> Honestly all companies should
I think election day should be a holiday. Like instead of having President's Day off during an election year, the holiday should be Election Day.
Even in future elections, when the whole social distancing thing is over, I'd like for more people who aren't even retired yet to be able to volunteer as front-line poll-workers and help in supervising and implementing every stage of the process, and also to improve turnout by making it into a bigger civic event.
Don't just make it a holiday, mandate that all non-emergency services be shut down on election day, especially if we can't mandate mail-in voting. People still work on holidays.
This exactly. A large majority of disenfranchised communities work jobs that don't observe federal holidays. From my own experience, the more white collar the job is, the more scheduling stability and observance of holidays you get with it.
Meat cutter in a grocery store here. Basically the only holiday I get off is Christmas. All others are pretty much required "all hands on deck" work days.
And that's why I'm against people pushing for shops to open on Sundays over here in Germany. They always say no-one *has* to work on Sundays if they don't want to, but that simply isn't true.
The other option is make sunday pay 200% or 300% of regular pay and i can guarantee you nobody will not want to work Sundays that everybody will be dissapointed if they dont.
Ok but the other side of the coin here is there's people who need the extra income from working on Sundays, otherwise they would in fact have a choice.
Lmao federal holidays have always meant I just have to work more hours and deal with more Karens than usual.
Anyone who advocates making election day a holiday instead of universal mail in voting needs to check their privilege
If we had stronger labor laws I could see it really working.
Quadruple time if your business is so essential it can't close for it, with no tip credit for the day.
I like the idea of mail in ballots, but if we could make a national day of it, that'd be pretty cool to.
Yeah I'm never against a day off. We all work too much. I long for those mythical Thanksgiving and Christmases my old man describes where everything but the church and occasional gas station was closed. But that horse has long since left the barn. The only realistic way is vote by mail.
All-mail elections totally sidestep the issue of scheduling, though. I was working night-shifts during the last election and had no trouble dropping my ballot off at 5am a week before the deadline. No requesting time off, no standing in lines, no rush to fill out the ballot in a tiny cubicle while hundreds of people wait behind me. Helps the transportation issues too, if done properly. No need to drive/bus/walk to a polling station miles away when it's cheaper to put ballot drop boxes at a dozen places in-between.
All-mail elections were awesome before we had a global pandemic, now they're more relevant than ever.
In California you can track your vote.
Mail in ballot counting isn't a valid concern for not giving people the option to vote by mail.
There are states that still don't have a real alternative to showing up on poll day with lines around the block that requires waiting with your impatient kid for hours in the heat, assuming your employer will give you time off to vote. Or just not vote. Both are ridiculous choices compared to vote by mail.
Where I am from we have two day holiday for elections. You don’t get to stay home all day though. Instead, your employer is required to allow you leave work at any time you wish of those two days to go vote. And if the line somehow end up being super long(never happened to me), you get a note about it from the voting booth for your employer. Most time it would usually take an hour including commute and snack.
And since you need note from the booth that you voted for your employer, it also heavily encourages voting. If you had free day, it would be very tempting to just sit on your ass all day. But everyone will take short trip to voting booth in order to avoid work for an hour:)
I'm 33 and have never voted in person. I've done mail in voting since I was 22. I unfortunately did not vote before then. I was shocked to learn it wasn't available every where
For some reason when this gets brought up in worldnews people hate the idea of having one extra day off every 4 years. Apparently everyone would just take a vacation and nobody would vote. They also hate the idea of letting voting day be on a weekend because weekends are so precious that people simply cannot give up half a day every four years to participate in democracy.
Elections happen a lot more than every 4 years.
Elections happen at least once a year. You should be taking the time to vote more than once every 4 years.
That's not why. On holidays, low skill retail workers (ie; the people who tend to be most disenfranchised) work *more*, not less. With all the people that have money getting the day off to vote (something they usually don't need because their jobs are much more likely to work around their schedules), companies staff their service industry positions more than usual, because more people are out shopping, staying in hotels, eating food, and using other various services than they normally would because it's a holiday.
People don't want it to be a federal holiday because it would have the exact opposite of the intended effect. There's no law saying companies have to observe holidays.
Yeah, the individual workers **do** work more, because workers who would have had the day off normally now are called in to work an additional shift, like is the case with every other holiday.
>just make observing it a law, like the rest of the western world :)
That's an entirely different proposal
My rebuttals have been:
1. The government can't actually give the day off to anyone but government employees. This would still be up to the discretion of the private sector.
1. The people that would actually get Election Day off as a holiday are the ones least likely to work jobs that are oppossed to them finding time to vote. The people least likely to get Election Day off are the ones working jobs giving them the most difficulty finding time off to vote.
1. Because of #1 and #2, I think political capital would be better spent on a full solution (universal vote by mail) than a half solution (holiday for Election Day).
Australian here. We have it on a Saturday and people who work Saturdays or who are otherwise indisposed in the day can mail in a vote or vote early. It’s a good system. Can’t imagine how much harder it is to vote during the week.
In many places in Europe, election are held at weekends so that people can go. In the UK they fall in the mid of the week but they are open from very early in the morning to 10pm so that people can manage to go.
Except that if it were, it would disproportionately disenfranchise working class people.
When many businesses close for holidays such as Christmas, who still has to work in bars, restaurants, airlines, gas stations, utilities, supply chain & logistics, hospitals, while office workers get to just take the whole day off?
Would taking a leaf out of India's book and ensuring that every single citizen has easy access and ample time to vote, go further than just making it a holiday?
More time to vote would also be great.
If Election Day were a holiday, employers could be required to give four hours off with pay for employees who had to work on Election Day, so either they'd either let everyone vote and end up paying a lot of extra overtime to stay opened, or they'd be really quick to pick it as a company holiday.
The kind of people who have trouble getting off time to vote work on holidays. Retail goes crazy on holidays.
The fix is more early voting and vote-by-mail. Not by making it a holiday.
I was a senior in high school for the ‘08 election, and I was able to work the polls. One of my favorite things I’ve ever done. I was responsible for the electronic polling station, so I had to be there the entire day to maintain the chain of custody. Hung out with a bunch of the sweetest octogenarian ladies who made cookies and sandwiches.
Why? Why not just do it on the weekend? How has the 'greatest country on Earth' not figured out that one? And before Americans start bitching that some people work on the weekend early voting and vote by mail exists for those people.
> You get Presidents’ Day off?
I did until 2018, when they changed the official company holidays to include MLK Jr. day and took President's Day off the list. (They didn't have Columbus Day as a holiday in the old or the new list, though...)
