Sam Smith - Until election day is made a national holiday, as it should be, my hunch is that treating it more as a celebration than just another of life's duties would help turnout and involvement. For example, we could have pot luck suppers on election night for those who voted, and we could have food stands, music and other performances near election centers.
It would also help if folks saw it more as a neighborhood event. I was a neighborhood commissioner in Washington at one point, and it was interesting how much people actually care about their 'hood. One thing to do: find the elderly and infirm in your neighborhood and offer them a ride to and from the election place.
5 comments:
It's a lovely idea and would quite likely work great for some, but Oregon's vote my mail would be a more likely solution in this era. with vote by mail every registered voter in the state is sent a ballot. You have about 3 weeks to vote, and can either mail it back, or drop it off at any official ballot drop which are at places like libraries, post offices and county ballot boxes. Oregon also has a motor voter law that registers people getting ID at state DMVs. These 2 laws combined has made Oregon's state voter rolls increase dramatically. Still, there are a couple more steps Oregon could take to improve voter turnout, same day registration and open primaries.
Vote by mail is a superb method of eliminating any control over who actually filled up the ballots being recorded.
6:33
Oregon has had vote by mail for about 20 years, and there have been very few problems with it. The Counties check signatures on the mail in ballots with the signature on the voters registration card. It stops most of the GOPs favorite voter suppression tricks like moving poll locations, reducing numbers of poll locations, not allocating enough voting machines for precincts in minority neighborhoods, and leaves a paper trail of returned in ballots.
I have always voted. It was something my parents promoted, but didn't force their opinions in any way.
However, it was an episode of Northern Exposure that truly caused me to realize how important elections are, and how lucky we are if we are allowed to vote.
I am a little more cynical now, but still inspired by that episode.
Sounds like a great idea to celebrate our democracy on election day. After all, our right to vote is critical to the maintenance of a democracy!
Always Ready
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