Voting would be so much easier...

lancyjo

...if we could just do a bump clicky poll.

That is all.

Jen0204

I hope someday they find a way to allow us to vote online, but with the fear of hackers I doubt that would happen.  It would just get a much larger turnout and I think it would be so great to have more of the country participating.

 

MrsLindinger0905

agreed.

jja0812

I know what y'all are saying, but my thought is, if someone can't even be troubled to vote under the current set up, do we really want to make it easier for them? I know, I know, it's America and we're all entitled to a vote whether we're informed,  ignorant, super-motivated, or totally lazy. Obviously I don't want to take that away. But with early voting, local polling places, absentee ballots, etc. I feel like we pretty much have our bases covered on making the voting process easy and painless. Plus, I just personally like the feeling of going into that booth!

lancyjo

Jessicameron:

I know what y'all are saying, but my thought is, if someone can't even be troubled to vote under the current set up, do we really want to make it easier for them? I know, I know, it's America and we're all entitled to a vote whether we're informed,nbsp; ignorant, supermotivated, or totally lazy. Obviously I don't want to take that away. But with early voting, local polling places, absentee ballots, etc. I feel like we pretty much have our bases covered on making the voting process easy and painless. Plus, I just personally like the feeling of going into that booth!

My crazy MIL works the polls for my district. Enough said.

jja0812

lancyjo:

My crazy MIL works the polls for my district. Enough said.

Okay, you get to vote online!

Jen0204

Jessicameron:

I know what y'all are saying, but my thought is, if someone can't even be troubled to vote under the current set up, do we really want to make it easier for them? I know, I know, it's America and we're all entitled to a vote whether we're informed,  ignorant, super-motivated, or totally lazy. Obviously I don't want to take that away. But with early voting, local polling places, absentee ballots, etc. I feel like we pretty much have our bases covered on making the voting process easy and painless. Plus, I just personally like the feeling of going into that booth!

But all of that stuff isn't available everywhere.  Here in CT we have no early polling and can only use absentee ballots for certain reasons.  So it's ONE DAY that you have to make sure that you give input on something that is extremely important.  What if you're sick and can't go out?  What if your LO is sick?  What if you're hurt?  There are so many things that could happen to make it so that you can't get out on one day, whereas if you could hop online and click a button there are much less possibilities that would prevent that from being possible.  Even with power loss, you can usually get on the internet for a couple of minutes from a cell phone.  

I agree that many Americans are lazy, but hey, that's our country.  I'd still rather we find a way to get a larger percentage to participate.

firewife9278

Jen0204:

Jessicameron:

I know what y'all are saying, but my thought is, if someone can't even be troubled to vote under the current set up, do we really want to make it easier for them? I know, I know, it's America and we're all entitled to a vote whether we're informed,  ignorant, super-motivated, or totally lazy. Obviously I don't want to take that away. But with early voting, local polling places, absentee ballots, etc. I feel like we pretty much have our bases covered on making the voting process easy and painless. Plus, I just personally like the feeling of going into that booth!

But all of that stuff isn't available everywhere.  Here in CT we have no early polling and can only use absentee ballots for certain reasons.  So it's ONE DAY that you have to make sure that you give input on something that is extremely important.  What if you're sick and can't go out?  What if your LO is sick?  What if you're hurt?  There are so many things that could happen to make it so that you can't get out on one day, whereas if you could hop online and click a button there are much less possibilities that would prevent that from being possible.  Even with power loss, you can usually get on the internet for a couple of minutes from a cell phone.  

I agree that many Americans are lazy, but hey, that's our country.  I'd still rather we find a way to get a larger percentage to participate.

I agree. We don't have early voting here either, and you can only vote absentee for very specific, extenuating circumstances.

Add that to the fact that I work full time and love to spend time with my child in the evenings, I promise you that the last thing I want to do when I get off work tonight is stand in line for 3 hours trying to vote, while missing bath and bedtime with my daughter who I already really only get to see while she's awake for 3 hours a day after work.

Even though the polls open at 7am - I start work at 7am and have to leave the house by 6:10am. So after work is my only option, and I have to wait for DH to get home at 5pm because I'm not bringing my daughter into a dirty polling location with who knows what kind of gross people.

I would love to hop online onto a secure site and cast my votes that way.

jja0812

Jen0204:

But all of that stuff isn't available everywhere.  Here in CT we have no early polling and can only use absentee ballots for certain reasons.  So it's ONE DAY that you have to make sure that you give input on something that is extremely important.  What if you're sick and can't go out?  What if your LO is sick?  What if you're hurt?  There are so many things that could happen to make it so that you can't get out on one day, whereas if you could hop online and click a button there are much less possibilities that would prevent that from being possible.  Even with power loss, you can usually get on the internet for a couple of minutes from a cell phone.  

I agree that many Americans are lazy, but hey, that's our country.  I'd still rather we find a way to get a larger percentage to participate.

I'd support extending the voting window. Instead of one long day, break it up into several days and rotating hours of availability (ie 6am-1pm one day, 12pm-7pm another day, etc.) If you are sick, injured, or otherwise unable to appear in person anytime during that window, you haven't lost your one shot. If you have a long-term condition, you would have applied for an absentee ballot anyway. Like you said, it's extremely important, and I just don't love the idea of making it equivalent to "CP-which smell is the stinkiest?" (no offense jmccall ). Not just because it cheapens the experience for me, but I just think as a country we are obligated to put at least a little effort and thought into such a major decision. There will always be extenuating circumstances, no matter what we do, but I don't think that necessitates or justifies going this route.

Saying that, I do think it will probably happen at some point, and when it does, I won't make a big stink. It's just my opinion, and I am not the only US citizen who gets to have one!

Jen0204

Jessica, I agree that breaking it up would be nice but I think the issue in a lot of places is finding workers for the polls as well as places to have the polls.  Here they close the schools to allow voting to happen, which you couldn't do for a few days in a row.  You would also have the added expense of extra days and more time.  I like your idea in theory, but in practice I don't know how it would be able to be executed in all states, especially the smaller ones.

Voting is obviously more important then a bump poll, but think about all of the things that we do over the internet now - trade stocks, pay bills, move money between bank accounts, order goods - we do tons of things that have significant value over the internet every day.  It's just how our lives operate now.  In my ideal world we would have secure, online voting and no electoral college.

jja0812

Jen, I did consider that, and my thought was that by extending the time frame, you would (theoretically) spread out the voter turnout, requiring fewer workers at any given time and potentially allowing for a smaller venue as well. I think this, combined with the shorter days and varied times, would put less burden on the workers and possibly allow others to help out who may not be able to under the current arrangement.

Of course, all of this may be completely unfeasible. Because I've never personally had trouble voting, either early, on time, or absentee (I've done all three), I never put any thought into alternatives before this morning.