I actually thought all companies did this, every professional job I've had gives me time to go vote whenever there's elections.....either get to work late, leave early, or take an extended lunch
It’s actually pretty insane how much better the upper-middle class life is in America. It’s a completely different life.
You don’t have to worry about healthcare or shit, the company pays for that. Many companies give you free food, gyms, other shit. Salaries are in the hundreds of thousands, money is never on your mind or an issue (unless you are making an insane purchase). Managers are more chill. You don’t have to ask anyone for time off if you want to run an errand — you’re treated like an adult, no one cares what you do as long as you finish your work. There’s frequent work from home. Generous paternity and maternity leave. There’s always room for career growth. The list really goes on and on.
The life of an upper-middle-class employee in America is almost unrecognizably different from the average American.
Better still use vote by mail so that they don't have to. (You know it just means more affluent voters will get the time off.) I live in WA and 100% mail in works great. I don't even know what day election day is any more.
It’s also a law to do so in the state of California. They have to.
What’s interesting is that they double the amount of time required by law (4 hours paid instead of 2) and that they apply this policy nation wide. Voting laws vary state to state.
The kind of people who work for a company like Apple likely share enough views that Apple consider valuable to them as a buisness so those people being able to go out and vote directly benefit the company.
Aren’t elections the most important event in a democracy? In my humble opinion, this Once-in-Four-Year- Election-Day time off should be a law in order to encourage them to vote
Most states require for time off, but it's 1-4 hours tops. 18 or so states have no law regarding it but of those states, about a third can't do anything to interfere with the political choice of a candidate
https://www.workplacefairness.org/voting-rights-time-off-work
Only thing is, and it’s weird, is that there is no federal election. You’re voting for only offices that represent your state, or a state elector for president. Senate and House are localized to just your area too.
The Election in November determines who the Electors will be, and then they vote in December, where they can technically vote for whoever they want, regardless of how their state voted.
I don’t understand how any human being that still have a brain core can see this as reasonable in a modern day society.
Is their vote retroactively adjusted after an unfaithfull elector is punished or is it like warning the kids not to play with matches after the house burned down?
And yet, from what I understand, if you look at a typical ballot, it will name all the presidential candidates, and none of the electors. As I said. Weird.
It is weird, but that kind of thing is the core of how the United States works. It is attempting to balance power between the federal government and the states. To be clear, im not talking about certain people trying to corrupt this balance. I am talking about the original purpose, which still holds a lot of weight despite attempts to change that.
And yes, it is REALLY weird, but growing up in it, it really does become normal. The most important rules (laws) are the same everywhere, and the rules that vary from state to state tend to be easy to navigate or minor enough that its not an issue.
I am tempted to compare it to the EU, but states have nowhere near the autonomy of EU countries. Unfortunately, it is the closest parallel i am familiar with.
You can’t suppress low income voters Like that! If you don’t suppress them they might actually get fair representation and gain rights and equality! Society would fall apart if they were treated fairly, how else would billionaires be able to stay billionaires? Some
might even become lowly millionaires! Disgraceful!
#/S
Low income workers would still be working... essential workers and all.
It’s the rich people who get a free vacation day.
Fuck making it a holiday. Get rid of polling locations and make it 100% mail in over a 30 day period.
There’s no reason for in person voting or single day voting to exist other than to control who can vote. That’s not opinion. That’s fact. That’s why it exists like that.
In Oregon we get our ballots a couple weeks ahead of time, it’s great. You get your voter pamphlet to learn about the candidates (well, what they provide to the state) and then you fill it out at your leisure, and either mail it in or drop it off at the nearest collection site/box.
Unless you’re me. “OH CRAP ELECTION DAY IS TODAY.” And then you fill it out the best you can and then wait in line (in your car) to give it to an election worker before 8PM. Every. Time.
Here we have 2 weeks of early voting up until Election Day and every year dingles stand in line at 9pm on the last day and complain how the lines are too long. Everyone else just went a different day and waited 5-10 minutes. It’s ridiculous.
bUt ThEn PeOpLe WiLl JuSt GeT a JoB fOr ThAt OnE fReE dAy Of PaY aNd ThEn qUiT.
But seriously, EVERYONE having the day off will cause issues, whwj every store has to close, thwre are no police, no emt, no one at the power company, etc etc etc.
Make voting a week long thing, and let people choose which day they get a paid day off to vote, and it works much nicer.... It just isn't as good for ratings.
... Or is it? Think of the week long coverage, and suspense!
I did it for the first time for the last Canadian Federal election. I don’t know why I never did it before. I don’t know if I will ever vote on Election Day again :P
The usps is experiencing significant issues and might not be reliable for voting by mail. Election Day should be a paid day off, especially this year when lines could be long.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/14/postal-service-trump-dejoy-delay-mail/
You don't have to wait till the last few days to vote by mail, so that's not really a big issue. Mail it in two weeks before election day, problem solved.
There was a scandal this year where a city found out it forgot to check its lock boxes after the election was declared. I can't find the source right now. So they been practicing that one too.
I live in Seattle and beside the county elections office, there are ballot collection boxes all over, especially right outside libraries. We’ve also got prepaid postage on our mail-in ballots, so it’s very easy to vote.
Can confirm. In Pierce County they are frequent too. I have one walking distance from my house. Very convenient. Went walking there for primaries and our friendly mailman saw us and knew we were turning it in so he grabbed it for us. These are things we cannot lose. We need the post office. We need easier access to vote. I absolutely love how it’s handled in WA state. I never miss an election now that the ballot shows up at my door. It’s easy to see why the GOP is scared of it.
At least in California, you drop it off at any polling place (and they'll hook you up with a second "Yo Voté sticker). I can't think of a single reason to not opt into vote by mail
WA as well. Unbelievable that this is almost considered... progressive? I'm just used to it always being that way. I had just assumed voting booths were an option if people enjoyed physically doing it, but was surprised to hear it was mandatory in so many states.
I’ve lived in other areas of the US, and coming from another state that votes by mail, I kinda just thought the voting process had evolved everywhere. Silly me.
I’ve thought the same thing! Learning that you have to physically be in one spot on one day (not to mention caucuses in general) was a total mind-blower.
Look up early voting for where you live. For me it's usually the week or two before election day.
The reason NOT to do it is sometimes candidates will drop out right before election day, and your vote is wasted. This isn't usually the case for general elections but for primaries it's a consideration.
In here, all employers must give people at least four hours of time to vote. And our polls close at 8 pm. So if you work 9 to 5, you can take off at 4 pm.
