Early voting could go nationwide, experts say

[techs]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITI...ting/?iref=mpstoryview

Early voting could go nationwide, experts say

The unexpected wave of millions of early voters casting ballots for Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama may prompt Congress to mandate some form of early voting nationwide for future elections, experts say.

So far, more than 24.4 million voters have cast ballots in states where early voting is allowed, providing convenience for voters and, in theory, rescuing poll workers from an overwhelming turnout on Tuesday.

This historic election is expected to fuel congressional support for a law that allows voters to cast early ballots without providing an excuse, said the director of the nonpartisan Early Voting Institute, professor Paul Gronke.

In many states that require a reason for early voting, mail-in voters must provide election officials with a formal excuse explaining why they cannot vote on Election Day. They often must obtain signatures from notaries or physicians before they can be granted a ballot.

"It is almost certain that after the election there will be legislation proposed in the next session of Congress that will mandate no-excuse absentee balloting nationwide," said Gronke. "This will especially be the case if Democrats take the White House."

Early voting is already poised for expansion. On Tuesday, Maryland voters will decide whether that state should also offer early voting. Top GOP and Democratic party officials in Alabama told The Anniston Star newspaper they plan to present a broad early-voting proposal to the state Legislature.

New York Democratic Rep. Steve Israel is sponsoring a bill that would designate elections as a two-day weekend event in November.

"It's crazy to me that we're only allowing people to vote over a certain period of hours on one day," Israel said. "Other nations that have much higher voter turnout allow their people to vote over several days."




Can I get a hallejuelah?
I like the 2 day idea as much as early voting. I would go for both if we could.

 

[ElFenix]

early voting is unconstitutional!

 

[daniel49]

Yes, lets start voting for 2012 wednesday.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: daniel49
Yes, lets start voting for 2012 wednesday.

Various people have already started campaigning for it.

 

[sciwizam]

I don't get the point of early voting. Make the election day a national holiday, and if people can't be bothered to get in line to decide what their next 4 years will be, then tough titties.

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: sciwizam
I don't get the point of early voting. Make the election day a national holiday, and if people can't be bothered to get in line to decide what their next 4 years will be, then tough titties.

It's not that simple. People often have a couple of young kids that they do not want to force to stand in line 8-10 hours and they may not be able to get a babysitter on Nov 4th. That plus maybe the babysitters out there want to vote too you know? There is simply not enough time in one day for everyone that wants to vote to actually be able to vote. Early voting and absentee ballots are a wonderful thing. It does nothing to hurt anyone. It only helps.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: sciwizam
I don't get the point of early voting. Make the election day a national holiday, and if people can't be bothered to get in line to decide what their next 4 years will be, then tough titties.

That would be nice as well. OTOH, allowing early voting over several days would have less economic impact than creating a new national holiday. I heard on NPR a couple nights ago that Chile recently adopted yet another national holiday, and that each one costs them something like $700 million in lost productivity. And that's Chile, which has a pretty small population.

The other thing is that a lot of people still have to work on a lot of national holidays. You can bet McDonald's employees won't get the day off. Specifying a range of days will make things much easier for people who work for the less flexible corporations.

 

[cubby1223]

Early voting would have given us Carter in '80, Perot in '92, and who knows about '00 as there was info released late that hurt dubya.

Election day should stay one day. Or make it two or three days in a row. Not spread out across weeks.

Hell, roll *this* election back to early voting just before the stock market crash, and McCain wins.

 

[cubby1223]

Actually, come to think of it, why is election day a Tuesday instead of a Saturday?

 

[Kirby]

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca

Originally posted by: daniel49
Yes, lets start voting for 2012 wednesday.

Various people have already started campaigning for it.

Palin 2012!

 

[Xavier434]

I just don't get it. Why would anyone not want to provide Americans with enough time to vote without having to be lucky enough to have a boss that will pay you or have someone available that doesn't want to vote to watch your kids while you go and do it?

At the end of the day, all it does is allow more people to vote and that is it. That is a good thing. How can it be bad? More representation is good no matter how you slice it unless you are not a fan of democracy.

 

[sciwizam]

Originally posted by: Xavier434

Originally posted by: sciwizam
I don't get the point of early voting. Make the election day a national holiday, and if people can't be bothered to get in line to decide what their next 4 years will be, then tough titties.

It's not that simple. People often have a couple of young kids that they do not want to force to stand in line 8-10 hours and they may not be able to get a babysitter on Nov 4th. That plus maybe the babysitters out there want to vote too you know? There is simply not enough time in one day for everyone that wants to vote to actually be able to vote. Early voting and absentee ballots are a wonderful thing. It does nothing to hurt anyone. It only helps.

Then there should be better voting infrastructure. Just as an example, in the 2004 Indian National Election, out of an electorate of 680 million, around 380 million voted in 1 day on 1 million electronic voting machines.

