My home state of Washington exclusively uses mail-in ballots. (There are dropboxes if you can't afford a stamp.) Our voter participation rate in the 2012 election was about 60% of voting-age population, compared to about 55% listed for the same year in the article. The 2014 election participation rate was just under 40%, which is quite a bit higher than the 30% listed for California, but still very low.<p>You can't make this any easier, and half the state <i>still</i> does not vote.<p>My Washington statistics come from: <a href="http://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/voter-participation.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/voter-participation.aspx</a>
Good idea.<p>Related, relevant:<p>"Employees who begin their work day less than 3 hours after polls open and finish less than 3 hours before polls close are entitled to 2 hours leave to vote (or more if distance requires). The employee must give notice the day before Election Day and cannot have pay reduced if proof of voting is provided."<p><a href="http://www.findlaw.com/voting-rights-law.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.findlaw.com/voting-rights-law.html</a>
Nice idea, but is there <i>any</i> race at <i>any</i> level in SV/CA that's actually competitive? The "let's take action" narrative rings a bit hollow when you could empty out every office in the Bay Area and wind up with exactly the same elected officials that you would have if everyone stayed home.
This is silly. They should be encouraging voting by mail instead. It's much more efficient and cost effective for everyone concerned. In CA voters don't even have to pay postage any more.
Have to be the devil's advocate here. If you give an employee a day off to vote, what are the odds that they still don't vote? Will this really solve the problem of an apathetic employee?<p>What about something else like a company held half day event that involves voting and doing something else fun (lunch or picnic?) ie. instead of a party bus...a voting bus of some sort?
Do we really need a new religious holiday? Because that's what democracy has become - the national religion.<p>The fundamental problem of democracy is that people end up believing that the government works for them. Under other systems, people <i>know</i> they are at odds with their rulers. If things get bad enough, they will organize and rebel. But democracy simulates a pressure-relief valve for discontent, actually leaving people convinced that they're responsible for the crappy outcome!<p>The presidential race is the focus because it's the archetype for the whole system [0]. Regardless of whether the dipshit or the criminal wins this fall, the useful idiots who fell for their revolutionary rhetoric will subsequently be justifying oppressive policies that hurt the losing team more than themselves. They'll receive none of the promised relief, yet they'll reassure themselves that the other skinjob would have been <i>sooo</i> much worse. It's a remarkable system for converting dissent into support, and I would call it elegant but for being its victim.<p>[0] The exact same dynamic plays out in local races, choosing between the scumbags who raise taxes and create new nanny state regulations, or the asshats who underfund schools and let infrastructure fall apart. The bureaucracy's middle management or the scope of its control is rarely cut back.
Is there no provision at all for time off to vote? In Canada, an elector must have 3 consecutive hours to vote and if that means taking an hour or two off work, the employer must provide that paid time off or face a 2000$ fine or 3 months imprisonment.
This is absolutely a great place to start, but the rest of the country would need to follow. Election day should not be on a work day, as the working poor are disproportionately excluded because they cannot get to the polls (for a number of reasons that I'm not sure we need to get into).<p>In addition, automatic voter registration and easily accessible mail in ballots are needed as well.
Just another random thought as I shovel more shit into this thread :)<p>Beyond election day, we ought to to better with primary participation. I read somewhere that basically 9% of the voting public decided that Trump and Clinton would be our nominees. Even if 100% of voters show up on November 8, not enough of the public is in there driving the choices on the ballot that day.<p>However, primary participation is a bigger issue than a day off. Even if you don't work at all, most people can't afford a day to caucus in the states that do it (I'm in one of those states), and everyone else is probably still hung over from the last election cycle. But 2016 is a banner year to show who we get as our choices when we stop paying attention in the primaries. When I go to the polls on Nov 8, no one on the ballot is actually someone I'd want to lead our country, and I bet a lot of people feel the same.
I've always thought that the national election day should be a holiday; especially since we have an extra day due to leap years and voting years coinciding (well, except for years ending in 00 that aren't equally divisible by 400).
I like this idea, but I think it's just as important, if not more so, to vote in the Primary elections held before the general election. The primary determines who's on the general election ballot. If you ever wonder why the candidate you wanted to vote for never made it to the general, it could have been because they lost the primary.<p>Also, absentee ballots are easy to do. Contact your County Elections Office (typically under the Clerks office) and ask how. It might just be as easy as that phone call. They will MAIL you a ballot, they might even include a postage paid return envelope and you should receive it 30-45 days before the election so you can fill it out and return it way before election night when it is counted.
I would be curious to see a whole state do this and see if participation really changed. we assume so but data is not there that I know of..<p>I believe the real solution is to stop with the election <i>day</i> concept and move more to an election week or something similar.
I guess this will happen right around the time that startups actually give people 'unlimited vacation time', which generally means 'don't take it or you'll be fired/left out.'
The US federal government only has the authority to grant holidays to federal employees. Employers are under no obligation to grant those holidays to their employees. How many have Columbus or Veterans day off? Both MLK and Presidents Day? Many employers and unions follow the federal calendar, but many do not. Some state governments do not even follow the federal calendar (MLK especially).<p>Another federal holiday will just be another week day where most people go to work, but the banks are closed and your mail will not be delivered.
> And of Silicon Valley workers between the ages of 25 and 34, only 19% voted in the last general election.<p>Um, aren't Silicon Valley workers more likely to be immigrants? They <i>can't</i> vote.
Is this really a problem? Throughout my entire career I've never worked for any organization that had a problem with those of its staff members who are citizens of the United States discharging the responsibilities that come along with that status. It seems improbable on its face that Silicon Valley startups would make this so difficult that pausing the business for an entire day is necessary to resolve the issue.<p>On the other hand, hey, who doesn't love an extra day off?
I'm not familiar with US election system, but is there a reason why elections in USA aren't on sundays?<p>Here at least all voting is done on Sundays with reasoning being that this maximises the amount of people that can make it to the stand (since majority of population doesn't work on sundays and most of the others have a part-time schedule). What's the reason US avoids that?
I have to agree, its pretty weak that so few people actually get out and vote. To be blunt, it doesn't require that much effort or time; you can vote by mail in a decent amount of places as well.
I always wondered why we only have a single election day given how long the candidates spend campaigning. Is there any reason why a 3 day window (or more) couldn't be used?
Yeah we should totally get a holiday for an act that takes all of 10-15 minutes and doesn't require drinking alcohol. /s<p>Don't you guys have work from home policies? This is a solution looking for a problem.