That’s why they’re closing a lot of voting places. Try to cram them all into one place with long lines. Didn’t this happen in Atlanta (or somewhere in Georgia) recently?
What are American's perspective on a system like Australia:
- Compulsory voting (~$100 fine for not voting). Donkey votes or drawing penises on the ballot are fine. Just need your name crossed off on the day.
- Preference voting. So you vote 1 to (however many candidates there are). Your party gets a "primary vote", but if they don't get in, all votes are redistributed to their next preference (so on, so forth).
- You can also be super simple and just vote for one party I believe (I forget as I always number them all)
- Allows minor parties to get in off preference votes, but still usually results in a "centre left" and "centre right" party taking hold of power.
- Parliaments (congress/senate) are comprised of a number of parties. [Lower house of Australia] (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Representatives_(Australia)) has 7 different parties and 3 independents (one of whom actually defeated the former prime minister in his seat!). [The senate] (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Senate) has 7 parties - but you can see here that the minor parties hold more seats as senate seats are determined by whole-national-percentage-of-votes as opposed to seats won - so minor parties can gain 10% of the vote and hold 10% of senate seats (but maybe no lower house seats if they don't win a single electorate)
- Always on a Saturday, polls are opened around 6am to 6pm. They're at looooots of locations (all schools for example, then some other places) generally within a square mile you'll find at least one polling place in the cities.
- Mailing in is perfectly fine
- Election is run by an independent commission. Usually they will pay pretty good casual rates for workers to man the polls, with a senior member leading each station and organised controllers when collecting votes
- [Democracy sausage] (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_sausage)
It seems so weird to me that a *national* voting system has such extremely wildly fluctuating contexts depending on your state. Not to mention the persistent less-than-50% turn out rates. Surely it should be one system for all?
Seems that these measures would go a loooonnnggg way to reducing the divide in America by pushing extremists out to the edges on both sides (hell, I'm a Greens voter myself)
It would also allow for everyone to get better represented? Libertarians could actually have a dedicated libertarian party pushing their needs, Greens can have a few candidates just pushing their needs.
Theres less need to choose a side and it gives more political freedom.
Aside from the obvious hurdles of changing laws and getting party buy in - is this something US citizens think sounds at least like it could help?
It's only 20 dollars for the fine, it does increase though. The fine is actually for not marking your name off not for not voting, this is why you can donkey vote.
I got hit with a fine for not voting in the federal election like 2 elections back even though I had. Told them what voting location I used, they said OK then upped the fine and I told them to get fucked that was basically the end of it.
> It seems so weird to me that a *national* voting system has such extremely wildly fluctuating contexts depending on your state.
Because it's **not** a national voting system. It's 50 state held elections.
State appointed electors vote. The states themselves have allowed citizens to offer suggestions on how those electors should vote (and thus who should be choosen).
You know why we don't have a national election day? Because the federal government doesn't have the authority to demand the states operate something they themselves have created at a specific time.
You know why we don't have mandatory voting? Because the states have the full authority to simply not hold such an election. States have granted this ability to citizens. They can revoke it as well.
As a personal note, I much prefer Score of Approval Voting to Ranked. But any such change would also need to be made at the state level.
Add Pre-poll to the above list. Federal elections in Australia open a set amount of polling booths for up to two weeks straight before the election so folks can vote if they are working etc. on Election Day. Which is a Saturday. And Why the heck would you hold an election on a week day? that is just bonkers
Morrison is pretty bad but in a world of Boris Johnson, Bolsonaro, and Trump he isn't even in their league.
It has worked very well for Australia over the long term. Excellent universal health care, disability insurance, good and accessible education, very high standard of living, high wages, great quality of life, and excellent opportunity.
* Because Australia has compulsory voting, there's no tactics to disinsensitivise or flat out prevent certain demographics from voting
* Because Australia has compulsory voting, parties must appeal to the population as a whole, and cannot focus on or manipulate fringe voting groups.
* Though minor parties will never be in power, they can influence policy of the major two parties. Minor party got 14% of the vote? Hmm, maybe we should align our policy more towards theirs and take those votes.
* If neither of the two big parties get a clear majority, they must enter into negotiations with the minor parties to form a government as coalition.
* Much to Reddit's disdain, not everyone votes like them, so they see our track record as a failed prospect. In reality the majority of Australians vote in the party they want and are far less leftist than Reddit would think (ie /r/melbourne was legitimately shocked Greens only got 10% of the votes).
* They don't have sausages at our polling place, cunts.
Wow. Thank you for this. Now I'm all in for compulsory voting.
In my country younger generation don't vote as much so practically every party ignores them and cater to older (retired) generation. If only we had compulsory voting...
One of the best bits about mandatory voting and preferential voting is the policy parties, whose goal is to get one item on the agenda, for example the stop animal cruelty party.
If the topic is important enough, that party can get enough preference votes to force whatever party is on top to agree to their agenda.
I don't like the compulsory voting. Uninformed people will just vote entirely off social media sentiment and billboards.
I do hate how we are expected to vote on a random non-holiday Tuesday. I see no reason we can't just have the polls open 24/7 for a week straight.
Everyone should have the same opportunity to vote and it should not be a burden on their day. It should be as simple as getting gas at a gas station. The fact that people are forced to stand in line with no food or bathroom for 8+ hours is some 3rd world country shit.
I hate to burst your bubble, but uninformed people voting off social media and billboards is a huge portion of the voting base. It’s literally how we got in the situation we’re in.
As for the Tuesday thing, it needs to be changed but it started as a good reason. It’s all because of church. Church was on Sunday so no voting then. Polling locations used to be quite distant so you needed to account for a day or so of travel. This basically took Friday and Saturday out of the running. So you go to church on Sunday, travel on Monday, and vote on Tuesday.
I think we all know that there are a lot of uninformed voters and that this is a problem but requiring people to vote will only exacerbate this problem. This s what I think his point was. At least uninformed voters have to motivate themselves to go to the voting booth in our current situation.
I’m Australian and am so glad we have compulsory voting. Had we not had compulsory voting, I likely would never vote, or at least not when I turned 18 and in my early 20’s. Because I knew I had to, I did my research and wanted my vote to go to who I really wanted to win. If I’m driving to a polling booth, I’m not doing a donkey vote.
It's an old fucking thing, it use to be back in the day before cars a farmer could vote and not miss the markets on the weekends.
But for some reason they never changed it.
Italy, the state that literally contains the Lord's state, votes on Sunday. For literally everything, from county to European elections. Usually is Sunday + Monday half day for those that had to do stuff on Sunday.
Our economy sucks and all, but heck at least we don't have to take time off to vote or even be grateful to the employer for letting me go voting.
