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

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨undercrust@lemmy.ca⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

As a non-American, I don’t know exactly how your polling works, but why am I seeing “plan your voting day” or “set a voting strategy” like they’ve done on the Cards Against Humanity voting campaign?

Where I live, it’s just show up on voting day and cast your ballot, or ask for a mail in ballot, or go to a special voting station if you need (or want) to vote early. Is it the same in the US, and this is just getting people to gather those last pieces of information early and put a reminder in the calendar? Or is there more to it than that?

Thanks!

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sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Lines can be long, polls have limited hours (often conflicting with work hours), a person may need a ride to the polling location, etc. Some states have stupid rules like you can’t give people in line to vote food or water, which makes standing in line for hours more challenging.

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- undercrust@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Wait, you can’t give people food or water if they’re standing in the line? Why the hell not?
  
  And hours in line?? What? Why!
  
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  - Soapbox1858@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    As many have mentioned the real reason is to suppress votes by making the experience miserable.
    
    The cover story for the rules is to prevent campaigns or other groups from “buying votes” by giving people in line food/water in exchange for a promise to vote for their candidate.
    
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  - SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    To discourage people from voting. As was pointed out elsewhere, the Republicans only really flourish when a small number of people vote. So they make it as inconvenient as possible for people who are lower income, usually people of colour.
    
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  - Red_October@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Because certain people with power find it advantageous to make it difficult for the people in certain areas to vote. If you know that district isn’t going to vote for you, and morality is a thing that happens to other people, you could make the polling place too small with too few workers.
    
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  - chuckleslord@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    "We hate that poors get to vote in our country. Don’t they know that this was a country founded with the ideals that only landowning white men could vote? Apparently they changed that law at some point, so we just make new ones to make the poors not want to vote. Like depriving them of things they need to live if they choose to do so. It’s what they get for being poors. Johohoho!"
    
    American lawmakers in poor, conservative states
    
    In all honesty, it’s fucked. It’s so fucked.
    
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  - DrBob@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It’s voter suppression. By limiting the number of voting locations and understanding them you make long lines where people will wait for hours to vote. By not allowing food or water to be handed out they hope people will get discouraged and leave the line. The official reason is that it could be construed as a bribe to vote a certain way.
    
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  - sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The American political system will do everything it can to prevent poor people from voting
    
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  - Trigger2_2000@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I’m guessing you might be from Canada (Hello up there friend)!
    
    Because certain groups in power are total pieces of @#$_&-+/!
    
    Which States Ban Giving Food and Water to Voters at Polling Places?
    
    Elections in the US didn’t used to be so controversial, but in the last 10 years certain groups/parties have been crying foul (baselessly I might add) about illegal voting.
    
    You are supposed to be able to go to the polling place on election day and vote. There are limited voting hours (generally about 12 hours), it is not a national holiday (should be), your employer does not have to give you time to vote (paid or not). You might be able to vote via postal mail (but it varies by state what “valid reasons are” to do that).
    
    The US really needs election reform nation wide.
    
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  - expr@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    In Nebraska, I get my ballot by mail way in advance. I fill it out at my leisure, doing research on candidates as needed. I can then either mail the ballot back or drop it off at one of several locations around town (including any of the public libraries). I haven’t voted in person in years. This method is so much better.
    
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  - bjorney@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Murica.
    
    This was literally the overarching plot for the last season of curb
    
    youtu.be/dHIPXbLsY_Q?si=KG-IWg7GTeqQ8jiT
    
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  - captainlezbian@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Because it might be seen as bribery to get them to vote one way. This country has pulled every piece of bullshit in every direction when it comes to voting
    
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- hendrik@palaver.p3x.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Wow. That's a stark contrast to where I live. I don't have to register or anything. And I've never waited in line for more than 15-20 minutes. And we germans keep all the supermarkets, shops and most businesses closed on sundays, so voting will take place on sundays and it won't collide with work either...
  
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  - spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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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  - MagosInformaticus@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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 ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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 ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The reasons I was given for first Tuesday in November are:
    
    After “pay day” at beginning of month (not everyone gets paid on the first of the month though).
    
    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 ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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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cabbage@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Studies have shown that if you ask people to make a plan for voting, they are more likely to actually go out and vote.

So we ask people to make a plan because it's an efficient way to make them more involved and more likely to actually go out and vote when the day comes. Not because it's so hard that they need a plan (unless you live in certain states of course), but because it forces you to think actively about it rather than just passively.

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hperrin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
America has been turned into a dystopia by republicans where in order to vote, you have to provide birth certificate, social security card, a a permission slip from your late parents, a blood sample, a piece of the Shroud of Turin, a moon rock, and 75 thousand dollars in unmarked non-consecutive bills.

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- chiliedogg@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’m in Texas. The serials on the bills have to follow the Fibonacci sequence.
  
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  - captainlezbian@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    In Ohio you can’t use a rock from our moon. Neil might’ve loaned you one from ours
    
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  - Good_morning@lemmynsfw.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Damn it, I thought they had to add up to avogadro’s #
    
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- Rhoeri@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  If you’re a conservative however, all you need is a drivers license or state ID, and the names of all your dead relatives who are also voting.
  
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  - IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    And then they save you time by giving you a ballot with all the Republican candidates already checked.
    
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foggy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If you live in a swing state there might be a lot being done to make voting difficult.

