Sandusky, Ohio, Makes Election Day A Paid Holiday — By Swapping Out Columbus Day

[SummerMadness]

Sandusky, Ohio, Makes Election Day A Paid Holiday — By Swapping Out Columbus Day

Sandusky, Ohio, is a small city on the shores of Lake Erie. It's best known among Midwesterners as the home of Cedar Point, an amusement park famed for its abundance of roller coasters.

But last week city leaders took steps that could make Sandusky known as a leader of democracy, too: They declared Election Day a paid holiday – by swapping out Columbus Day.

This should be a federal standard: election day should be a paid holiday.

 

[GreatLakes4Ever]

While props for Sandusky are due for this move, I think to do this federally is burning way too much political capital for an outcome that doesn’t do enough. The large chunk of people who have trouble getting to the polls on Election Day have jobs that aren’t given paid holidays to begin with so this move does nothing for them. It is a nice symbolic gesture because I feel it won’t succeed at accomplishing the goal it is setting out for.

 

[FenderTL5]

great idea

 

[public hermit]

It definitely should be a paid holiday.

 

[Hank77]

I never had a paid holiday for Columbus day. My state doesn't tell employers what days they will choose as paid holidays or even whether they will pay employees for any holidays at all.

I don't think employers should be forced to pay for election day. I do think the states should be forced to keep polling stations open all day and evening on the Saturday before, 8-8/9pm, as well as other days for early voting.
I believe in photo ID, as well.

 

[SummerMadness]

I think what is really needed is to drop Tuesday as the voting day and make Friday-Sunday a voting weekend. This is not like early voting as early voting often has select locations for voting with restricted hours, a voting weekend would be your polling location open for Friday-Sunday 6AM-8PM (or whatever late time) allowing people to get to the polls.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I think what is really needed is to drop Tuesday as the voting day and make Friday-Sunday a voting weekend.

I do like that idea, as the reason behind making it Tuesdays is now beyond outdated.
Why Are Elections On Tuesdays?
...and I'm all for giving everyone who wants to, the opportunity.

However, I'm skeptical of how much that would actually even impact voter turnout.

When public polling has been done to ask eligible-aged voters why they didn't vote, "conflicted with work schedule" only represented 14% of the the non-voters.

While, dislike/disinterest made up close to 40%, and "didn't feel like my vote would matter anyway" made up nearly another 20%.


The things I'd like to see addressed first before this:
- Address the gerrymandering (which, even though both sides do it, the red benefits from it more by a factor of 3:1)
- Replace the "winner take all" electoral systems in the states and replace it with a proportioned system that determines the electoral votes based on popular vote numbers. Meaning, if republicans get 30% of the popular vote in a blue state, they get 30% of that electoral vote count (and vice versa)

Right now, it's hard to get people interested unless they live in a somewhat contested swing state "that could go either way".

If you're a republican in California or a democrat in Texas, you'd might as well just stay home and order a pizza and watch netflix because your vote for a presidential election literally does not matter.

We won't drastically increase turnout and get people interested until they know their vote matters, plain and simple.

 

[SummerMadness]

I do like that idea, as the reason behind making it Tuesdays is now beyond outdated.
Why Are Elections On Tuesdays?
...and I'm all for giving everyone who wants to, the opportunity.

However, I'm skeptical of how much that would actually even impact voter turnout.

When public polling has been done to ask eligible-aged voters why they didn't vote, "conflicted with work schedule" only represented 14% of the the non-voters.

While, dislike/disinterest made up close to 40%, and "didn't feel like my vote would matter anyway" made up nearly another 20%.


The things I'd like to see addressed first before this:
- Address the gerrymandering (which, even though both sides do it, the red benefits from it more by a factor of 3:1)
- Replace the "winner take all" electoral systems in the states and replace it with a proportioned system that determines the electoral votes based on popular vote numbers. Meaning, if republicans get 30% of the popular vote in a blue state, they get 30% of that electoral vote count (and vice versa)

Right now, it's hard to get people interested unless they live in a somewhat contested swing state "that could go either way".

If you're a republican in California or a democrat in Texas, you'd might as well just stay home and order a pizza and watch netflix because your vote for a presidential election literally does not matter.

We won't drastically increase turnout and get people interested until they know their vote matters, plain and simple.

I agree with dropping Tuesdays because the whole farming and Sabbath are no longer a big issue. I would like to have comprehensive changes, but I often wonder if it is easier to change things piece by piece or altogether.

I am all for ending gerrymandering by either having non-partisan commissions or changing how we send representatives to the House of Representatives. I lean toward making the House of Representatives becoming more like a parliament where each state gets a certain number of representatives, people vote and the proportion of that vote goes to each party. Each state will have their ranked leaders and that's who ends up going to DC. Of course this is not a perfect idea as it certainly affects more local power, but I also local power as something they should already have at the state and municipal level. What I think is gained is that you really get to vote for the party you support who may not be Democratic or Republican, which allows more political parties operating at a federal level. I would keep senators as popular vote per state, but would eliminate the Electoral College, and simply make the presidency a popular vote.

What I think is more workable is ending gerrymandering and having a voting weekend.

 

[Hank77]

- Replace the "winner take all" electoral systems in the states and replace it with a proportioned system that determines the electoral votes based on popular vote numbers. Meaning, if republicans get 30% of the popular vote in a blue state, they get 30% of that electoral vote count (and vice versa)

I agree, that's what ME and NE do.

 

[Hank77]

There are, of course, other options for a lot of folks, like absentee and early voting. Still, there are voters who can't cast ballots unless they can find a way to get to the polls on Tuesday. "In 15 states you do not have an opportunity to vote early or by an absentee ballot or by mail, which means you have to vote on Tuesday,"

That's a lot of states and imv is a big problem for people who must work on Tuesday, for those who are home bound, and for those who don't have access to childcare on Tuesday.

 

[Hank77]

What I think is more workable is ending gerrymandering and having a voting weekend

I agree.