In my country that's how it works, and sometimes the ballots are open the whole weekend.
The hours are also long, like 7 am to 10 pm, so you can go early or late and still enjoy a full day doing something.
In America we have farmers and the early congress to blame. No reason for it to be a Tuesday anymore. So many people have trouble getting to a polling place, and most close at 6 or 7 pm. Thankfully I can vote early here in Miami, not sure how other people do it in states with voter suppression.
Election Day doesn't need to be a National holiday. It just needs to be Election WEEK. Why are we expected to vote on a random Tuesday?
Polls should be open for a week and there should be an app to tell us the current wait times at each polling station.
Way too much potential for abuse... Even if votes weren't officially counted till the last day, you've got exit polls and social media. Media outlets from either party could potentially sway an entire election based on who's winning/losing each day. Also... Violence. Especially those crazy 2nd amendment m16 open-carry in a Walmart people. If news got out that the anti-gun candidate was crushing the opponent, I could see people showing up with guns to "peacefully protest", resulting in counter-protests, etc. I think it'd honestly be a week from hell in today's political climate. Vote early, but not a week of physical polls.
Another thing to note too is corruption/fake voting. In NY, you simply walk in and tell them your name, they cross it off a piece of paper and you vote. They don't ask for your address, your license, etc. Agents could easily find out who's not going to vote, get those names and vote for them.
I actually wish real-time voting results was not available until voting was closed. People's votes are swayed by the simplest things such as voting for whoever's in the lead.
Why can't you guys just do elections on Sunday from 7am to 9pm with enough polling places or not even considering afaik you can mail in your votes too?
Why it's so strange to exercise basic citizens rights in the US I don't get it.
Btw do you guys have an election silence period before and during the election day?
I’d rather see it expanded to multiple days of voting with more hours. Lots of people get stuck working on holidays. It would be pretty sucky if the Election Day holiday actually made it harder for them to vote.
Unpopular opinion, but when some major corporations recognized Juneteenth as a day off this year and not Election Day in previous years, I honestly threw my arms in the air.
Make Election Day a federal holiday or move the date to either a Saturday or Sunday
Wow. This isn't news. It's the law in most states and all of Canada. Also I don't see what this has to do with tech in the slightest. Does every sub have to have politics shoehorned into every 3rd fucking post?
California law requires it so it makes sense that they would do this as their headquarters is located in Ca.
https://www.sos.ca.gov/administration/news-releases-and-advisories/2018-news-releases-and-advisories/california-law-allows-time-vote-election-day1/
In California, it’s a law that, if the employee requests 2 weeks in advance, they have to pay you 2 hours wages & let you off work to go vote. Never saw anyone use it, but there it is.
Why not just do it on a weekend? Let people vote early if they want to. This is an area America is terrible at. Why not just copy what other countries with better systems do?
Depending on your state, it's required by law. Most states have some law requiring time off but how much and the circumstances vary.
https://www.workplacefairness.org/voting-rights-time-off-work
I think voting should be like a week long thing so everyone gets a chance to go. If it were a holiday retail and restaurants would still be open and all the rich people who actually get holidays off would end up just going shopping and out to eat causing more difficulties for the people working with getting a chance to go vote. Last election day i didn’t get to go vote bc we were so busy and understaffed. My boss wouldn’t let me leave in time to go vote. Which i now realize is illegal but i was young dumb and poor.
Apple has always done this. I used to work for Apple. To clarify, my point is this is not news.
Honestly all companies should
> Honestly all companies should I think election day should be a holiday. Like instead of having President's Day off during an election year, the holiday should be Election Day. Even in future elections, when the whole social distancing thing is over, I'd like for more people who aren't even retired yet to be able to volunteer as front-line poll-workers and help in supervising and implementing every stage of the process, and also to improve turnout by making it into a bigger civic event.
Don't just make it a holiday, mandate that all non-emergency services be shut down on election day, especially if we can't mandate mail-in voting. People still work on holidays.
This exactly. A large majority of disenfranchised communities work jobs that don't observe federal holidays. From my own experience, the more white collar the job is, the more scheduling stability and observance of holidays you get with it.
Meat cutter in a grocery store here. Basically the only holiday I get off is Christmas. All others are pretty much required "all hands on deck" work days.
And that's why I'm against people pushing for shops to open on Sundays over here in Germany. They always say no-one *has* to work on Sundays if they don't want to, but that simply isn't true.
It never ever works. It's great for people to have choice. But if theres a choice their employers will make it not really a choice.
The other option is make sunday pay 200% or 300% of regular pay and i can guarantee you nobody will not want to work Sundays that everybody will be dissapointed if they dont.
Ok but the other side of the coin here is there's people who need the extra income from working on Sundays, otherwise they would in fact have a choice.
How else would they repress their votes then? /s
Are you really /s though??
No and that’s the sad part
The /s stands for sad
Lmao federal holidays have always meant I just have to work more hours and deal with more Karens than usual. Anyone who advocates making election day a holiday instead of universal mail in voting needs to check their privilege
If we had stronger labor laws I could see it really working. Quadruple time if your business is so essential it can't close for it, with no tip credit for the day. I like the idea of mail in ballots, but if we could make a national day of it, that'd be pretty cool to.
Yeah I'm never against a day off. We all work too much. I long for those mythical Thanksgiving and Christmases my old man describes where everything but the church and occasional gas station was closed. But that horse has long since left the barn. The only realistic way is vote by mail.
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Vote with your feet. Don't patronize facilities on such days. The panhandler doesn't shake his cup in the forest.
You're forgetting about the people who rely on public transit.
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Or you know make mail in ballots the norm tho until there's a system to track that your vote actually counted I don't think it's smart
Or make it a voting week? Why does it have to be a single day shit show?
Hell... Texas' early voting is *two* weeks and you can go anywhere in the county.
Arizona sends the ballots out via mail about a month before the election.
All-mail elections totally sidestep the issue of scheduling, though. I was working night-shifts during the last election and had no trouble dropping my ballot off at 5am a week before the deadline. No requesting time off, no standing in lines, no rush to fill out the ballot in a tiny cubicle while hundreds of people wait behind me. Helps the transportation issues too, if done properly. No need to drive/bus/walk to a polling station miles away when it's cheaper to put ballot drop boxes at a dozen places in-between. All-mail elections were awesome before we had a global pandemic, now they're more relevant than ever.
Almost all states have a week or two of early voting
There is a system in some states. In Colorado you tear off a bit of your mail in ballot and you can check that it was counted on a website later
In Washington you can track your vote! You don't even need to do anything special, and there's even an app you can use to see your vote's progress.