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- nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  And if you don’t live in a swing state you vote doesn’t matter enough for any party to try and sabatoge voting efforts. If this is Democracy then democracy doesn’t work.
  
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  - MutilationWave@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    There is plenty of sabotage in poor and minority districts in non-swing states. There is more on the line than just the presidency.
    
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  - notastatist@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Ehhm, you call the US a democracy??
    
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tyler@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Anywhere you’ve got decades long republicans in office you will find it extremely hard to vote in America. Elsewhere it’s relatively easy. In Colorado I literally don’t do anything, a booklet explaining all the laws shows up in the mail a few weeks before the ballots do, then the ballot shows up and I can either drop it off in one of the numerous drop boxes, put it in the mail, or ignore it and go vote in person where the lines are short because nobody votes in person.

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- StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Not always. I live in Alabama. Usually in and out in 20 minutes. But then I do live in a more suburban area.
  
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Badeendje@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
How does a country like the US have hours long lines…

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- cheese_greater@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Because pubs like to deter voting
  
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  - ilinamorato@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    (Hey, non-Americans: “pubs” means “Republicans.” Bars and pubs don’t care whether we vote or not.)
    
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- stinerman@midwest.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  One thing that I think non-USians don’t understand is that our elections are not ran by some non-partisan agency that has a goal of running an efficient, fair election. Our elections in general (although it varies by state) are ran by partisan actors who know which areas vote for their party and which ones don’t. They intentionally try to make it easy for their supporters and hard for their detractors to vote.
  
  I live in Ohio if you couldn’t tell, and our chief elections officer (the Secretary of State) is not afraid to tell people that he wants Donald Trump to win the election. He is not neutral. That’s just the way it is here.
  
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  - Mirshe@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Don’t forget that the Ohio Supreme Court let the GOP just… Keep submitting shit district maps after being ordered to draw fair maps multiple times. We still haven’t drawn a new district map, that’s what Issue 1 is about.
    
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- spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Intentional voter suppression.
  
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- southsamurai@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  It really depends on location and turnout.
  
  Here in my town, the longest I’ve ever waited was a minute or two. Small population, and plenty of booths.
  
  When I lived in a city, I only voted twice, but both times I was waiting maybe ten minutes plus a little. That was, as I was told, average for that polling place. It was a church basement (not in the dank and drippy way lol), so it was a tad small for the number of people in the district. But, over at a school gym that was a polling place, I had a friend wait nearly a half hour. Despite the bigger space, the turnout was huge, and not typical for that specific polling place.
  
  They try to make sure a space is big enough (when everything is working right) for the district, but it doesn’t always work perfectly.
  
  Then, you’ve got locations where the voting organizers are willing to fuck over a specific district and the polls will be under staffed, have too few booths, and may have other impediments to getting things done efficiently.
  
  So it’s not really a single factor that goes into the crazy wait times. Nor is an hour in line the default.
  
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  - Badeendje@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Tx… makes sense.
    
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- SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This is uneducated speculation but what if more people are going to vote as elections get crazier and voting centers aren’t used to the higher volume?
  
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  - dwindling7373@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You get even longer queues?
    
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Pronell@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
We don’t have these issues here in Minnesota. Plenty of polling places, short lines.

Here in Duluth I live right across the street from the church that is a polling station. Never taken me more than ten minutes including the walk there and back.

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nutsack@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
i vote in every election and ive never even seen a polling place. i don’t know why people would need to go to one

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Sabata11792@ani.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Americans are notoriously lazy and uneducated so voter turn out mostly driven by drama, feel good messages, and rage. A lot of the “go out and vote” messaging is genuine, but all politics becomes scum and strategy. They can target certain demographics that are likely to vote in a certain way. The goal is to get a demographic with a statistical likelihood of voting for Asshat-A to go out and vote as the Asshat-A voters in that demographic out number Asshat-1 voters.

Voting varies by state law but most of it comes down to mail in a ballot, check a box in person, or click a button in person. The problem is speed bumps. There are major corruption issues that plague US elections as the guys elected are trusted to not be self serving pieces of shit. The voting process can be potentially changed by the people getting voted in, so naturally corrupted groups make voting as inconvenient as legally possible to dissuasive a demographic that is likely to vote against them. (Past efforts:ID checks, reading test, checking if you’re a white land owing male, checking if you are brave enough to walk past the KKK, long lines, stupid rules, de-funding the post office to make ballots late.) Gerrymandering manipulates voting by changing districts on a map to change outcomes of votes. Actual voter fraud is rare in the idea of stuffing a ballot box. The corruption game is payed on a map and spreadsheet, with the threat of bribes not showing up.

Voter turn out is generally a good thing as it can offset corruption and is widely pushed, but each group has people they do and do not want participating in the vote. A single Asshat-1 voter staying home because the line is too long, or too dangerous might as well be a vote for Asshat-A and that can be enough to change the outcome of a district. Lower turnout makes corruption easy and leads to a shitty outcome, and everyone is trying to move things in their favor.

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muculent@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The US has had a long history of restricting who gets to vote. Originally it was only white land owning males, then it has gradually progressed into what it is today. Some states are cool with who gets to vote, others are still upset there are certain groups of people who get to vote who they wish didn’t (and actively work towards restricting or removing their rights), so those upset states constantly create as many barriers as possible to disenfranchise groups of voters they don’t like. If you’d like to see how awful it has been before, I suggest reading about Jim Crow laws.

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