5 ms·

Want to vote in 2020? Do it early

30 points by pmoriarty 6y ago

smt88 6y ago
Title should have "(US)" added to the end of it, since HN is international and this article is US-specific.
- jonny_eh 6y ago
  It's good advice for any country though.
  - gus_massa 6y ago
    Is post by mail common in other countries? I have the polling station like 5 block away from my home, the election day is on Sunday so I'm free that day, I can choose to go from 8am to 6pm but if I go at 3pm there is probably only one or two persons in the queue. [Hi from Argentina!]
    - wjossey 6y ago
      Some countries have vote by mail. Many US states do as well. In the US our voting is on a work day, which is not given off by law. State politicians also control where polling locations are placed and how they are staffed, which leads to significant waiting times for people at polling places (hours and hours in many situations). The introduction of electronic voting machines has created additional bottlenecks, as you can’t scale out those machines horizontally the same way with paper ballots. You’ll often end up with just a couple of e machines in place of a location that would typically have 20 or 30 booths for paper voting. Did a bunch of research on this before our midterms in 2018: https://medium.com/@eagerlabs/if-voter-turnout-spikes-our-voting-infrastructure-wont-hold-up-dc782672b914 https://medium.com/@eagerlabs/if-voter-turnout-spikes-our-vo...
      - gus_massa 6y ago
        > In the US our voting is on a work day, which is not given off by law. State politicians also control where polling locations are placed and how they are staffed, which leads to significant waiting times for people at polling places (hours and hours in many situations). I know. I know. I just wonder why if we in Argentina (that is not the most organized country in the world) can make a reasonable election, it is so difficult there. [The elections are not perfect here anyway If you have some popcorn I can add a few anecdotes.] > The introduction of electronic voting machines has created additional bottlenecks, as you can’t scale out those machines horizontally the same way with paper ballots. It is weird because we once tried here with mixed voting machines. (You choose whom to vote in the machine, the machine gives you a paper version, and you put it in the urn.) And it was faster than the manual version. You just need more machines.
    - jonny_eh 6y ago
      What if you get sick on election day?
  - aplummer 6y ago
    Can't get a sausage in bread afterwards by mail!
  - komali2 6y ago
    Any country with voting, heh. Now I wonder what percentage of HN posters live in non-democratic or "democratic" nations. Surely there's been a by-country breakdown at some point?
microcolonel 6y ago
Good advice for any voting year: get a checklist and check things off in advance so that voting is extremely convenient when polling time comes.
andrew_ 6y ago
> All this is eroding faith in the exercise of democracy this November — and, potentially, in the election results themselves. Anecdotally, in my circles not a single person has expressed lost faith or that their faith has eroded. If anything, the current climate has emboldened my peers' belief that it's important and effective. From my perspective, the media is doing more to try to convince people that democracy in this country is in decline than any other force, and I suspect it's financially motivated more than anything else.
- happytoexplain 6y ago
  I am your anecdotal mirror :\
- flanbiscuit 6y ago
  > If anything, the current climate has emboldened my peers' belief that it's important and effective. This feels true to me now as well. In 2014 there was a report[1] released that concluded that the US was an Oligarchy and that our vote did not count. Personally that seemed to align with how my friends and I felt, where corporate campaign donations and lobbying influenced our politicians decisions more than the every-person voter. Back then I had a more bleak view on the effectiveness of our democracy and I'm sure others felt that way as well. I still voted though, I have always voted since I turned 18. But ever since the 2016 election (and the 2018 mid-term elections) we've seen just how important voting is. If every eligible voter in the US got out and was able to vote, we'd have a much different government right now. 1. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746 https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746
  - andrew_ 6y ago
    > If every eligible voter in the US got out and was able to vote, we'd have a much different government right now. That's a dicey assertion to make, because we don't know how those who stayed home would have leaned. All of the conventional widsom in 2016 pointed to someone else in the White House, and yet here we are. It's just impossible to gauge how those who stay silent truly think.