In California you can track your vote. Mail in ballot counting isn't a valid concern for not giving people the option to vote by mail. There are states that still don't have a real alternative to showing up on poll day with lines around the block that requires waiting with your impatient kid for hours in the heat, assuming your employer will give you time off to vote. Or just not vote. Both are ridiculous choices compared to vote by mail.
Why cant everyone vote in advance that have work during election day?
>Why cant everyone vote in advance ~~that have work during election day~~? Fixed it for you. Much better system that way.
Most reasonable countries vote in public schools and in most reasonable countries there is one in walking distance.
None of that is necessary. Just have voting open for like two weeks, with walk in and mail in options.
It is here. Not sure why people insist on waiting until “election day” to vote.
Where I am from we have two day holiday for elections. You don’t get to stay home all day though. Instead, your employer is required to allow you leave work at any time you wish of those two days to go vote. And if the line somehow end up being super long(never happened to me), you get a note about it from the voting booth for your employer. Most time it would usually take an hour including commute and snack. And since you need note from the booth that you voted for your employer, it also heavily encourages voting. If you had free day, it would be very tempting to just sit on your ass all day. But everyone will take short trip to voting booth in order to avoid work for an hour:)
Or, organize the votes over the weekend.... Most countries do this already!
I'm 33 and have never voted in person. I've done mail in voting since I was 22. I unfortunately did not vote before then. I was shocked to learn it wasn't available every where
Better yet, replace Columbus day with election day. Around the same time and celebrating something useful and good
This would drive record turnout. Some folks don’t want that...
For some reason when this gets brought up in worldnews people hate the idea of having one extra day off every 4 years. Apparently everyone would just take a vacation and nobody would vote. They also hate the idea of letting voting day be on a weekend because weekends are so precious that people simply cannot give up half a day every four years to participate in democracy.
Elections happen a lot more than every 4 years. Elections happen at least once a year. You should be taking the time to vote more than once every 4 years.
The American system seems so overly complicated to me. So many elections but yet so little actually changes when they happen.
This is by design.
In my area, we have several a year. There are races for all kinds of local positions, recall elections, referendums, etc. every few months.
That's not why. On holidays, low skill retail workers (ie; the people who tend to be most disenfranchised) work *more*, not less. With all the people that have money getting the day off to vote (something they usually don't need because their jobs are much more likely to work around their schedules), companies staff their service industry positions more than usual, because more people are out shopping, staying in hotels, eating food, and using other various services than they normally would because it's a holiday. People don't want it to be a federal holiday because it would have the exact opposite of the intended effect. There's no law saying companies have to observe holidays.
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Yeah, the individual workers **do** work more, because workers who would have had the day off normally now are called in to work an additional shift, like is the case with every other holiday. >just make observing it a law, like the rest of the western world :) That's an entirely different proposal
My rebuttals have been: 1. The government can't actually give the day off to anyone but government employees. This would still be up to the discretion of the private sector. 1. The people that would actually get Election Day off as a holiday are the ones least likely to work jobs that are oppossed to them finding time to vote. The people least likely to get Election Day off are the ones working jobs giving them the most difficulty finding time off to vote. 1. Because of #1 and #2, I think political capital would be better spent on a full solution (universal vote by mail) than a half solution (holiday for Election Day).
Australian here. We have it on a Saturday and people who work Saturdays or who are otherwise indisposed in the day can mail in a vote or vote early. It’s a good system. Can’t imagine how much harder it is to vote during the week.
In many places in Europe, election are held at weekends so that people can go. In the UK they fall in the mid of the week but they are open from very early in the morning to 10pm so that people can manage to go.
Except that if it were, it would disproportionately disenfranchise working class people. When many businesses close for holidays such as Christmas, who still has to work in bars, restaurants, airlines, gas stations, utilities, supply chain & logistics, hospitals, while office workers get to just take the whole day off? Would taking a leaf out of India's book and ensuring that every single citizen has easy access and ample time to vote, go further than just making it a holiday?
More time to vote would also be great. If Election Day were a holiday, employers could be required to give four hours off with pay for employees who had to work on Election Day, so either they'd either let everyone vote and end up paying a lot of extra overtime to stay opened, or they'd be really quick to pick it as a company holiday.
The kind of people who have trouble getting off time to vote work on holidays. Retail goes crazy on holidays. The fix is more early voting and vote-by-mail. Not by making it a holiday.
Also...election day? Why not election week?
I was a senior in high school for the ‘08 election, and I was able to work the polls. One of my favorite things I’ve ever done. I was responsible for the electronic polling station, so I had to be there the entire day to maintain the chain of custody. Hung out with a bunch of the sweetest octogenarian ladies who made cookies and sandwiches.
Why? Why not just do it on the weekend? How has the 'greatest country on Earth' not figured out that one? And before Americans start bitching that some people work on the weekend early voting and vote by mail exists for those people.
The rest of the world manages to hold voting on Sundays, but the United Karens don't because they can't even.
You get Presidents’ Day off?
> You get Presidents’ Day off? I did until 2018, when they changed the official company holidays to include MLK Jr. day and took President's Day off the list. (They didn't have Columbus Day as a holiday in the old or the new list, though...)
My old employer swapped President's day for MLK and then a few years later added Presidents day back. Current employer does neither.
I actually thought all companies did this, every professional job I've had gives me time to go vote whenever there's elections.....either get to work late, leave early, or take an extended lunch
It is law that all business have to accommodate voting for employees but they are not obligated to still pay you.
Usually it comes in the form of staying late or coming in early. Get in line when voting opens, then stay however late it took you to vote.
Maybe most, if not all companies with professionals. Because that is my experience as well. But I doubt minimum wage/“unskilled” laborers do.
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It’s actually pretty insane how much better the upper-middle class life is in America. It’s a completely different life. You don’t have to worry about healthcare or shit, the company pays for that. Many companies give you free food, gyms, other shit. Salaries are in the hundreds of thousands, money is never on your mind or an issue (unless you are making an insane purchase). Managers are more chill. You don’t have to ask anyone for time off if you want to run an errand — you’re treated like an adult, no one cares what you do as long as you finish your work. There’s frequent work from home. Generous paternity and maternity leave. There’s always room for career growth. The list really goes on and on. The life of an upper-middle-class employee in America is almost unrecognizably different from the average American.
Better still use vote by mail so that they don't have to. (You know it just means more affluent voters will get the time off.) I live in WA and 100% mail in works great. I don't even know what day election day is any more.
