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> It’s a little taxing, but everyone involved enjoy the process This is part of the problem in the United States. Voting is a chore, and you're often going to

> It’s a little taxing, but everyone involved enjoy the process This is part of the problem in the United States. Voting is a chore, and you're often going to lose money (unpaid time off) to do it. If elections were national holidays and voting was treated as a privilege instead of a chore, we would be much better off.

return-value 8y ago
Can’t you vote by mail in month leading up to the election? We can, that’s what I do since I’m working on election days.
- BatFastard 8y ago
  Depends on what state you live in. I know in my state (GA) you have to be military or demonstrably out of town during the period to qualify for an absentee ballot.
seren 8y ago
Why are elections not held on Sundays ? I assume that on average there are less people working that day that Monday - Friday, so less people would have to take time off from their job. Edit: Found this > In 1845, the United States Congress chose a single date for all national elections in all states. The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November was chosen so that there would never be more than 34 days between Election Day and the first Wednesday in December. Election Day is held on a Tuesday so that voters will not have to vote or travel on Sunday. This was an important consideration at the time when the laws were written and is still so in some Christian communities in the United States. This seems a pretty dated reason. Why no one is proposing to change it ?
- BatFastard 8y ago
  Elections are held on Tuesday as a way of restricting who can vote PERIOD. Poorer voters have a harder time getting off work, and getting transportation to voting site, which is usually close to their home, but not their work.
  - ntsplnkv2 8y ago
    Seems simple enough to just make it a national holiday.
    - graeme 8y ago
      The system is designed to prevent (certain) people from voting. So while a national holiday would make sense in the abstract, it goes contrary to the goals of those who make the laws.
      - graeme 8y ago
        To those downvoting: voter suppression in the us isn't exactly a secret: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression_in_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression_in_the_Uni... In that line, a national holiday for voting would encourage voting. As such, all the groups pushing voter suppression would be against a holiday.
    - subpixel 8y ago
      "Seems simple enough" is to politics what "this should be a quick fix" is to engineering.
      - ntsplnkv2 8y ago
        So we should do nothing, give up. The world is absurd. Oh well. As something that helps the problem, it is simple enough. It's not an abstract idea. Our particular vessel at implementing such a change is where the complexity lies and the problem is with that, not the idea. Often times quick fixes solve major issues for enough time for more permanent solutions to be put in place. Patching a pothole does the job. It's not perfect, but your car won't get damaged anymore in the pothole.
    - robszumski 8y ago
      I can't believe it's not either a national holiday or an accepted thing for all employers to give the day off. I know legally they have to give you an hour to vote, but the entire day sends a message that this is an important thing for you to do.
- coltonv 8y ago
  Elections were originally on Tuesdays because "Tuesday was established as election day because it did not interfere with the Biblical Sabbath or with market day, which was on Wednesday in many towns." Why hasn't it changed? Because to change it the party in power would have to vote to massively change voting block, almost certainly swinging several elections. Since the party is in power, they have no interest in this. Additionally, the people who want it changed are probably the people who can't easily vote on Tuesday. These people already don't vote, so they can't influence their politicians to support changing the day.
  - drdaeman 8y ago
    > Additionally, the people who want it changed are probably the people who can't easily vote on Tuesday. These people already don't vote I'm sorry but there is a non sequitur here. If someone is inconvenienced by voting on Tuesday, it doesn't really mean they don't vote on Tuesday. I don't know how it really is (non-US citizen and not in the US) but I strongly suspect there must a lot of people who don't fancy the extra hassle but still vote.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- rsynnott 8y ago
  One oddity of the American system I’ve noticed is that most polls seem to close REALLY early. It’s usually 7am-10pm here, so unless you’re working a 15 hour day (which is illegal in most circumstances) you should be able to vote. American polling centres also often seem to have massive queues and long waiting periods to vote, I assume due to understaffing and insufficient numbers of centres.
  - alistairSH 8y ago
    Yup. And that lack of polling places and understaffing is usually an effort by the party in power to suppress the vote in key (opposing) districts.
  - ghostly_s 8y ago
