So far nobody has explained to me the point in extending possible poll opening times to anywhere in the week. Still waiting.
To avoid potential conflict with holidays and other such events, where applicable?
I'm not sure if it's harder to explain why there should be some leeway built in, or if it's harder to understand why there shouldn't be.
You know what I'd like? To change the current rule of opening anytime on thursday to opening anytime between thursday morning and friday noon.
Except I'm not at all sure the need's sufficiently pressing to go to all that trouble of amending the constitution again for that.
Well, the problem with making the rules so tight and specific is that, occasionally, without foresight, the real world may intervene.
The Secretary of Forum Affairs may have computer issues. Maybe the SoFA will have a last-minute conflict to suck up their time. Or maybe they'll just plain forget. There are plenty of plausible scenarios where a SoFA might not be able to post within a specific 12 hour period, or even 24 hour period.
But, of course, the second a SoFA misses the window, we'll have to deal with more lawsuits over election results, and with the latest PR-STV idea, that could lead to a five-member Senate debating the issues while the court wrangles with a sore-loser suit.
We've got a good precedent now—SoFAs know when a booth is traditionally open, and they don't need it spelled out for them to the second by forum law. I think it's reasonable to have some kind of fudge factor embedded in here, even if its never used.