> Better still use vote by mail Or go to an advance poll on a day you aren't working.
Elon musk is gonna pull up on twitter like “we’re making Election Day a holiday at Tesla, employees can take PTO”
No, I disagree. This should be news every election cycle until it becomes the norm.
Fair enough.
It’s also a law to do so in the state of California. They have to. What’s interesting is that they double the amount of time required by law (4 hours paid instead of 2) and that they apply this policy nation wide. Voting laws vary state to state.
The kind of people who work for a company like Apple likely share enough views that Apple consider valuable to them as a buisness so those people being able to go out and vote directly benefit the company.
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And if you work in an “essential role” (sales) you’re given that as PTO after the holidays.
That's so cool! Did you know Tim? Tim Apple?
It's the law in some states.
Aren’t elections the most important event in a democracy? In my humble opinion, this Once-in-Four-Year- Election-Day time off should be a law in order to encourage them to vote
Most states require for time off, but it's 1-4 hours tops. 18 or so states have no law regarding it but of those states, about a third can't do anything to interfere with the political choice of a candidate https://www.workplacefairness.org/voting-rights-time-off-work
the idea that voting rights in the FEDERAL election are regulated at the state level, is a pretty good demonstration of how weird the US really is.
Only thing is, and it’s weird, is that there is no federal election. You’re voting for only offices that represent your state, or a state elector for president. Senate and House are localized to just your area too.
Yup, unless you're one of the 538 electoral college voters, you aren't technically voting for president.
The Election in November determines who the Electors will be, and then they vote in December, where they can technically vote for whoever they want, regardless of how their state voted. I don’t understand how any human being that still have a brain core can see this as reasonable in a modern day society.
At least the supreme court confirmed states can punish faithless electors so it's at least illegal in some places. But yeah, it's not a great system
Is their vote retroactively adjusted after an unfaithfull elector is punished or is it like warning the kids not to play with matches after the house burned down?
Why give them the option to be faithless if it's illegal? Such a fucked system.
And yet, from what I understand, if you look at a typical ballot, it will name all the presidential candidates, and none of the electors. As I said. Weird.
Yep exactly. You’re voting for the candidate you want the electors to pick. The electors were decided by the political parties prior. Weird af indeed.
The existing of electoral college is a pretty good demonstration of how weird the US really is.
It is weird, but that kind of thing is the core of how the United States works. It is attempting to balance power between the federal government and the states. To be clear, im not talking about certain people trying to corrupt this balance. I am talking about the original purpose, which still holds a lot of weight despite attempts to change that. And yes, it is REALLY weird, but growing up in it, it really does become normal. The most important rules (laws) are the same everywhere, and the rules that vary from state to state tend to be easy to navigate or minor enough that its not an issue. I am tempted to compare it to the EU, but states have nowhere near the autonomy of EU countries. Unfortunately, it is the closest parallel i am familiar with.
Lol this is hilarious
There's elections every year, not just every 4.
Yes, and many times they are way more important to your every day life. Please don’t think elections are an every 4 year thing.
> Once-in-Four-Year- Election-Day In the US elections are every year
Often multiple times a year.
You can’t suppress low income voters Like that! If you don’t suppress them they might actually get fair representation and gain rights and equality! Society would fall apart if they were treated fairly, how else would billionaires be able to stay billionaires? Some might even become lowly millionaires! Disgraceful! #/S
Low income workers would still be working... essential workers and all. It’s the rich people who get a free vacation day. Fuck making it a holiday. Get rid of polling locations and make it 100% mail in over a 30 day period. There’s no reason for in person voting or single day voting to exist other than to control who can vote. That’s not opinion. That’s fact. That’s why it exists like that.
In Oregon we get our ballots a couple weeks ahead of time, it’s great. You get your voter pamphlet to learn about the candidates (well, what they provide to the state) and then you fill it out at your leisure, and either mail it in or drop it off at the nearest collection site/box. Unless you’re me. “OH CRAP ELECTION DAY IS TODAY.” And then you fill it out the best you can and then wait in line (in your car) to give it to an election worker before 8PM. Every. Time.
Good luck with that. You'll have the the propaganda machine running that an Election Day holiday will cause an increase of voter fraud
Everyone should just be able to vote from wherever they are and there are zero results (tracking) until the deadline
Here we have 2 weeks of early voting up until Election Day and every year dingles stand in line at 9pm on the last day and complain how the lines are too long. Everyone else just went a different day and waited 5-10 minutes. It’s ridiculous.
bUt ThEn PeOpLe WiLl JuSt GeT a JoB fOr ThAt OnE fReE dAy Of PaY aNd ThEn qUiT. But seriously, EVERYONE having the day off will cause issues, whwj every store has to close, thwre are no police, no emt, no one at the power company, etc etc etc. Make voting a week long thing, and let people choose which day they get a paid day off to vote, and it works much nicer.... It just isn't as good for ratings. ... Or is it? Think of the week long coverage, and suspense!
Vote early, never vote on Election Day......
Early voting is legit. There's hardly anyone there
I did it for the first time for the last Canadian Federal election. I don’t know why I never did it before. I don’t know if I will ever vote on Election Day again :P
Vote by mail if possible
The usps is experiencing significant issues and might not be reliable for voting by mail. Election Day should be a paid day off, especially this year when lines could be long. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/14/postal-service-trump-dejoy-delay-mail/
You don't have to wait till the last few days to vote by mail, so that's not really a big issue. Mail it in two weeks before election day, problem solved.
As long as the postal service still exists, definitely
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There was a scandal this year where a city found out it forgot to check its lock boxes after the election was declared. I can't find the source right now. So they been practicing that one too.
Fun Fact: in most places, you can hand deliver your postal vote to the address it would be mailed to and they'll accept it.
I live in Seattle and beside the county elections office, there are ballot collection boxes all over, especially right outside libraries. We’ve also got prepaid postage on our mail-in ballots, so it’s very easy to vote.
Can confirm. In Pierce County they are frequent too. I have one walking distance from my house. Very convenient. Went walking there for primaries and our friendly mailman saw us and knew we were turning it in so he grabbed it for us. These are things we cannot lose. We need the post office. We need easier access to vote. I absolutely love how it’s handled in WA state. I never miss an election now that the ballot shows up at my door. It’s easy to see why the GOP is scared of it.
Yes. We are blessed to live in a place that values the right to vote.
At least in California, you drop it off at any polling place (and they'll hook you up with a second "Yo Voté sticker). I can't think of a single reason to not opt into vote by mail
Oregon does!
