Early voting

[Symphonic]

I think early voting needs to go.

Here is the actual law about voting day:



Basically, that voting should happen the first tuesday after the first monday of November, and that states can decide how to handle people who are going to be vacant.

In my opinion, the only people who should be voting "early" are those who are in the military or other government service and are out of the country on election day. I think all this early voting is part of what is contributing to a society that craves polls and statistics and fear tactics to get people scared into changing their mind and voting differently.

Plus, with technology this day and age, we learn more about each candidate every day. Who would want to cast their vote 20 days in advance, only to find out something about said candidate that would have made you change your mind, but now it's too late because you "early voted"? Unless they want people to be sheep voting for party rather than principle.

Anyway, just a little rant. I wish early voting wasn't a thing for anyone but those ACTUALLY serving our country and are not in their polling location.

Can't we just have an election day?

[Lenonis]

Give me one reason why we should make voting less accessible to the populace?

[GennGreymane]

Well, what is the actual issue you have with early voting?

[Kujako]

I think there should be a way to vote online.

Meh. Mail in ballots are almost easier and far more secure.

[SirBeef]

We should have what ever it takes to get it right and which allows the maximum amount of registered voters to vote. Currently in my district we have half the number of voting machines than we did last year. Yet in the neighboring district they have double what they had last year. Funny how my district votes Democrat and theirs Republican generally. I was told it was becasue of the number of voter turn out from the last presidential election. Funny thing is mine cast twice the amount of votes than theirs.

This leads to excessively long lines and wait times. Anyone with a brain knows this causes people to not vote. I think we need mail in voting mandatory across the country for every presidential election. You get the ballots early enough. there are deadlines when to get them in the mail. I also believe we do not need instant results. Everything should be on paper and if it takes a week to tally the votes then so be it. The president and congress, not to mention most laws, judges and other officials we vote for do not take their seats until 2017. Plenty of time to do it right.

[Edge-]

No thanks, I dislike limiting access to voting. I'd rather give US citizens every opportunity to vote possible, because it's their country and all.

[Mihalik]

The organization of national elections should have long been federalized, and it organized by a federal agency, on a national level, with universal standards aimed at extending the suffrage as much as possible.

Furthermore it either should be held on a Saturday/Sunday or it should be a national holiday or a week long event.

Rigging the elections on a state level, is some third world banana republic shit.

And this comes from someone who thinks that Democracy and Universal suffrage are terrible ideas and a bad system. But as long as this is the system we got, it needs to be universally accessible.

I'm personally in favor of restricting suffrage to those who are able to qualify by passing a US citizenship test, and a basic Civics+Current events review, AT A BARE MINIMUM. If you are incapable of doing these, you aren't fit to participate in the Democratic process. But whatever the system used, it must be a universal national standard.

[Paranoid Android]

The problem with an national holiday/election day (I am all for it) is that again it seems like some states love closing voting polls. Early voting does help in not having longer lines at election polls. Yes I know you suggested online voting and there are some solutions. I'm being a real contrarian here, because I want more people voting then discouraging less people voting.

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The organization of national elections should have long been federalized, and it organized by a federal agency, on a national level, with universal standards aimed at extending the suffrage as much as possible.

Furthermore it either should be held on a Saturday/Sunday or it should be a national holiday or a week long event.

Rigging the elections on a state level, is some third world banana republic shit.

And this comes from someone who thinks that Democracy and Universal suffrage are terrible ideas and a bad system. But as long as this is the system we got, it needs to be universally accessible.

I'm personally in favor of restricting suffrage to those who are able to qualify by passing a US citizenship test, and a basic Civics+Current events review, AT A BARE MINIMUM. If you are incapable of doing these, you aren't fit to participate in the Democratic process. But whatever the system used, it must be a universal national standard.

As much as people rant on both sides how low information most voters are at knowing the issues. Sorry we cannot have tests to see who is eligible to vote.

[Mihalik]

Well, what is the actual issue you have with early voting?

Democrats like minorities, working class folk, students and such tend to participate the most. Restricting the access to the ballots always favors Republican candidates.

[Symphonic]

Well, what is the actual issue you have with early voting?

People vote so early that they may not get all the information about a candidate.

Imagine a kickstarter campaign where you are shown something really cool, so you donate, but by the time the product launches it is missing half the features you were looking forward to the most.

So that's my issue. With internet access and televisions, we learn new things about candidates often. Why would you WANT to vote for someone before you have all the information, when you're only given one chance? I think absentee ballots are fine since that's for those actually out of state, but if you are in state you should have Election Day on the actual Election Day.

[cubby]

I think there should be a way to vote online. I think voting day should be a national holiday, and I think anyone who can vote(legally) should be able to with little to no lines/wait time.

I'm with you on everything but voting online. National holiday should be a no-brainer, but there are currently few brains in D.C. so . . .

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People vote so early that they may not get all the information about a candidate.

Imagine a kickstarter campaign where you are shown something really cool, so you donate, but by the time the product launches it is missing half the features you were looking forward to the most.

So that's my issue. With internet access and televisions, we learn new things about candidates often. Why would you WANT to vote for someone before you have all the information, when you're only given one chance? I think absentee ballots are fine since that's for those actually out of state, but if you are in state you should have Election Day on the actual Election Day.