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: sciwizam

Originally posted by: Xavier434

Originally posted by: sciwizam
I don't get the point of early voting. Make the election day a national holiday, and if people can't be bothered to get in line to decide what their next 4 years will be, then tough titties.

It's not that simple. People often have a couple of young kids that they do not want to force to stand in line 8-10 hours and they may not be able to get a babysitter on Nov 4th. That plus maybe the babysitters out there want to vote too you know? There is simply not enough time in one day for everyone that wants to vote to actually be able to vote. Early voting and absentee ballots are a wonderful thing. It does nothing to hurt anyone. It only helps.

Then there should be better voting infrastructure. Just as an example, in the 2004 Indian National Election, out of an electorate of 680 million, around 380 million voted in 1 day on 1 million electronic voting machines.

Infrastructure alone does not allow everyone to vote though. There are many people out there that live week by week and paycheck by paycheck. Many of these same people have jobs which will not pay them if they miss a day of work to go vote. How is it fair to these people that there is only one day to vote and it happens to fall on a day that they have work? How is fair to them to choose between voting and their kids having enough to eat that week?

The idea here is to encourage more people to vote and if more people vote because of early voting then why should we change it? What do we have to lose? Your pride and emotions should not stand before representation.

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: Xavier434

Originally posted by: sciwizam

Originally posted by: Xavier434

Originally posted by: sciwizam
I don't get the point of early voting. Make the election day a national holiday, and if people can't be bothered to get in line to decide what their next 4 years will be, then tough titties.

It's not that simple. People often have a couple of young kids that they do not want to force to stand in line 8-10 hours and they may not be able to get a babysitter on Nov 4th. That plus maybe the babysitters out there want to vote too you know? There is simply not enough time in one day for everyone that wants to vote to actually be able to vote. Early voting and absentee ballots are a wonderful thing. It does nothing to hurt anyone. It only helps.

Then there should be better voting infrastructure. Just as an example, in the 2004 Indian National Election, out of an electorate of 680 million, around 380 million voted in 1 day on 1 million electronic voting machines.

Infrastructure alone does not allow everyone to vote though. There are many people out there that live week by week and paycheck by paycheck. Many of these same people have jobs which will not pay them if they miss a day of work to go vote. How is it fair to these people that there is only one day to vote and it happens to fall on a day that they have work? How is fair to them to choose between voting and their kids having enough to eat that week?

The idea here is to encourage more people to vote and if more people vote because of early voting then why should we change it? What do we have to lose? Your pride and emotions should not stand before representation.

I agee with everything, except one little part:
"The idea here is to encourage more people to vote'
I think the idea is to allow reasonable and fair access for everyone who wants to vote

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: Xavier434
Infrastructure alone does not allow everyone to vote though. There are many people out there that live week by week and paycheck by paycheck. Many of these same people have jobs which will not pay them if they miss a day of work to go vote. How is it fair to these people that there is only one day to vote and it happens to fall on a day that they have work? How is fair to them to choose between voting and their kids having enough to eat that week?

The idea here is to encourage more people to vote and if more people vote because of early voting then why should we change it? What do we have to lose? Your pride and emotions should not stand before representation.

I agee with everything, except one little part:
"The idea here is to encourage more people to vote'
I think the idea is to allow rasonable and fari access for everyone who wants to vote

Yes. I'd say the result would be both to be honest and that's a wonderful thing.

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: Xavier434
I just don't get it. Why would anyone not want to provide Americans with enough time to vote without having to be lucky enough to have a boss that will pay you or have someone available that doesn't want to vote to watch your kids while you go and do it?

At the end of the day, all it does is allow more people to vote and that is it. That is a good thing. How can it be bad? More representation is good no matter how you slice it unless you are not a fan of democracy.

I don't get it either. I've voted for around 30 years + or -.
Always had a job and raised 4 kids doing it and yet I always had time to vote.
It is a good ploy to get another day off from work though.

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: daniel49

Originally posted by: Xavier434
I just don't get it. Why would anyone not want to provide Americans with enough time to vote without having to be lucky enough to have a boss that will pay you or have someone available that doesn't want to vote to watch your kids while you go and do it?

At the end of the day, all it does is allow more people to vote and that is it. That is a good thing. How can it be bad? More representation is good no matter how you slice it unless you are not a fan of democracy.

I don't get it either. I've voted for around 30 years + or -.
Always had a job and raised 4 kids doing it and yet I always had time to vote.
It is a good ploy to get another day off from work though.

Good for you I suppose? How does allowing early voting negatively impact your life or anyone elses life though? I see no reason so why not simply allow it if the end result is more people voting?

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: Xavier434

Originally posted by: daniel49

Originally posted by: Xavier434
I just don't get it. Why would anyone not want to provide Americans with enough time to vote without having to be lucky enough to have a boss that will pay you or have someone available that doesn't want to vote to watch your kids while you go and do it?