    > American polling centres also often seem to have massive queues and long waiting periods to vote, I assume due to understaffing and insufficient numbers of centres. Yep, due to a well-documented campaign by republicans to restrict access to voting that has been ongoing since the civil rights era.
briffle 8y ago
The state of Oregon has vote by mail. Its awesome. My ballot gets mailed to me a few weeks before the election. I fill it out, and can either mail it back (I have to pay for a postage stamp) or drop it off at a ballot drop box all over town. there are all sorts of safeguards for things like not getting your ballot in the mail, etc. I was also automatically register to vote as an independent when I got my drivers license. (they mailed me a form I could return/mail to change party, if I wanted to). My last state, my town was small, had a single polling place, and trying to vote before work meant getting there before they opened at 7am, or else wait 60-90 min to vote, and be late to work. (or come in after work, and wait 60-90 minutes).
- bluGill 8y ago
  This actually a bad idea: The reason for in person voting is poll monitors there are watching to make sure nobody knows how you voted. There are have been cases of "vote for me or I'll break your legs". When you vote from home someone can come by and watch you mail your vote the "correct" way in.
  - bradlys 8y ago
    How often is this an issue? Sounds like a made up scenario for the US.
    - jerf 8y ago
      It's better to worry about these things before they are problems. I don't know if it's happened in the US but it is absolutely a very common attack against voting systems, and any voting system not resistant to it should be considered suspect.
      - nickik 8y ago
        Switzerland, one of the most democratic places in the world has done this for a very lomg time. While im theory its relevant a practical issue has never happened once as far as I can remember. Going to hugly distributed areas to beat all voters up seems like a terrible attack vector. So maybe in some places it could be a problem but I dont see it as much of a problem in a modern First World Democracy.
vec 8y ago
I live in Colorado. A couple of weeks before the midterms I'm going to get a packet in the mail containing my ballot, instructions for filling it out, a pamphlet where every candidate on the ballot gets a paragraph or two to make their case, and a prepaid return envelope. I fill out my ballot at my leisure, stuff it in the envelope, sign the envelope underneath the flap, and drop it in a mailbox. There's a receipt with an anonymous serial number in the packet that I can go online and use to verify my ballot has been received. If I'm worried about missing the deadline there are also dropboxes in most government buildings I can drop my ballot in up through the day of the election, along with a few traditional polling places open on election day. Voter turnout here is about twelve points above the national average.
- nickik 8y ago
  We do that in Switzerlamd as well. I have never voted by going to some place. Voter turnout is still not very high.
  - eftychis 8y ago
    Hmm. I wonder why? Any ideas?
    - wizzairflyer 8y ago
      There's 4 voting sessions per year and, in my own opinion, about half of the topics being voted on are quite silly. This might induce some voting fatigue.
      - eftychis 8y ago
        Makes some sense.
- jawilson2 8y ago
  And in some states, like Florida, if you vote by mail it is 10x less likely to be counted.[1] Our democracy is broken, and the people capable of fixing it are actively incentivized to keep it broken. [1] https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article218654810.html https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-p...
sebazzz 8y ago
In the Netherlands you can vote for a large part of the day, about from 7:00 in the morning to 20:00 or 21:00 hours in the evening. How is the timing in the U.S. then?
- sli 8y ago
  It varies by state, but they're typically open for 12 hours starting from 6 or 7AM. Some states are open longer. https://ballotpedia.org/State_Poll_Opening_and_Closing_Times_(2018) https://ballotpedia.org/State_Poll_Opening_and_Closing_Times...
null000 8y ago
Or you can just do mail in ballots. Washington state, for instance, sends out ballots to all registered voters twoish weeks in advance of each race, and achieved almost 80% turnout for the 2016 election[1], for instance, which we'll probably top this year with the inclusion of pre-paid postage. https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/voter-turnout-by-election.aspx https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/voter-turnout-by-e...
Groxx 8y ago
I mean, it would help if voting didn't take literally several hours of waiting in line in the sun around here. You can (and some do) get heat-stroke from that kind of thing. It's utterly ridiculous, beyond "chore" and into "this might cause you to lose your job". Silicon Valley is surprisingly terrible at most things governmental.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  Silicon Valley is part of California, which has permanent absentee voting available everywhere; voting is only a chore if you choose for it to be a chore.

return-value 8y ago

Can’t you vote by mail in month leading up to the election? We can, that’s what I do since I’m working on election days.