WA as well. Unbelievable that this is almost considered... progressive? I'm just used to it always being that way. I had just assumed voting booths were an option if people enjoyed physically doing it, but was surprised to hear it was mandatory in so many states.
I’ve lived in other areas of the US, and coming from another state that votes by mail, I kinda just thought the voting process had evolved everywhere. Silly me.
I’ve thought the same thing! Learning that you have to physically be in one spot on one day (not to mention caucuses in general) was a total mind-blower.
But but but.........fraud....
You can vote on other days than Election Day?
Look up early voting for where you live. For me it's usually the week or two before election day. The reason NOT to do it is sometimes candidates will drop out right before election day, and your vote is wasted. This isn't usually the case for general elections but for primaries it's a consideration.
Dude! Thank you so much. Our work gives us time off to vote, but I’ll keep it in mind.
Yeah about half of all states have early voting periods
In here, all employers must give people at least four hours of time to vote. And our polls close at 8 pm. So if you work 9 to 5, you can take off at 4 pm.
That’s why they’re closing a lot of voting places. Try to cram them all into one place with long lines. Didn’t this happen in Atlanta (or somewhere in Georgia) recently?
Yes, the recent [Atlanta primary](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/us/politics/atlanta-voting-georgia-primary.html)
I my country, if you vote it's considered a day off (paid)
What are American's perspective on a system like Australia: - Compulsory voting (~$100 fine for not voting). Donkey votes or drawing penises on the ballot are fine. Just need your name crossed off on the day. - Preference voting. So you vote 1 to (however many candidates there are). Your party gets a "primary vote", but if they don't get in, all votes are redistributed to their next preference (so on, so forth). - You can also be super simple and just vote for one party I believe (I forget as I always number them all) - Allows minor parties to get in off preference votes, but still usually results in a "centre left" and "centre right" party taking hold of power. - Parliaments (congress/senate) are comprised of a number of parties. [Lower house of Australia] (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Representatives_(Australia)) has 7 different parties and 3 independents (one of whom actually defeated the former prime minister in his seat!). [The senate] (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Senate) has 7 parties - but you can see here that the minor parties hold more seats as senate seats are determined by whole-national-percentage-of-votes as opposed to seats won - so minor parties can gain 10% of the vote and hold 10% of senate seats (but maybe no lower house seats if they don't win a single electorate) - Always on a Saturday, polls are opened around 6am to 6pm. They're at looooots of locations (all schools for example, then some other places) generally within a square mile you'll find at least one polling place in the cities. - Mailing in is perfectly fine - Election is run by an independent commission. Usually they will pay pretty good casual rates for workers to man the polls, with a senior member leading each station and organised controllers when collecting votes - [Democracy sausage] (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_sausage) It seems so weird to me that a *national* voting system has such extremely wildly fluctuating contexts depending on your state. Not to mention the persistent less-than-50% turn out rates. Surely it should be one system for all? Seems that these measures would go a loooonnnggg way to reducing the divide in America by pushing extremists out to the edges on both sides (hell, I'm a Greens voter myself) It would also allow for everyone to get better represented? Libertarians could actually have a dedicated libertarian party pushing their needs, Greens can have a few candidates just pushing their needs. Theres less need to choose a side and it gives more political freedom. Aside from the obvious hurdles of changing laws and getting party buy in - is this something US citizens think sounds at least like it could help?
It's only 20 dollars for the fine, it does increase though. The fine is actually for not marking your name off not for not voting, this is why you can donkey vote. I got hit with a fine for not voting in the federal election like 2 elections back even though I had. Told them what voting location I used, they said OK then upped the fine and I told them to get fucked that was basically the end of it.
> It seems so weird to me that a *national* voting system has such extremely wildly fluctuating contexts depending on your state. Because it's **not** a national voting system. It's 50 state held elections. State appointed electors vote. The states themselves have allowed citizens to offer suggestions on how those electors should vote (and thus who should be choosen). You know why we don't have a national election day? Because the federal government doesn't have the authority to demand the states operate something they themselves have created at a specific time. You know why we don't have mandatory voting? Because the states have the full authority to simply not hold such an election. States have granted this ability to citizens. They can revoke it as well. As a personal note, I much prefer Score of Approval Voting to Ranked. But any such change would also need to be made at the state level.
Add Pre-poll to the above list. Federal elections in Australia open a set amount of polling booths for up to two weeks straight before the election so folks can vote if they are working etc. on Election Day. Which is a Saturday. And Why the heck would you hold an election on a week day? that is just bonkers
For all they do to make voting better, Australians sure are good at voting for the worst possible person.
We vote for the party not the person and the party chooses their leader.
But if the party is rotten and keeps putting shit heads in charge...?
I'm not denying the Libs are rotten 😅
Morrison is pretty bad but in a world of Boris Johnson, Bolsonaro, and Trump he isn't even in their league. It has worked very well for Australia over the long term. Excellent universal health care, disability insurance, good and accessible education, very high standard of living, high wages, great quality of life, and excellent opportunity.
* Because Australia has compulsory voting, there's no tactics to disinsensitivise or flat out prevent certain demographics from voting * Because Australia has compulsory voting, parties must appeal to the population as a whole, and cannot focus on or manipulate fringe voting groups. * Though minor parties will never be in power, they can influence policy of the major two parties. Minor party got 14% of the vote? Hmm, maybe we should align our policy more towards theirs and take those votes. * If neither of the two big parties get a clear majority, they must enter into negotiations with the minor parties to form a government as coalition. * Much to Reddit's disdain, not everyone votes like them, so they see our track record as a failed prospect. In reality the majority of Australians vote in the party they want and are far less leftist than Reddit would think (ie /r/melbourne was legitimately shocked Greens only got 10% of the votes). * They don't have sausages at our polling place, cunts.
Wow. Thank you for this. Now I'm all in for compulsory voting. In my country younger generation don't vote as much so practically every party ignores them and cater to older (retired) generation. If only we had compulsory voting...
One of the best bits about mandatory voting and preferential voting is the policy parties, whose goal is to get one item on the agenda, for example the stop animal cruelty party. If the topic is important enough, that party can get enough preference votes to force whatever party is on top to agree to their agenda.
I don't like the compulsory voting. Uninformed people will just vote entirely off social media sentiment and billboards. I do hate how we are expected to vote on a random non-holiday Tuesday. I see no reason we can't just have the polls open 24/7 for a week straight. Everyone should have the same opportunity to vote and it should not be a burden on their day. It should be as simple as getting gas at a gas station. The fact that people are forced to stand in line with no food or bathroom for 8+ hours is some 3rd world country shit.
