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Mandatory holiday - Election Day

Election day - Mandatory holiday?

  • Yes

    Votes: 15 75.0%
  • No

    Votes: 5 25.0%

  • Total voters
    20
Its easy for me to take half a day and go vote, but some of the hourly guys I work with are often expected to put in 12 hours routinely. Not everyone gets the same freedoms and because of situations like that, I support it being a holiday.
 
But why should people who do educate themselves on the issues but have a strict schedule for their job be limited to only a few hours to have the opportunity to vote?

Because that is what they chose to do.
They could take a V day...... or... ask their supervisor to let them go vote.... or... ask their supervisor to let them have a longer lunch break so they can go vote..... or..... ask to get off work early to go vote.... or... go to the polling station to vote before they go home....or hell even call in sick to vote. Not to mention there is "early voting" in many places up to like a week or at least 5 days before the "election day".


See, plenty of options, we don't a holiday that many folks will just take advantage of.
 
So what? It's a minor inconvenience at best.

The average size of a congressional district is 646,000 citizens. Depending on how many voting centers a congressional district has, it can very well be more than a minor inconvenience.
 
I think you misread my post. What I meant was that it leaves only 2 hours for most of the voters in that district to cast their vote. In those 2 hours, between 5 and 7, is when the majority of voters in a district will cast their vote. That can lead to a horrible backlog in voting. A day off can alleviate that backlog.

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone works a lame ass 9-5.

Which reminds me...

Alot of polling locations open up before 9am...... BEFORE WORK. Add this to my list of options in my previous post.
 
Because that is what they chose to do.
They could take a V day...... or... ask their supervisor to let them go vote.... or... ask their supervisor to let them have a longer lunch break so they can go vote..... or..... ask to get off work early to go vote.... or... go to the polling station to vote before they go home....or hell even call in sick to vote. Not to mention there is "early voting" in many places up to like a week or at least 5 days before the "election day".


See, plenty of options, we don't a holiday that many folks will just take advantage of.

So you want to give people the choice on asking their supervisor to give them time to vote, which they may or may not do, or do early voting options, or go at some time when they can be off the clock, but you don't want to give them the additional option of voting any time during the day which would actually help them vote?
 
Well that goes without saying. And why we should get rid of electronic voting machines. Go entirely back to paper and count them on live tv.
I completely agree with this.

No one is saying otherwise. It is more if we want to make it easier for them to vote.
I think we should make it as easy as possible to exercise the Constitutional privilege of voting. Some people do not know their work schedule in advance, and many have to work beyond the time polling stations are open and thus cannot vote. I think the workplace shouldn't be a hindrance to voting. It would only be a mandatory holiday every other year during election times.
I think that's illegal. Polling stations cannot have campaign material at their sites. Besides, we all know that what politicians say is rarely the truth.
It may vary from state to state. I never saw material inside the polling station, but in the parking lot there was an Obama display with an information table and a McCain display with information. Plus there are usually campaign signs on the polling stations property.
So you're okay with more ignorant votes?
I'm not okay with more of them, but I feel that I don't have the right to deny them. I think voting without knowing anything about candidates is abusing the privilege to vote, but they should still have that right.
 
The average size of a congressional district is 646,000 citizens. Depending on how many voting centers a congressional district has, it can very well be more than a minor inconvenience.

There are multiple precincts per district. Minor inconvenience, like I said.
 
Contrary to popular belief, not everyone works a lame ass 9-5.

Which reminds me...

Alot of polling locations open up before 9am...... BEFORE WORK. Add this to my list of options in my previous post.

And while a lot of people get off of work at 5p, a lot of people also start work well before 9am, which prohibits their ability to vote before work, which is another reason why Election Day should be a holiday.
 
So you want to give people the choice on asking their supervisor to give them time to vote, which they may or may not do, or do early voting options, or go at some time when they can be off the clock, but you don't want to give them the additional option of voting any time during the day which would actually help them vote?

If they take a vacation day, then they have all day long to go vote. Works for me.

By the way, have any of you that supports this idea figured out how much it will cost?
 
So you want to give people the choice on asking their supervisor to give them time to vote, which they may or may not do, or do early voting options, or go at some time when they can be off the clock, but you don't want to give them the additional option of voting any time during the day which would actually help them vote?

Yes. Because if they really wanted to vote, they are going to fit it into their schedule for that ONE DAY of the year.

Making it a holiday will just bring lazy schmoes who don't really care about voting to the polls for the first few years, after that they will just take advantage of their free day off work and stop bothering with it.

