Comment on Why am I seeing "plan your voting day strategy" so often?

• spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  It is Tuesday for some outdated reason that no longer matters and it is kept as a tradition because it conflicts with working days where minorities and other lower income folks will find it harderr to vote.

  The lines are long in places where Republicans want to suppress the vote, by not providing enough staffing, minimizing voting stations, and throwing in other hurdles. They also oppose early voting snd mail in voting to make it harder for everyone to vote, because their angry voters are more likely to stick it out through those barriers.

  I live in a Republican state that hasn’t gone Dem for president since Nixon, and of course I have never waited more than 5 minutes in line and started voting early when that option was added. I don’t vote Republican, but most of the people do so they haven’t gone as malicious on voter suppression like in the states that have a chance of going Dem.

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  • illi@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    How is thay even legal, wtf?

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    • spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Because the same party doing it is good at repeatedly testing the barriers to discrimination and dismantling laws against it.

      Texas and some other states were not allowed to change voting practices without approval for years due to this kind of thing under the Voting Rights Act. Then SCOTUS overturrned that law…

      apnews.com/…/voting-rights-act-supreme-court-blac…

      Within hours of a U.S. Supreme Court decision dismantling a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, Texas lawmakers announced plans to implement a strict voter ID law that had been blocked by a federal court. Lawmakers in Alabama said they would press forward with a similar law that had been on hold.

      The ruling continues to reverberate across the country a decade later, as Republican-led states pass voting restrictions that, in several cases, would have been subject to federal review had the conservative-leaning court left the provision intact. At the same time, the justices have continued to take other cases challenging elements of the landmark 1965 law that was born from the sometimes violent struggle for the right of Black Americans to cast ballots.

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      • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Thanks for the explanations. I think the Unites States should embrace being founded on the principles of democracy, and once being amongst the leading countries with that... And return to being a democracy.

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      • illi@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        I’d expect some equality be ensuredon federal level for at least federal level stuff. Just… wow. I knew US was fucked up, but I somehow always learn there is yet another level to it

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    • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      I love seeing people realize the USA is only a Democray for a very specific group of people weather it’s concerning the Judges or the Election process. On top of that thanks to the electoral college if you dont live in a swing state you don’t really get a say. The election will boil down to a few hundred thousand people in a couple states just because of where they live.

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  • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Americans talk so much about democracy, and this is how they treat their voters… Reading this thread just makes me sad.

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    • Bigfish@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      As an American: Me too 😮‍💨

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    • Aceticon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      It’s a well known phenomenon that the more people self-compliment about some great quality they have, the less that is the case.

      A similar thing seems to happen at a political level - the countries were politicians just harp on and on about how great their Democracy is (in the case of the US) or how old it is (in the case of the UK) have the most flawed Democracies (if they even count as Democracies given how far they stray from the “all votes are equal” criteria) whilst in the best Democracies out there (like The Netherlands where they have Proportional Vote) they never talk about how great a Democracy they are.

      I believe it’s called Overcompensation.

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      • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Makes you look at Democratic Republic of the Congo in a new way. If it’s in the name, it has to be important to them, right?

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  • ardorhb@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Wouldn‘t it be the best thing to make election day a nation wide holiday? Could keep the tradition while also actually allowing people to vote. I doubt that productivity is high on these days nevertheless.

    Has this ever been discussed?

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    • thesohoriots@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      National holidays don’t apply to private companies, apparently.

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      • ardorhb@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Wait? What?

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    • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Poor people voting isn’t good for profits and it’s literally that simple. Neither party care, a few progressive dems do, at least until aipac tries to get rid of them while the most powerful dems stand behind aipac.

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    • stinerman@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      It has, but there are some people who do not like the idea that everyone can vote.

      Also it being a holiday doesn’t mean everyone gets off work. There is no federal law that says your business can’t be open 365 days per year, nor is there any law that mandates paid time off.

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• MagosInformaticus@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Federal election times are set by 2 U.S. Code § 7 as 1 day after the 1st Monday in November (of even numbered years). The law is from 1875 and from what I can tell is indeed nominally motivated by the voters’ need to first observe rest day on Sunday and then travel to their polling place. Keeping it and not having a federal holiday coinciding with it is largely aimed at keeping voter turnout low.

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• altima_neo@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  In contrast, in Oregon, we just vote by mail. Full out you ballot at your leisure, drop it off in the ballot box by the due date, and you’re set. Also the ballot boxes are all over the place. City Hall, the post office, the library, etc.

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• Trigger2_2000@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  The reasons I was given for first Tuesday in November are:

  1. After “pay day” at beginning of month (not everyone gets paid on the first of the month though).
  2. So you will be sobered up from your weekend drunk.

  The idea behind #1 is that it should be harder to bribe you if you have recently been paid. The reason behind #2 is that you will be sober when you vote.

  Also, in my state at least, alcohol sales are prohibited while the polls are open for voting.

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• GBU_28@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  You generally register when you get your license with new address here but the Crux is this gets complicated if you move from state to state…there is no federal voting registry, you register to your state.

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