30 points by pmoriarty 6y ago

smt88 6y ago

Title should have "(US)" added to the end of it, since HN is international and this article is US-specific.

jonny_eh 6y ago
It's good advice for any country though.
- gus_massa 6y ago
  Is post by mail common in other countries? I have the polling station like 5 block away from my home, the election day is on Sunday so I'm free that day, I can choose to go from 8am to 6pm but if I go at 3pm there is probably only one or two persons in the queue. [Hi from Argentina!]
  - wjossey 6y ago
    Some countries have vote by mail. Many US states do as well. In the US our voting is on a work day, which is not given off by law. State politicians also control where polling locations are placed and how they are staffed, which leads to significant waiting times for people at polling places (hours and hours in many situations). The introduction of electronic voting machines has created additional bottlenecks, as you can’t scale out those machines horizontally the same way with paper ballots. You’ll often end up with just a couple of e machines in place of a location that would typically have 20 or 30 booths for paper voting. Did a bunch of research on this before our midterms in 2018: https://medium.com/@eagerlabs/if-voter-turnout-spikes-our-voting-infrastructure-wont-hold-up-dc782672b914 https://medium.com/@eagerlabs/if-voter-turnout-spikes-our-vo...
    - gus_massa 6y ago
      > In the US our voting is on a work day, which is not given off by law. State politicians also control where polling locations are placed and how they are staffed, which leads to significant waiting times for people at polling places (hours and hours in many situations). I know. I know. I just wonder why if we in Argentina (that is not the most organized country in the world) can make a reasonable election, it is so difficult there. [The elections are not perfect here anyway If you have some popcorn I can add a few anecdotes.] > The introduction of electronic voting machines has created additional bottlenecks, as you can’t scale out those machines horizontally the same way with paper ballots. It is weird because we once tried here with mixed voting machines. (You choose whom to vote in the machine, the machine gives you a paper version, and you put it in the urn.) And it was faster than the manual version. You just need more machines.
  - jonny_eh 6y ago
    What if you get sick on election day?
- aplummer 6y ago
  Can't get a sausage in bread afterwards by mail!
- komali2 6y ago
  Any country with voting, heh. Now I wonder what percentage of HN posters live in non-democratic or "democratic" nations. Surely there's been a by-country breakdown at some point?

microcolonel 6y ago

Good advice for any voting year: get a checklist and check things off in advance so that voting is extremely convenient when polling time comes.

andrew_ 6y ago

> All this is eroding faith in the exercise of democracy this November — and, potentially, in the election results themselves. Anecdotally, in my circles not a single person has expressed lost faith or that their faith has eroded. If anything, the current climate has emboldened my peers' belief that it's important and effective. From my perspective, the media is doing more to try to convince people that democracy in this country is in decline than any other force, and I suspect it's financially motivated more than anything else.

happytoexplain 6y ago
I am your anecdotal mirror :\
flanbiscuit 6y ago
> If anything, the current climate has emboldened my peers' belief that it's important and effective. This feels true to me now as well. In 2014 there was a report[1] released that concluded that the US was an Oligarchy and that our vote did not count. Personally that seemed to align with how my friends and I felt, where corporate campaign donations and lobbying influenced our politicians decisions more than the every-person voter. Back then I had a more bleak view on the effectiveness of our democracy and I'm sure others felt that way as well. I still voted though, I have always voted since I turned 18. But ever since the 2016 election (and the 2018 mid-term elections) we've seen just how important voting is. If every eligible voter in the US got out and was able to vote, we'd have a much different government right now. 1. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746 https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746
- andrew_ 6y ago
  > If every eligible voter in the US got out and was able to vote, we'd have a much different government right now. That's a dicey assertion to make, because we don't know how those who stayed home would have leaned. All of the conventional widsom in 2016 pointed to someone else in the White House, and yet here we are. It's just impossible to gauge how those who stay silent truly think.