Voting made Easier: A Plan

[Bidenworth2020]

1. Make elections a national holiday, and special senatorial elections a statewide holiday when needed.

2. Register everyone when they turn 18. No reason not to do this, you can still opt to not vote if you choose.

3. Paper Ballots. This will allow for electronic machines, which cause of a lot of trouble on election nights, to no longer be an issue. Also, anyone can redo a ballot one time, but must give the ballot they messed up to a trusted election official.

4. More voting machines. Again, pretty self-explanatory.

5. Mail Ballots sent out, with no need to request one.

thoughts on this comprehensive plan? any addons?

[136or142]

1.Voter enumeration.  (I realize this would be a problem at present with Trump in that those who are in the U.S illegally would suspect the enumerators are really looking for illegals.)

2.Lower the voting age to 16 so that students can get into elections through high school class debates and discussions.

3.Turn over the handling of elections to an independent commission like Elections Canada.

4.Nationalize federal elections, so that, for instance, all the federal primaries are held on the same day.  This would prevent states from intentionally holding late primaries which is favored by incumbent politicians.

[Bidenworth2020]

1.Voter enumeration.  (I realize this would be a problem at present with Trump in that those who are in the U.S illegally would suspect the enumerators are really looking for illegals.)

2.Lower the voting age to 16 so that students can get into elections through high school class debates and discussions.

3.Turn over the handling of elections to an independent commission like Elections Canada.

4.Nationalize federal elections, so that, for instance, all the federal primaries are held on the same day.  This would prevent states from intentionally holding late primaries which is favored by incumbent politicians.

i agree, we should on all of that

[Virginiá]

Pretty good stuff, which is why it will never happen. At least so long as one party is dead set against making voting easier in any way that benefits their opponents.

[America Needs R'hllor]

1. Make elections a national holiday, and special senatorial elections a statewide holiday when needed.

2. Register everyone when they turn 18. No reason not to do this, you can still opt to not vote if you choose.

3. Paper Ballots. This will allow for electronic machines, which cause of a lot of trouble on election nights, to no longer be an issue. Also, anyone can redo a ballot one time, but must give the ballot they messed up to a trusted election official.

4. More voting machines. Again, pretty self-explanatory.

5. Mail Ballots sent out, with no need to request one.

thoughts on this comprehensive plan? any addons?

All of this, other than the part I striked. I don't think people should be allowed to re-do their ballot once they cast it, inside the voting booth they should have the privacy and peace to make their decision and cast their vote without mistakes.

2 is really the one thing that irks me the most about American elections. Why the hell would someone need to actively register to vote? This just doesn't make any sense. Voting is a basic right of every citizen, not just those who register or whatever. It's not surprising that American elections have such a low turnout when this type of restriction is a thing. The U.S. should really look into its democracy, tbh.

[BlueSwan]

1. Make elections a national holiday, and special senatorial elections a statewide holiday when needed.

I approve. Not a necessary step though. In Denmark we vote on a regular work weekday and our participatin rate is generally around 85%.

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This is a no-brainer. The fact that this isn't already done in the US is crazy. We've done this in Denmark since before I was born.

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Agreed. But voting machines really aren't needed at all. We don't have them in Denmark. No big deal. Everything is manual and everything is counted once at the voting place and then again centrally to check everything. Sure it is a bit of an ordeal, but elections are fricking IMPORTANT in a democracy. And it is not as if we have an election every day.

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Yes. Lines longer than 10-15 minutes is effectively voter suppression. I've never waited for more than 5 minutes tops to vote in any danish election. And that's in a country with 85% voter participation.

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Yes, absolutely. We also do this in Denmark.

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That should do. This stuff is not rocket science. The fact that these things are not already done in the US is purely down to certain politicians not wanting certain segments of the population voting. IT is a disgrace.

[Santander]

Abolish elections. Easy.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

We don't need 16 year olds voting lol.

[136or142]

We don't need 16 year olds voting lol.

Why not?  If Trump voters are allowed to vote, what possible argument can there be against 16-17 year olds?

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

We don't need 16 year olds voting lol.

Why not?  If Trump voters are allowed to vote, what possible argument can there be against 16-17 year olds?

Lol that is a good counter point, but would you really want me voting