Blah blah.
Ok, I'm saying this now, the day before Election Day so you all can make appropriate plans to go VOTE tomorrow. Even if you live in Collin County, Texas, and your vote may or may not make any difference at all.
I've been thinking about a radical new idea, and just wanted to know what other people's opinions are. In other "democracies", voting is required and I know in Australia, Election Day is a federal holiday. Now I don't think voting should be required. We have free speech here, and a non-vote is a statement that all Americans should be free to make. However, I don't believe all Americans have the choice whether to vote or non-vote because most adult Americans have some sort of job they have to go to on a TUESDAY, which is normally when election day is.
I know all sorts of economics studies would have to be made, and having more voters would wreak havoc on the slightly unstable election system we already have (see, e.g., Florida 2000, Ohio 2004, hanging chads, et. al.) but what kind of a democracy do we have when so many can't exercise that right because the boss might get pissed?
So yeah - make it a holiday, or change election day to a Saturday or Sunday (then evangelicals can make organized field trips to the polls after church) but make the polls truly available. And then we'll have no one to blame but ourselves when we have a 16% turnout rate.
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4 comments:
I totally agree with you. I think it needs to be a holiday.
When I moved in August I changed my address on the SOS website and they screwed it up. They put my Collin County address but never bothered to send me a card because they registered me to vote in Dallas County.
I had to leave work early Friday to drive to McKinney and vote early on a "Limited Ballot". What a pain.
But at least I didn't ruin my record of not missing one single election since I turned 18.
We missed you Saturday night!
You are so right.
While I did just tell the story of not being able to vote in the first presidential election after I turned 18 because we were driving back from my Great Uncle's funeral and were too late getting into town, don't forget that it is possible to vote early. I'm just saying. =)
Found you at Dallas Ks...
Isn't it like a big ordeal in England too? At least I got that impression from Bridget Jones' Diary...yeah, I don't get out in the real world much.
Anywhooo...I think your sub-point (about employers getting pissed if you take time off to vote) just goes along with the whole American society having screwed up priorities (including lack of health care for all citizens)...
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