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Is voting easy or difficult?

Is voting easy or difficult?

  • Easy

    Votes: 25 78.1%
  • Difficult

    Votes: 1 3.1%
  • Other

    Votes: 6 18.8%

  • Total voters
    32
In California, you can opt to be on permanent absentee status and have all the time in the world to vote, just mail it in before the election or drop it off at the polling place on election day.

Why not make that the default? What is noble about having to take time off from work and go to a poll? What is noble about making the identification process that some are so desperate for come down a momentary decision at what is effectively the last minute? Why not have votes trickle in for the entire month of November, allowing a gradual counting and tallying. Wouldn't that reduce the rush and produce more accurate results?

It won't be difficult to guess which state.

Here is an example of a ballot that was several pages long:

Florida 2012 ballot measures - Ballotpedia

People are showing up to vote for president. WTF?

Why were the lines so freaking long? Hmmmm Could it be to discourage a particular demographic from showing up? or was it because these ballots measures couldn't wait until April 3, May 9, June 16 or any other freaking day on the calendar?

Why put this BS on the ballot during a presidential election? hmmmmmmmmm

Having a more detailed ballot that can be read slowly and examined for a while before mailing in or dropping off over several days or weeks would go a long way to easing that shock. Everyone would have time to find out more about whichever candidates appear on the ballot, and the text of any measures could be included with the ballot.
 
The only thing even semi-difficult is finding the time.
With Vote By Mail (VBM), you have a couple weeks to fill out the ballot at your convenience.


Currently easy. We had a commissioner a couple years ago who tried to jack around with polling place around here and for a time it was hard because I kept getting notices it was moving and wasn't sure where I needed to go. The city soon caught up to what he was doing and everything was fixed back to normal and once again I can walk up the street to my neighborhood church and vote with no issues.
With VBM, your polling place is your dining room table (or bed or back porch swing or...)

The action of voting is easy. However, depending on where you live, how many booths per 100 voters, and voting hours available, it can become quite a hardship to get the to polls while they are open. Though some will absentee vote, you don't have the privacy with those that you do at the polls and many people prefer the privacy aspect. So it depends on whether you're discussing everything required to get to the polls and then vote, wherein perhaps the lines are over 4 or 5 hours long if you can even get there on your days/hours off of work....obviously effecting the impoverished mostly.

Then as you point out, now many states are instituting the voter ID which will also be a costly hardship for elderly, commuters, and others who don't typically drive or travel abroad and won't have the proper form of ID. Again affecting the impoverished more than anyone else.
With VBM, there are no lines. Require ID at registration, not at the polls.

Voting is easy. There are multiple days to go vote (early voting), and it just takes a little planning to get there. It isn't hard.
The only planning I have to do is making sure that I have time to watch "Vikings", but then I live in Oregon where we have VBM.

Usually it's fairly easy.

Occasionally it's somewhat difficult, simply due to the huge number of people voting, which makes it hard to find a time to go vote.
There's only ever two people voting at my polling place - my wife and myself.

In California, you can opt to be on permanent absentee status and have all the time in the world to vote, just mail it in before the election or drop it off at the polling place on election day.
Then why lie?? Why not just go to 100% VBM and be done with it??

It won't be difficult to guess which state.

Here is an example of a ballot that was several pages long:

Florida 2012 ballot measures - Ballotpedia
People are showing up to vote for president. WTF?

Why were the lines so freaking long? Hmmmm Could it be to discourage a particular demographic from showing up? or was it because these ballots measures couldn't wait until April 3, May 9, June 16 or any other freaking day on the calendar?

Why put this BS on the ballot during a presidential election? hmmmmmmmmm
So do I like I do and take a couple evenings to go through a long ballot at your convenience.


Depends. For most people it is fairly easy. For other people who live in rural areas or those who's polling place might be a long distance from their house, transportation can be an issue. All in all...I like our system and believe that it provides for voting at ease in almost all situations.
With VBM, it doesn't matter if you can get to a polling place. If you can check the mail, you can vote.


Just in case anyone missed it, I'm a BIG proponent of VBM. Get rid of the polling places, get rid of exit polls influencing election results. Require that all election results be held confidential until all states have voted and EVERY SINGLE VOTE counted. Then release all of them at the same time. End the cost of supporting polling places, having boxes of ballots scattered from here to breakfast, forcing people to rush through voting and making half-assed choices. Let's make voting as easy as possible, instead of as inconvenient as possible.
 
Why not make that the default? What is noble about having to take time off from work and go to a poll? What is noble about making the identification process that some are so desperate for come down a momentary decision at what is effectively the last minute? Why not have votes trickle in for the entire month of November, allowing a gradual counting and tallying. Wouldn't that reduce the rush and produce more accurate results?

That's up to you to take up with your state. California does it right, IMO.
 
Then why lie?? Why not just go to 100% VBM and be done with it??

Who is lying? Give people the option to do what they want and don't limit it. Take that up with your particular state if you want that changed. That's how California did it. I haven't seen a balloting site in years and never will again.
 
Who is lying? Give people the option to do what they want and don't limit it. Take that up with your particular state if you want that changed. That's how California did it. I haven't seen a balloting site in years and never will again.