Our election process is 1.5 years long. We know both candidates pretty well (Trump is a very rare exception) by the primaries and VERY well by October. The constant revelations (almost daily now) about Trump's epic unqualification (new word!) do make people rethink their vote (if they thought at all). But for the most part we already know what we're getting. And if you are an undecided then you don't have to vote early (rare exceptions, of course).

[SirBeef]

Democrats like minorities, working class folk, students and such tend to participate the most. Restricting the access to the ballots always favors Republican candidates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GBAsFwPglw
Puts it exactly how the Republicans have wanted it for years.

[Stormspellz]

People vote so early that they may not get all the information about a candidate.

Imagine a kickstarter campaign where you are shown something really cool, so you donate, but by the time the product launches it is missing half the features you were looking forward to the most.

So that's my issue. With internet access and televisions, we learn new things about candidates often. Why would you WANT to vote for someone before you have all the information, when you're only given one chance? I think absentee ballots are fine since that's for those actually out of state, but if you are in state you should have Election Day on the actual Election Day.

20days is not so early, we have known the candidates for literally years, had a year of campaigning, and for the those few people who actually care about policy know where the candidates stand, so again whats the problem in today's society where not everyone is able to be in one spot on a specific day (and ever shrinking time range - thanks to a certain party) to execute their constitutional right being able to do it earlier?

[Edge-]

People vote so early that they may not get all the information about a candidate.

People voting on election day probably don't have all the information about a candidate either. This is not a compelling argument in the slightest as there are no rules or laws in place requiring that voters even know who the candidates are before voting.

Imagine a kickstarter campaign where you are shown something really cool, so you donate, but by the time the product launches it is missing half the features you were looking forward to the most.

So...like a lot of KS projects, then? : P

That's up to individuals to decide, either way. They're taking the risk backing/voting early.

So that's my issue. With internet access and televisions, we learn new things about candidates often. Why would you WANT to vote for someone before you have all the information, when you're only given one chance?

Because usually there's not a whole lot that's going to change your vote in the last few weeks before election. Yeah, there are the undecideds, but most of the early voting is done by folks who know their choice long before early voting even starts.

Again, not a compelling argument as it limits access to voting for many whom may not be able to vote on election day proper but know how they want to vote well ahead of it.

I think absentee ballots are fine since that's for those actually out of state, but if you are in state you should have Election Day on the actual Election Day.

In-state too. I vote absentee in my state each election and I much prefer it to needing to go to my voting location on an election day. Not to mention election day being a weekday and not a national holiday (in addition to there rarely being enough of them) severely limits many peoples access to voting.

You've established no convincing argument for why democracy would be better served by limiting access to voting for millions of Americans.

[zenkai]

I think early voting needs to go.

Here is the actual law about voting day:



Basically, that voting should happen the first tuesday after the first monday of November, and that states can decide how to handle people who are going to be vacant.

In my opinion, the only people who should be voting "early" are those who are in the military or other government service and are out of the country on election day. I think all this early voting is part of what is contributing to a society that craves polls and statistics and fear tactics to get people scared into changing their mind and voting differently.

Plus, with technology this day and age, we learn more about each candidate every day. Who would want to cast their vote 20 days in advance, only to find out something about said candidate that would have made you change your mind, but now it's too late because you "early voted"? Unless they want people to be sheep voting for party rather than principle.

Anyway, just a little rant. I wish early voting wasn't a thing for anyone but those ACTUALLY serving our country and are not in their polling location.

Can't we just have an election day?

What if I work at McDonalds and I have to work on Tuesday, but I am off Monday?

[Lenonis]

People vote so early that they may not get all the information about a candidate.

Why not argue then for a way to change your vote rather than wanting to get rid of early voting? Many people who early vote have already decided and in most cases there is little realistically that would happen that would change it.

[alexw]

Give me one reason why we should make voting less accessible to the populace?

Because early voting increases turnout and so makes it more likely democratic party candidates will win.

[Brickwalls]

Democrats like minorities, working class folk, students and such tend to participate the most. Restricting the access to the ballots always favors Republican candidates.

Ding, ding, ding.

This is literally the only reason republicans want limitations in place. Ignore any and all frivolous crap they say otherwise.

[May90]

I don't understand why voting only lasts 1 day. Make a voting week/month, rather than day, so people have no pressure and can vote whenever is convenient for them.

[alexw]

Well, what is the actual issue you have with early voting?

He's been reading/watching the news where they are talking about how surges in early voting mean that Hillary Clinton is likely to win tomorrow. So instead of thinking of how republicans like him can sway more of those early voters to his party, he wants to make it harder to voter so those early voters don't vote.

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Democrats like minorities, working class folk, students and such tend to participate the most. Restricting the access to the ballots always favors Republican candidates.

There's also the other side to consider. Republicans dominate among retirees who have lots and lots of spare time on their hands to go out and vote on election day. They also dominate among older workers who will be higher in seniority and so more likely to get time off work to vote.

Basically the whole aim is to restrict the franchise and have less people voting. Just like how they suppressed African American early voters in North Carolina this year by closing down early voting stations in African American neighborhoods.