At the end of the day, all it does is allow more people to vote and that is it. That is a good thing. How can it be bad? More representation is good no matter how you slice it unless you are not a fan of democracy.

I don't get it either. I've voted for around 30 years + or -.
Always had a job and raised 4 kids doing it and yet I always had time to vote.
It is a good ploy to get another day off from work though.

Good for you I suppose? How does allowing early voting negatively impact your life or anyone elses life though? I see no reason so why not simply allow it if the end result is more people voting?

It doesn't. My only difference with you is that I don't think its the governments responsibility to encourage anyone to vote, just that they provide fair and reasonable access, which they don't do right now.
I don't care if they do it with early voting, a two day election, or extended hours or making election day a holiday, or all of those.
Right now its not fair and reasonable access.

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: Xavier434

Originally posted by: daniel49

Originally posted by: Xavier434
I just don't get it. Why would anyone not want to provide Americans with enough time to vote without having to be lucky enough to have a boss that will pay you or have someone available that doesn't want to vote to watch your kids while you go and do it?

At the end of the day, all it does is allow more people to vote and that is it. That is a good thing. How can it be bad? More representation is good no matter how you slice it unless you are not a fan of democracy.

I don't get it either. I've voted for around 30 years + or -.
Always had a job and raised 4 kids doing it and yet I always had time to vote.
It is a good ploy to get another day off from work though.

Good for you I suppose? How does allowing early voting negatively impact your life or anyone elses life though? I see no reason so why not simply allow it if the end result is more people voting?

It doesn't. My only difference with you is that I don't think its the governments responsibility to encourage anyone to vote, just that they provide fair and reasonable access, which they don't do right now.
I don't care if they do it with early voting, a two day election, or extended hours or making election day a holiday, or all of those.
Right now its not fair and reasonable access.

tech:
egads, I almost agreed with you again. this could be a record setting year.
clarify however why it is you think they do not provide fair and reasonable access.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: Xavier434
Good for you I suppose? How does allowing early voting negatively impact your life or anyone elses life though? I see no reason so why not simply allow it if the end result is more people voting?

You're looking at a very narrow aspect of the campaign & voting process.

I'll put out one scenario that is quite possible. Candidate rallies up the dedicated party base and gets them all out to vote early. Now in the remaining week to go after the undecided votes, he can completely switch up his message & plans to get the undecided votes. Politicians will do anything to get elected, especially if they are behind. *That* would not be fair to anyone.

Actually fixing voter registration process & verification & continuing adding polling stations both improves turnout and keeps the campaign process the same. Why can't I advocate for that instead? Am I still against Democracy?

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: Xavier434
Good for you I suppose? How does allowing early voting negatively impact your life or anyone elses life though? I see no reason so why not simply allow it if the end result is more people voting?

It doesn't. My only difference with you is that I don't think its the governments responsibility to encourage anyone to vote, just that they provide fair and reasonable access, which they don't do right now.
I don't care if they do it with early voting, a two day election, or extended hours or making election day a holiday, or all of those.
Right now its not fair and reasonable access.

Your problem is basically the use of the word encourage. Call it opportunities if you prefer. That's basically the way I see it. Easier opportunities. Such things naturally encourage some people to vote, but at the same time it in no way pressures them to vote which is equally as important to preserve.

 

[alchemize]

Get in the 90's.

Let's do it over the internet. No reason it can't be made completely secure.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: alchemize
Get in the 90's.

Let's do it over the internet. No reason it can't be made completely secure.

Over the public internet? I can think of a dozen reasons off the top of my head why that will never work.

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: alchemize
Get in the 90's.

Let's do it over the internet. No reason it can't be made completely secure.

Yah. We could just put a "Hacker Tested" label on the web page and be sure.

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: cubby1223

Originally posted by: Xavier434
Good for you I suppose? How does allowing early voting negatively impact your life or anyone elses life though? I see no reason so why not simply allow it if the end result is more people voting?

You're looking at a very narrow aspect of the campaign & voting process.

I'll put out one scenario that is quite possible. Candidate rallies up the dedicated party base and gets them all out to vote early. Now in the remaining week to go after the undecided votes, he can completely switch up his message & plans to get the undecided votes. Politicians will do anything to get elected, especially if they are behind.

Actually fixing voter registration process & verification & continuing adding polling stations both improves turnout and keeps the campaign process the same. Why can't I advocate for that instead? Am I still against Democracy?

No amount of optimization will ever create a 48 hour day and that is the kind of solution that is necessary. There are simply way too many reasons that stop people who would like to vote from voting when there is only one day available to vote. Acknowledging the existence of dirty politicians should not be reason enough to stop these people from being provided with easier opportunities that ensure that they will be able to vote.

Beyond the reasons already stated in this thread, unexpected things occur in people's lives all of the time. Nov. 4th is not exempt. We should give people more easier opportunities to vote. If they are going to be deceived by dirty politicians then that is going to happen whether they are given the chance to vote early or not.