Are you absent??? If not, then why are you claiming that you are?? In my book, if I tell someone I'm going to be absent when I know full well that I'm not, that's lying. Just go to 100% VBM and be done with it. It's REALLY easy. Simple to administer. Expands the voting opportunities for everyone. Makes the election process cheaper and easier.
 
Are you absent??? If not, then why are you claiming that you are?? In my book, if I tell someone I'm going to be absent when I know full well that I'm not, that's lying. Just go to 100% VBM and be done with it. It's REALLY easy. Simple to administer. Expands the voting opportunities for everyone. Makes the election process cheaper and easier.

I was absent from the ballot box, yes. That's why I voted absentee. The system allows anyone who wants to sign up as a permanent absentee voter to do so. I'm following the rules that are set up. Whether you like the rules or not is irrelevant. Try again.
 
For a national office, shouldn't the rules be uniform throughout the nation?

I'm not saying they shouldn't be, they just aren't. Work to change things in your own state.
 
I've never experienced long lines to vote, but in the interest of full disclosure I've never lived in the middle of a big city, either.

It also probably helps that I get up early and am usually #2 or #3 to sign in.
 
Depends on how many times I vote in any particular election.
 
The act of voting is really easy, especially in my area (I think).

Choosing which candidate to vote for, however, can be difficult, especially if the choices are downright aweful.

It doesn't help that in some cases (Especially local elections) the candidate(s) you might actually like are so obscure they're write-ins...
 
I've voted in every federal election since I was eligible and it's always been the same. I go down to the local elementary school gym, show my ID at the reception desk (no line-up), get a paper ballot to take into a booth and mark and then drop it through a slot into a cardboard box. People count those ballots later and the election is decided. Why does it need to be more complicated than that?
 
I've voted in every federal election since I was eligible and it's always been the same. I go down to the local elementary school gym, show my ID at the reception desk (no line-up), get a paper ballot to take into a booth and mark and then drop it through a slot into a cardboard box. People count those ballots later and the election is decided. Why does it need to be more complicated than that?
My experience has been the same, except a poll volunteer with a cartridge of some sort walks me to one of the electronic polls, sticks the cartridge in to unlock it, and goes over the polling procedures. Why are nearly all of the poll volunteers like twice my age? Nevermind...
Same system for the last 2 presidential elections, not to mention the congressional and local ones.
 
My experience has been the same, except a poll volunteer with a cartridge of some sort walks me to one of the electronic polls, sticks the cartridge in to unlock it, and goes over the polling procedures. Why are nearly all of the poll volunteers like twice my age? Nevermind...
Same system for the last 2 presidential elections, not to mention the congressional and local ones.

Cartridge? Electronic? Why? Why don't you mark a piece of paper and drop it into a box?
 
Cartridge? Electronic? Why? Why don't you mark a piece of paper and drop it into a box?
Because the local I live in uses electronic polls?
 
Because the local I live in uses electronic polls?

Yeah, I get that, my question is, why do they? Why not just count ballots? Simple. Count the ballots and keep them until whenever.
I'm in Canada and I've gotta say, I don't think electronic balloting would fly in this country. I don't think people would trust that process.
 
Yeah, I get that, my question is, why do they? Why not just count ballots? Simple. Count the ballots and keep them until whenever.
I'm in Canada and I've gotta say, I don't think electronic balloting would fly in this country. I don't think people would trust that process.
i think they were put into use to avoid corruption in paper ballot systems.
 
i think they were put into use to avoid corruption in paper ballot systems.

Hm.
Given the presence of multiple scrutineers of the paper ballot system, I have to wonder which would be easier to tamper with.
 
Hm.
Given the presence of multiple scrutineers of the paper ballot system, I have to wonder which would be easier to tamper with.
Good question...
 
Lucky you. Off-year elections aren't bad, but the last presidential election, we waited almost 2 hours to vote.

I live in Oregon where we are blessed to have Vote By Mail. That means that my ballots are mailed to me, I fill them out at home, in my car, on my lunch, wherever I want to. Then I simply sign it and mail it back to be counted. The biggest wait I ever have is waiting for my wife to finish her ballot so that we can run them out to the mailbox.
 
I live in Oregon where we are blessed to have Vote By Mail. That means that my ballots are mailed to me, I fill them out at home, in my car, on my lunch, wherever I want to. Then I simply sign it and mail it back to be counted. The biggest wait I ever have is waiting for my wife to finish her ballot so that we can run them out to the mailbox.

That would be nice. We have absentee voting, but you have to have a valid reason to do it, so I'd have to lie.
 
That would be nice. We have absentee voting, but you have to have a valid reason to do it, so I'd have to lie.

If you're interested in pushing a campaign to get VBM implemented in your state, I can put you in touch with THE guy for VBM. My wife's cousin is the guy who put it together in Oregon. He's a strong conservative who got no support from the Reps. and ended up working with the Dems., so he knows how to "cross the aisle" to things done. He's worked with quite a few states in the development of their future plans for VBM and is passionate about this.
 
It depends on where you live and how privileged you are.
 
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