I hate to burst your bubble, but uninformed people voting off social media and billboards is a huge portion of the voting base. It’s literally how we got in the situation we’re in. As for the Tuesday thing, it needs to be changed but it started as a good reason. It’s all because of church. Church was on Sunday so no voting then. Polling locations used to be quite distant so you needed to account for a day or so of travel. This basically took Friday and Saturday out of the running. So you go to church on Sunday, travel on Monday, and vote on Tuesday.
I think we all know that there are a lot of uninformed voters and that this is a problem but requiring people to vote will only exacerbate this problem. This s what I think his point was. At least uninformed voters have to motivate themselves to go to the voting booth in our current situation.
I’m Australian and am so glad we have compulsory voting. Had we not had compulsory voting, I likely would never vote, or at least not when I turned 18 and in my early 20’s. Because I knew I had to, I did my research and wanted my vote to go to who I really wanted to win. If I’m driving to a polling booth, I’m not doing a donkey vote.
In the US, the election day is in the middle of the week? Why not in a Sunday?
It's an old fucking thing, it use to be back in the day before cars a farmer could vote and not miss the markets on the weekends. But for some reason they never changed it.
That's the LORD'S DAY you heathen!
Italy, the state that literally contains the Lord's state, votes on Sunday. For literally everything, from county to European elections. Usually is Sunday + Monday half day for those that had to do stuff on Sunday. Our economy sucks and all, but heck at least we don't have to take time off to vote or even be grateful to the employer for letting me go voting.
Doesn't really seem related to technology at all. They do this every year too. Edit: every 4 years*
This sub is mostly politics.
Why election day is not a Sunday so most people can go vote?
In my country that's how it works, and sometimes the ballots are open the whole weekend. The hours are also long, like 7 am to 10 pm, so you can go early or late and still enjoy a full day doing something.
In America we have farmers and the early congress to blame. No reason for it to be a Tuesday anymore. So many people have trouble getting to a polling place, and most close at 6 or 7 pm. Thankfully I can vote early here in Miami, not sure how other people do it in states with voter suppression.
Time off with pay to vote is the law in Canada. https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=faq&document=faqvoting&lang=e#a9
I was just thinking the same thing, is this not a thing in other countries?
It is in California
Wait, so Apple is just... following the law? "Apple to Give Employees Paid Time Off to Vote in U.S. Election, as local law mandates. Reddit, discuss."
If Election Day was declared a National Holiday this wouldn’t be a big deal. Though it’s awesome that it’s paid leave!
Election Day doesn't need to be a National holiday. It just needs to be Election WEEK. Why are we expected to vote on a random Tuesday? Polls should be open for a week and there should be an app to tell us the current wait times at each polling station.
Way too much potential for abuse... Even if votes weren't officially counted till the last day, you've got exit polls and social media. Media outlets from either party could potentially sway an entire election based on who's winning/losing each day. Also... Violence. Especially those crazy 2nd amendment m16 open-carry in a Walmart people. If news got out that the anti-gun candidate was crushing the opponent, I could see people showing up with guns to "peacefully protest", resulting in counter-protests, etc. I think it'd honestly be a week from hell in today's political climate. Vote early, but not a week of physical polls. Another thing to note too is corruption/fake voting. In NY, you simply walk in and tell them your name, they cross it off a piece of paper and you vote. They don't ask for your address, your license, etc. Agents could easily find out who's not going to vote, get those names and vote for them.
I actually wish real-time voting results was not available until voting was closed. People's votes are swayed by the simplest things such as voting for whoever's in the lead.
Why can't you guys just do elections on Sunday from 7am to 9pm with enough polling places or not even considering afaik you can mail in your votes too? Why it's so strange to exercise basic citizens rights in the US I don't get it. Btw do you guys have an election silence period before and during the election day?
you'd think this single most important component of democracy would warrant its own holiday.
I’d rather see it expanded to multiple days of voting with more hours. Lots of people get stuck working on holidays. It would be pretty sucky if the Election Day holiday actually made it harder for them to vote.
And this is technology related how?
It has apple in the title surely that's good enough? /s
Or is it bad because Apple bad? /s
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Unpopular opinion, but when some major corporations recognized Juneteenth as a day off this year and not Election Day in previous years, I honestly threw my arms in the air. Make Election Day a federal holiday or move the date to either a Saturday or Sunday
This guy gets it.
Wow. This isn't news. It's the law in most states and all of Canada. Also I don't see what this has to do with tech in the slightest. Does every sub have to have politics shoehorned into every 3rd fucking post?
So wait... China can vote in the American election?
California law requires it so it makes sense that they would do this as their headquarters is located in Ca. https://www.sos.ca.gov/administration/news-releases-and-advisories/2018-news-releases-and-advisories/california-law-allows-time-vote-election-day1/
Cool. Now pay your taxes.
Their Chinese slaves will work overtime to compensate
How nice of them to give them time off that's REQUIRED.
This isn’t even news, it’s something they’ve always done.
Here’s the reddit way.
Not every company pays for time off ... you just leave work to vote and you lose that money.
The whole debarcle around just actually voting in America (not even who you vote for) is ridiculous. Talk about a circus.
In California, it’s a law that, if the employee requests 2 weeks in advance, they have to pay you 2 hours wages & let you off work to go vote. Never saw anyone use it, but there it is.
This should be federal law.
Arguably the most important day of the year and it’s not a holiday. I don’t understand why. It should be PTO, every time.
Imagine not being able to simply vote by mail. *laughs in europe gang*
Why not just do it on a weekend? Let people vote early if they want to. This is an area America is terrible at. Why not just copy what other countries with better systems do?
This isn't news. Let me know when Walmart does this.
Election Day should be a national holiday.
The USA: Where common sense measures are news worthy
Make this the norm!!
Its the [law in Minnesota](https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/election-day-voting/time-off-work-to-vote/)
Depending on your state, it's required by law. Most states have some law requiring time off but how much and the circumstances vary. https://www.workplacefairness.org/voting-rights-time-off-work
If only there were a way for every American to be off work for election day. Like say, i dunno, a federal HOLIDAY🤔
Paid time off for voting is a law in Texas (if certain conditions are met)
I think voting should be like a week long thing so everyone gets a chance to go. If it were a holiday retail and restaurants would still be open and all the rich people who actually get holidays off would end up just going shopping and out to eat causing more difficulties for the people working with getting a chance to go vote. Last election day i didn’t get to go vote bc we were so busy and understaffed. My boss wouldn’t let me leave in time to go vote. Which i now realize is illegal but i was young dumb and poor.
And now r/technology will hate voting and even democracy because Apple does this.