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Baobab

(4,667 posts)
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 10:34 AM Mar 2016

THIS IS WHY ALL ELECTIONS NEED TO BE HELD ON WEEKENDS OR HOLIDAYS

Some huge number of Arizonans spent an entire work day waiting in line to vote for Sanders.

Their ballots are no longer secret.

This is why Election Day needs to be a national holiday. It needs to be changed immediately.

Can all Democrats rally around the cause of democracy, please?

22 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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THIS IS WHY ALL ELECTIONS NEED TO BE HELD ON WEEKENDS OR HOLIDAYS (Original Post) Baobab Mar 2016 OP
I've thought this for quite some time... TCJ70 Mar 2016 #1
It's literally about suppressing others astrophuss42 Mar 2016 #3
Yes, two national holidays: IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK. Hortensis Mar 2016 #21
Some people think its smart. Winner take all you know. Baobab Mar 2016 #10
How do we know who they were waiting in line to vote for? upaloopa Mar 2016 #2
Really? That's your takeaway? Read. astrophuss42 Mar 2016 #4
Yeah I read and nothing says who they were waiting in line to vote for upaloopa Mar 2016 #6
Hillary supporters were screwed too. It should piss everyone off. Think of this as a prelude for think Mar 2016 #8
RIF Lizzie Poppet Mar 2016 #9
heck, I would go so far as making voting mandatory Fresh_Start Mar 2016 #5
Not mandatory but make it so if no candidate receives a majority Baobab Mar 2016 #16
"two thirds of voters who came to her precinct had been mistakenly identified as independent by" think Mar 2016 #7
Seems like they need to hold a new election or something Baobab Mar 2016 #12
The voter suppression is so obvious it's sad.... /nt think Mar 2016 #13
I'd like to have a national primary election day, like we have for the general WheelWalker Mar 2016 #11
We also need to use a simple, PAPER BALLOT and scan it OPTICALLY. Baobab Mar 2016 #15
Better yet. Vote by mail in all elections which can fit into everbody's schedule. Tierra_y_Libertad Mar 2016 #14
Yes... as we do here in Oregon. I was skeptical at first... and I do miss WheelWalker Mar 2016 #17
Hi nieghbor. Same her in Washington. Tierra_y_Libertad Mar 2016 #22
Well that is something I'd agree with Tarc Mar 2016 #18
With early voting for those who have religious obligations on the weekends. (nt) ehrnst Mar 2016 #19
Mail in ballots is the only way to fo, for elections and primaries. Autumn Mar 2016 #20

TCJ70

(4,387 posts)
1. I've thought this for quite some time...
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 10:36 AM
Mar 2016

...it's pretty stupid that we don't make it as easy as possible for people to participate in our democracy.

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
21. Yes, two national holidays: IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK.
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 11:41 AM
Mar 2016

Scheduling voting on weekends wouldn't do. We don't want people deciding between a weekend with friends or voting, after all. Or trying and failing to fit it in between the kids' activities and hitting some sale at the mall.

And making a Money or Friday into a national holiday would just invite voters to head for a long weekend in the mountains instead.

And then let's also require people to vote anyway and fine them if they don't. You know, make it as easy as possible to vote, as in "easier" to just do it than to spend the day reading a good novel.

Baobab

(4,667 posts)
10. Some people think its smart. Winner take all you know.
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 10:56 AM
Mar 2016

Whatever it takes to win. Big money interests need Hillary to win. Otherwise 20 years of work setting up the WTO and progressive liberalisation of services will go to waste and wages will stay high in the developed countries relative to the rest of the world.

Reducing profits and preventing a race to the bottom in them. Then the wages elsewhere would probably go up, not down.

So a lot is riding on Hillary's victory. She is associated so closely with Bill who is seen as the most visible American associated with neoliberalism, so in a sense its a referendum here on the WTO as well, as well as the "Washington Consensus".

She really has to win to prevent a major loss of credibility for neoliberalism, which to some extent rules by fear and creating the mistaken impression that its brand of globalization is "inevitable".

In exchange for giving up their beloved social programs, public health care and education, the LDCs get the promise of preferential market access to developed countries if they can put in the lowest qualified bids on services and commodities. Struggling schools and hospitals, and IT departments will gain access to high skill, very low cost workforces.