BatFastard 8y ago
Depends on what state you live in. I know in my state (GA) you have to be military or demonstrably out of town during the period to qualify for an absentee ballot.

seren 8y ago

Why are elections not held on Sundays ? I assume that on average there are less people working that day that Monday - Friday, so less people would have to take time off from their job. Edit: Found this > In 1845, the United States Congress chose a single date for all national elections in all states. The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November was chosen so that there would never be more than 34 days between Election Day and the first Wednesday in December. Election Day is held on a Tuesday so that voters will not have to vote or travel on Sunday. This was an important consideration at the time when the laws were written and is still so in some Christian communities in the United States. This seems a pretty dated reason. Why no one is proposing to change it ?

BatFastard 8y ago
Elections are held on Tuesday as a way of restricting who can vote PERIOD. Poorer voters have a harder time getting off work, and getting transportation to voting site, which is usually close to their home, but not their work.
- ntsplnkv2 8y ago
  Seems simple enough to just make it a national holiday.
  - graeme 8y ago
    The system is designed to prevent (certain) people from voting. So while a national holiday would make sense in the abstract, it goes contrary to the goals of those who make the laws.
    - graeme 8y ago
      To those downvoting: voter suppression in the us isn't exactly a secret: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression_in_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression_in_the_Uni... In that line, a national holiday for voting would encourage voting. As such, all the groups pushing voter suppression would be against a holiday.
  - subpixel 8y ago
    "Seems simple enough" is to politics what "this should be a quick fix" is to engineering.
    - ntsplnkv2 8y ago
      So we should do nothing, give up. The world is absurd. Oh well. As something that helps the problem, it is simple enough. It's not an abstract idea. Our particular vessel at implementing such a change is where the complexity lies and the problem is with that, not the idea. Often times quick fixes solve major issues for enough time for more permanent solutions to be put in place. Patching a pothole does the job. It's not perfect, but your car won't get damaged anymore in the pothole.
  - robszumski 8y ago
    I can't believe it's not either a national holiday or an accepted thing for all employers to give the day off. I know legally they have to give you an hour to vote, but the entire day sends a message that this is an important thing for you to do.
coltonv 8y ago
Elections were originally on Tuesdays because "Tuesday was established as election day because it did not interfere with the Biblical Sabbath or with market day, which was on Wednesday in many towns." Why hasn't it changed? Because to change it the party in power would have to vote to massively change voting block, almost certainly swinging several elections. Since the party is in power, they have no interest in this. Additionally, the people who want it changed are probably the people who can't easily vote on Tuesday. These people already don't vote, so they can't influence their politicians to support changing the day.
- drdaeman 8y ago
  > Additionally, the people who want it changed are probably the people who can't easily vote on Tuesday. These people already don't vote I'm sorry but there is a non sequitur here. If someone is inconvenienced by voting on Tuesday, it doesn't really mean they don't vote on Tuesday. I don't know how it really is (non-US citizen and not in the US) but I strongly suspect there must a lot of people who don't fancy the extra hassle but still vote.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
rsynnott 8y ago
One oddity of the American system I’ve noticed is that most polls seem to close REALLY early. It’s usually 7am-10pm here, so unless you’re working a 15 hour day (which is illegal in most circumstances) you should be able to vote. American polling centres also often seem to have massive queues and long waiting periods to vote, I assume due to understaffing and insufficient numbers of centres.
- alistairSH 8y ago
  Yup. And that lack of polling places and understaffing is usually an effort by the party in power to suppress the vote in key (opposing) districts.
- ghostly_s 8y ago
  > American polling centres also often seem to have massive queues and long waiting periods to vote, I assume due to understaffing and insufficient numbers of centres. Yep, due to a well-documented campaign by republicans to restrict access to voting that has been ongoing since the civil rights era.

