-by-mail would be better because it would allow anyone, on any schedule, to vote, and it wouldn't require hourly employees to lose money in order to vote. Not everyone works within an hour of their voting location, so a two hour shut-down wouldn't help them at all -- and as you point out, bad lines can mean two hours isn't enough, period. >I doubt people who decry "voter fraud" would trust mail-in ballots. Well, I agree, but only because they don't really give a crap about voter fraud; the difference in NC was only that they ended up being proven to be changing the rules to limit black voters. I just heard today that reports of actual voter fraud are not even as common as reports of alien abduction; no one in government actually believes these rules are about fraud, or they're idiots. Some are just better at hiding their racist and anti-Democratic-voter motivations. In any event, Colorado is one of (at least) three states sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters, so it's something that can be done.
- Frondo 10y ago
  Mail-in ballots are wonderful. They have them in Oregon (I used to live there), it's great: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vote-by-mail_in_Oregon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vote-by-mail_in_Oregon And fraud is negligible (tl;dr, 13 cases of confirmed voter fraud since 2000): http://www.ktvz.com/news/early-look-how-prevalent-is-voter-fraud-in-oregon/38043382 http://www.ktvz.com/news/early-look-how-prevalent-is-voter-f...
- chrismcb 10y ago
  While some things in some cities "shutdown" the entire city dies not. People will work during that quiet time.

gus_massa 10y ago

Here in Argentina we vote on Sunday, so most of the people have a free day anyway.

soneca 10y ago
In Brazil too. We also have mandatory voting (not defending this idea here, just stating)

jcbeard 10y ago

You know, some small cities in Europe (thinking of Germany) shut down for "quiet time" after lunch. Guess what happens? Nothing bad, life goes on. You know what would happen in America, we couldn't buy stuff for an hour or two. You know what else would happen? The voices of the people that make this country run would be heard. Make it half days for two days. You can easily identify "critical" services like medical/fire/police and stagger them or have early voting. Things like this work, and they work well. Doesn't matter how long, two hours would likely be fine. I've had problems getting to vote in that amount of time. I've waited in a line at a Texas polling station for more than that (which is why I said a day). These voting laws are only half the problem. Maybe via mail would fix the issue. I doubt people who decry "voter fraud" would trust mail-in ballots.

SomeCallMeTim 10y ago
>we couldn't buy stuff for an hour or two To be clear I'm not saying a two hour shut-down would be bad. Just that vote-by-mail would be better because it would allow anyone, on any schedule, to vote, and it wouldn't require hourly employees to lose money in order to vote. Not everyone works within an hour of their voting location, so a two hour shut-down wouldn't help them at all -- and as you point out, bad lines can mean two hours isn't enough, period. >I doubt people who decry "voter fraud" would trust mail-in ballots. Well, I agree, but only because they don't really give a crap about voter fraud; the difference in NC was only that they ended up being proven to be changing the rules to limit black voters. I just heard today that reports of actual voter fraud are not even as common as reports of alien abduction; no one in government actually believes these rules are about fraud, or they're idiots. Some are just better at hiding their racist and anti-Democratic-voter motivations. In any event, Colorado is one of (at least) three states sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters, so it's something that can be done.
Frondo 10y ago
Mail-in ballots are wonderful. They have them in Oregon (I used to live there), it's great: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vote-by-mail_in_Oregon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vote-by-mail_in_Oregon And fraud is negligible (tl;dr, 13 cases of confirmed voter fraud since 2000): http://www.ktvz.com/news/early-look-how-prevalent-is-voter-fraud-in-oregon/38043382 http://www.ktvz.com/news/early-look-how-prevalent-is-voter-f...
chrismcb 10y ago
While some things in some cities "shutdown" the entire city dies not. People will work during that quiet time.