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February 21, 2012 9:00 AM
Why Tuesday Elections?
A reader points me to the group, Why Tuesday, that wants to move Election Day to a more convenient time. They write:
Today, we are an urban society, and we all know how hard it is to commute to our jobs, take care of the children, and get our work done, let alone stand on lines to vote. Indeed, Census data over the last decade clearly indicates that the inconvenience of voting is the primary reason Americans are not participating in our elections.
If we can move Columbus Day, Presidents’ Day, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Holiday for the convenience of shoppers, why not make Election Day more convenient for the sake of voters? First and foremost, it is time to end the deafening silence of good people on this vitally important issue. So we ask: Why Tuesday?
Personally, I would have no problem with this. But I’m not sure it’s going to increase turnout. The political scientist André Blais reviewed a lot of evidence on turnout for a chapter in this book. Here is what he wrote on Sunday voting and “rest day” voting (links added by me):
Unfortunately, we know relatively little about the actual impact of such measures on turnout. Franklin (1996) initially reported that postal (absentee) voting and Sunday voting increase turnout but his subsequent analysis of turnout changes (Franklin 2004) indicate no independent impact. Norris (2004) examines the effect of a variety of rules (number of polling days, polling on rest day, postal voting, proxy voting, special polling booths, transfer voting, and advance voting) and finds no effect….It makes sense to assume that people are more willing to vote when it is easy than when it is difficult. But we still do not know which measures are the most efficient or how much difference they make.
Again, I’d certainly be amendable amenable to seeing if non-Tuesday voting made any difference. I’m just cautious in believing it would.
[Cross-posted at The Monkey Cage]
beyond left on February 21, 2012 7:40 PM:
A national holiday for voting on any day would be a huge benefit for people who need to work for a living. Employers are not obliged to give workers time off to vote and many people can't risk losing their pay or jobs to vote. I would be happy to take the 4th of july away as a holiday and replace it with a voting holiday. I am sure the founders would approve. Also, since 97% of people no longer farm, there is no reason to have elections in November, when weather is bad in much of the US. Late September when days are longer and weather is better would provide another big boost to voting. Of course repubs will have nothing to do with helping the great unwashed exercise their constitutional rights....
zandru on February 22, 2012 12:50 PM:
You've gone off the rails already by focusing on a "voting day." Here in New Mexico, we have early voting for approximately 4 weeks in advance of the election, and not just by mail-in absentee ballot. Walk-in voting centers which serve every precinct in the county are open all day until at least 7pm, Monday through Saturday. These centers are located throughout the city, with a particular concern that they be near public transportation stops.
This has worked so well that in November, Bernalillo County (among others) will utilize voting centers on election day as well. Regardless of which one you walk into, you're in the right precinct.
"Election Day" is just the deadline for voting, not your only chance. This would seem to be a smarter model.
smartalek on February 22, 2012 6:39 PM:
"Of course repubs will have nothing to do with helping the great unwashed exercise their constitutional rights...."
And are willing to say so out loud:
"I don't want everybody to vote... As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."
-- Pauil Weyrich, co-founder of Heritage Foundation and Moral Majority [sic]
Anonymous on February 22, 2012 10:15 PM:
it should be a day off, like it is in most other countries.
maybe columbus day could be changed to be the election day with allowing people voting the sunday before AND the day itself so that anyone with any shift can vote without taking a time off because in some areas in the country, waiting in line to vote takes a quit bit of your day, too.
in other countries, people don't even have to register more than once in a life as a part of registering for a birth certificate.
why do people here get taxed anytime anywhere without doing anything, but you need to register again and again to vote? (i'm a foreign born naturalized American)
Ten Bears on February 23, 2012 10:24 AM:
Here in Oregon, we vote by mail (though I prefer, on day one, to hand deliver it to the courthouse... I don't trust anybody). Double envelopes, double signatures. Many, it npt most, find a copier and take a "picture" of their completed ballot.
For the vast majority it isn't Tuesday that is inconvenient... voting, is inconvenient.
zandru on February 23, 2012 11:56 AM:
More on "Voting Day"
The trouble with a single day (or even weekend) for voting is that it facilitates throttling the vote via inadequate polling places (long lines), moving the polling places around, etc. If folks vote mostly all on one day, the "November surprise" becomes a powerful political tool.
Whatever the day chosen, these problems will be present. Worse, in vacation-starved America, how many people will just decide to take advantage of the much-more-important Day Off? Why vote? The candidates are just the same. They're all crooks. Nothing will ever change. Yada yada. You've heard it all before, and if you haven't, pop on over to firedog lake or digby's place.
Give us a month to vote. More opportunity to get 'er done, less chance for dirty tricks to work. If it can be done in New Mexico, surely the civilized states are capable, too?
Old Uncle Dave on February 23, 2012 6:28 PM:
Smaller precincts, a lot more of them, using paper ballots which are hand counted at each polling place is the only way to guarantee the integrity of our elections.
zandru on February 23, 2012 6:42 PM:
@Old Uncle Dave:
I can't believe that you have ever voted in an election in the United States.
Have you evee seen a ballot? This fall, voters can look forward to selecting some 20-30 candidates, approving 10-20 go-bonds, several constitutional amendments and other issues, 20-30 judicial retention choices...
And you truly expect that poll workers will HAND COUNT and double check (or else why bother?) EACH of these races/selections for SEVERAL HUNDRED ballots? After having put in a 13-hour day (1 hour to set up the furniture, paperwork, signage, and any machines, then 12 hours of access by voters)?
Oh, you're talking "small precincts" with lots and lots of workers; maybe a whole new counting shift - how much money does your state have? While your solution may be workable, it's going to be expensive, and voters are pound-foolishly cheap just now.
Charles Lemos on March 03, 2012 3:52 PM:
Most of the world votes on Sundays and frankly we should too. The blue states keep the polls open late so everyone can vote, the red states tend to close them early. Indiana is usually the first state to close the polls and hence it gets called early. Rhode Island, on the other hand, closes its polls at nine.
We still have 24 percent of citizens unregistered to vote and of course these are mostly the poor and elderly. The Brennan Center at New York University tracks the voting rights changes put in place after the Republicans largely swept the legislatures. Wisconsin, Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania among others have enacted laws restricting the suffrage. All told, the Brennan Center estimates that some five million will be disenfranchised this cycle.
The GOP claims fraud but that's not the issue. They truly hate democracy. Look at Iowa Rep Steve King, he wondered aloud about bringing back "property qualifications." We haven't any since 1830s. Who are these people?