Leaving on the people who gave a rats ass left to do all the voting all over again.
 
There are multiple precincts per district. Minor inconvenience, like I said.

It depends on how many voter centers there are, and the number of people that each center can cater to. Again, a holiday would help alleviate it when it becomes a major inconvenience.
 
If they take a vacation day, then they have all day long to go vote. Works for me.

By the way, have any of you that supports this idea figured out how much it will cost?

Not all jobs give vacation days.

Now that I think about it, when voting day came around last November, I was in the middle of an implementation and at a time like that, asking for a day off would probably have gotten me fired. (I voted early because I knew it was coming though)
 
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I think we should make it as easy as possible to exercise the Constitutional privilege of voting. Some people do not know their work schedule in advance, and many have to work beyond the time polling stations are open and thus cannot vote. I think the workplace shouldn't be a hindrance to voting. It would only be a mandatory holiday every other year during election times.

What's wrong with vote by mail?

It may vary from state to state. I never saw material inside the polling station, but in the parking lot there was an Obama display with an information table and a McCain display with information. Plus there are usually campaign signs on the polling stations property.

Hmmm. Maybe it's a certain distance from the polling location?

I'm not okay with more of them, but I feel that I don't have the right to deny them. I think voting without knowing anything about candidates is abusing the privilege to vote, but they should still have that right.

Again, no one is saying to deny them. Just not make it any easier. If you really want to vote, you find a way. But making it really easy for idiots to vote ensures we can candidates picked by idiots and that helps no one.
 
It depends on how many voter centers there are, and the number of people that each center can cater to. Again, a holiday would help alleviate it when it becomes a major inconvenience.


How often does that happen?
 
Maybe I dont find this to be a big deal because every time Ive went to vote I have showed up, checked in to verify I can vote, and moved on to the voting booth and when I was out...

Every time I have gone to vote, Ive been in and out faster than any other service I have ever used.
 
Making it a holiday will just bring lazy schmoes who don't really care about voting to the polls for the first few years, after that they will just take advantage of their free day off work and stop bothering with it.

What's wrong with that? I don't care if they take the rest of the day off, or if they take the day off without voting later. But there's nothing wrong with giving people ample opportunity to vote.

And there's a reason why older people are such a powerful voting bloc - it's because they are retired and have the free day to vote. By making it a holiday, more people can take advantage of it to vote, which they probably will.
 
Not all jobs give vacation days.

Now that I think about it, when voting day came around last November, I was in the middle of an implementation and at a time like that, asking for a day off would probably have gotten me fired. (I voted early because I knew it was coming though)

LOL, if people want to vote, they will. If they don't really care to, then it's not a big deal to them.

BTW, have you figured out how much it will cost?
 
Not all jobs give vacation days.

Now that I think about it, when voting day came around last November, I was in the middle of an implementation and at a time like that, asking for a day off would probably have gotten me fired. (I voted early because I knew it was coming though)

DING DING DING DING DING.

You voted early because you knew it was coming.
Guess what, we have early voting for that purpose... thus... we don't need no stinking vacation day.... err holiday.
 
LOL, if people want to vote, they will. If they don't really care to, then it's not a big deal to them.

BTW, have you figured out how much it will cost?

I don't care how much it will cost.
 
What's wrong with that? I don't care if they take the rest of the day off, or if they take the day off without voting later. But there's nothing wrong with giving people ample opportunity to vote.

And there's a reason why older people are such a powerful voting bloc - it's because they are retired and have the free day to vote. By making it a holiday, more people can take advantage of it to vote, which they probably will.

People have ample opportunity to vote now, most just don't want to.
 
DING DING DING DING DING.

You voted early because you knew it was coming.
Guess what, we have early voting for that purpose... thus... we don't need no stinking vacation day.... err holiday.

Or we can have both early voting and a vacation day and those who voted early have the benefit of a day off for their prudence.
 
I don't care how much it will cost.

How irresponsible.

You want to spend brazillions of dollars on a scheme that will likely have zero impact on voter turnout?
 
DING DING DING DING DING.

You voted early because you knew it was coming.
Guess what, we have early voting for that purpose... thus... we don't need no stinking vacation day.... err holiday.

It very well could have happened that there was no implementation scheduled but there could have been an unexpected outage and an all-hands situation. :shrug:
 
How irresponsible.

You want to spend brazillions of dollars on a scheme that will likely have zero impact on voter turnout?

I doubt it will have zero impact. And there are certain things that I consider to be more important than money.

Besides, most of this debate can simply be solved if we have voting over a Saturday and Sunday where most people are not scheduled to work.
 
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