briffle 8y ago

The state of Oregon has vote by mail. Its awesome. My ballot gets mailed to me a few weeks before the election. I fill it out, and can either mail it back (I have to pay for a postage stamp) or drop it off at a ballot drop box all over town. there are all sorts of safeguards for things like not getting your ballot in the mail, etc. I was also automatically register to vote as an independent when I got my drivers license. (they mailed me a form I could return/mail to change party, if I wanted to). My last state, my town was small, had a single polling place, and trying to vote before work meant getting there before they opened at 7am, or else wait 60-90 min to vote, and be late to work. (or come in after work, and wait 60-90 minutes).

bluGill 8y ago
This actually a bad idea: The reason for in person voting is poll monitors there are watching to make sure nobody knows how you voted. There are have been cases of "vote for me or I'll break your legs". When you vote from home someone can come by and watch you mail your vote the "correct" way in.
- bradlys 8y ago
  How often is this an issue? Sounds like a made up scenario for the US.
  - jerf 8y ago
    It's better to worry about these things before they are problems. I don't know if it's happened in the US but it is absolutely a very common attack against voting systems, and any voting system not resistant to it should be considered suspect.
    - nickik 8y ago
      Switzerland, one of the most democratic places in the world has done this for a very lomg time. While im theory its relevant a practical issue has never happened once as far as I can remember. Going to hugly distributed areas to beat all voters up seems like a terrible attack vector. So maybe in some places it could be a problem but I dont see it as much of a problem in a modern First World Democracy.

vec 8y ago

I live in Colorado. A couple of weeks before the midterms I'm going to get a packet in the mail containing my ballot, instructions for filling it out, a pamphlet where every candidate on the ballot gets a paragraph or two to make their case, and a prepaid return envelope. I fill out my ballot at my leisure, stuff it in the envelope, sign the envelope underneath the flap, and drop it in a mailbox. There's a receipt with an anonymous serial number in the packet that I can go online and use to verify my ballot has been received. If I'm worried about missing the deadline there are also dropboxes in most government buildings I can drop my ballot in up through the day of the election, along with a few traditional polling places open on election day. Voter turnout here is about twelve points above the national average.

nickik 8y ago
We do that in Switzerlamd as well. I have never voted by going to some place. Voter turnout is still not very high.
- eftychis 8y ago
  Hmm. I wonder why? Any ideas?
  - wizzairflyer 8y ago
    There's 4 voting sessions per year and, in my own opinion, about half of the topics being voted on are quite silly. This might induce some voting fatigue.
    - eftychis 8y ago
      Makes some sense.
jawilson2 8y ago
And in some states, like Florida, if you vote by mail it is 10x less likely to be counted.[1] Our democracy is broken, and the people capable of fixing it are actively incentivized to keep it broken. [1] https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article218654810.html https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-p...

sebazzz 8y ago

In the Netherlands you can vote for a large part of the day, about from 7:00 in the morning to 20:00 or 21:00 hours in the evening. How is the timing in the U.S. then?

sli 8y ago
It varies by state, but they're typically open for 12 hours starting from 6 or 7AM. Some states are open longer. https://ballotpedia.org/State_Poll_Opening_and_Closing_Times_(2018) https://ballotpedia.org/State_Poll_Opening_and_Closing_Times...

null000 8y ago

Or you can just do mail in ballots. Washington state, for instance, sends out ballots to all registered voters twoish weeks in advance of each race, and achieved almost 80% turnout for the 2016 election[1], for instance, which we'll probably top this year with the inclusion of pre-paid postage. https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/voter-turnout-by-election.aspx https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/voter-turnout-by-e...

Groxx 8y ago

I mean, it would help if voting didn't take literally several hours of waiting in line in the sun around here. You can (and some do) get heat-stroke from that kind of thing. It's utterly ridiculous, beyond "chore" and into "this might cause you to lose your job". Silicon Valley is surprisingly terrible at most things governmental.

dragonwriter 8y ago
Silicon Valley is part of California, which has permanent absentee voting available everywhere; voting is only a chore if you choose for it to be a chore.