For the least developed countries, that will be the long-awaited pay back for decades of participation in globalization. Many LDCs now have huge debts to the West which they hope to pay back with the money earned and sent back home via remittances via these service jobs.

In a sense the promise of work in America, the EU, etc, has been a El Dorado of sorts, that has allowed corrupt regimes to stay in power when they otherwise would have been replaced by the would be upwardly mobile, highly educated jobless class.

upaloopa

(11,417 posts)
2. How do we know who they were waiting in line to vote for?
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 10:38 AM
Mar 2016

I mean how could the gods of screw ups only screw up Bernie supporters?

upaloopa

(11,417 posts)
6. Yeah I read and nothing says who they were waiting in line to vote for
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 10:42 AM
Mar 2016

Again how can a screwed up operation only pick Bernie supporters to screw up?

And do voters have any culpability here? Did independents or people wanting to register yesterday try to vote in a closed primary?

 

think

(11,641 posts)
8. Hillary supporters were screwed too. It should piss everyone off. Think of this as a prelude for
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 10:46 AM
Mar 2016

general election...

 

Lizzie Poppet

(10,164 posts)
9. RIF
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 10:48 AM
Mar 2016
I mean how could the gods of screw ups only screw up Bernie supporters?

(emphasis mine)

Of course, the OP never said any such thing. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume this was just sloppy reading on your part, and not a slimy, deliberate straw man.

Fresh_Start

(11,330 posts)
5. heck, I would go so far as making voting mandatory
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 10:40 AM
Mar 2016

but also making it easy to vote.
vote by mail is easy...and works well.
Increases voter participation.

Baobab

(4,667 posts)
16. Not mandatory but make it so if no candidate receives a majority
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 11:11 AM
Mar 2016

then they have to have another election with new candidates immediately


NOT send it to the House to decide!

 

think

(11,641 posts)
7. "two thirds of voters who came to her precinct had been mistakenly identified as independent by"
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 10:42 AM
Mar 2016
42-year-old Kelly Thornton, who worked as an Election Day Technician in Yavapai County voting center 5 on Tuesday, told US Uncut that roughly two thirds of voters who came to her precinct had been mistakenly identified as independent by the election software. All of those voters were subsequently forced to cast a provisional ballot.

Baobab

(4,667 posts)
12. Seems like they need to hold a new election or something
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 11:00 AM
Mar 2016

I have never heard of anything like this happening anywhere else, where voters were still lined up by the thousands at midnight of the next morning. I went to sleep at 3 am here last night and there were still lots and lots and lots of voters waiting to vote in Arizona. (at 12:00 am on the 23rd)

What I am saying is that whomever set this up this way should not be rewarded by an election where a great many people were not able to vote, if anything, there should be a new election where they can all cast their votes and it should be held on a weekend. Maybe a Sunday.

This looks like a clear case of extreme voter suppression.

WheelWalker

(8,943 posts)
11. I'd like to have a national primary election day, like we have for the general
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 11:00 AM
Mar 2016

election. Everybody votes at the same time and we have a national primary winner. States could still assign delegates however they do now, but every state would hold their election or caucus on the same day.

Baobab

(4,667 posts)
15. We also need to use a simple, PAPER BALLOT and scan it OPTICALLY.
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 11:08 AM
Mar 2016

Clear plastic ballot boxes with unpickable locks and use commodity off the shelf scanners and the simplest open source software-something so simple even a 10 year old could read and understand it.

Everything public and out in the open. No touch screen voting machines.


(see

http://citp.princeton.edu/studies/voting/

158-page report [PDF] On Sequoia Voting Machines

http://coblitz.codeen.org/citp.princeton.edu/voting/advantage/advantage-insecurities-redacted.pdf

Andrew Appel's studies of voting technology

http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~appel/voting/

Insecurities in New Jersey voting machines (2008) Sequoia AVC Advantage 9.00H - YouTube



States’ Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?em


I. Intro to the Mathematics of Voting

http://www.ctl.ua.edu/math103/Voting/overvw1.htm#Introduction





No computers or least complicated possible computers = no hackability.

WheelWalker

(8,943 posts)
17. Yes... as we do here in Oregon. I was skeptical at first... and I do miss
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 11:31 AM
Mar 2016

the social interaction at the polls; but, the ballots are paper, the act private and secret, and it offers everyone time to consider and vote.

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