Usa Thread

[Mekong]

So apart from South Korea and Singapore, the only nations where Election Day is a National Holiday, all the other nations in the world are undemocratic then?

 

 

[Steve]

Silly. And missing the point and obviously someone not knowing how election day is in America. Standing in lines for hours after a days work, often in bad weather. Most families both parents work. So, in America, that already has a fairly low turn out in relation to other democratic nations (some of them actually fine you for not voting), it is undemocratic to make it harder for people to vote. 

...and some countries do have undemocratic acts but are obviously still a democratic nation. 

[passingthru69]

Voter rolls need to be current and correct.

Reason I say this is, I used to live in the state of Ga. I moved 3 years ago..

This last election I kept getting calls and text msgs.. to make sure I get out and vote in the Ga. Election

Huh. Yep I was still on the voter roll.

Took 10 minutes to get off it..

Oh and now a funnier thing.

5 years ago, my wife gets a notice for jury duty. Yes Ga. Again. I call the court.

Don't you need to be a citizen for jury duty. Uh yes.. Well we have a problem.

I explain she is not a citizen. I had to send in a copy of her green care. Certain things blocked out. Oh she was even on the voter roll..

[Mekong]

Not silly at all, if you could just get your head out of your arse and realize how it is in other countries.

In the UK, you know the home of democracy, Election Day has always been on a Thursday but you don’t here Brits claiming it should be a national holiday, if it was 2 hours at the polls and the rest down the pub.

Now if you had said “Time off to Vote” then I would agree with you, 2-3 hours spread out across the work force so only  25% absentee rate at any given time would be much fairer IMHO.

[cavanami]

1 hour ago, chocolat steve said:

I think its anti American and anti democracy NOT to make election day a federal holiday if its during a work week. If not, then make a constitutional change for it to be on a weekend but then you run into problems with it being on the sabbath for Jews and Sunday for observant Christians. Making it easier to vote should be something everyone would agree with I would think? 

I do agree with him for not making it mandatory to disclose tax returns. Its an invasion of privacy. If the voters are willing to vote for someone who is keeping their finances secret then so be it. I thought Trump would drop out before submitting taxes but his supporters didn't care. Which says a lot about that type of voter frankly. It's been a tradition since Nixon was proven of tax evasion during the Watergate investigation. It wasn't prior. That said, the Clinton's in hindsight should have kept the Clinton Foundation return private as well. There is enough of a public record of someone running for office and if there is a question about someone's integrity, etc, that can only be proven by a release of information, then its that person's right not to do so while accepting that it will hurt them politically in not doing so. 

I agree on making it difficult to purge voters off rolls. The most important weapon against government is the vote. It should be something that is difficult to remove from someone. There is just too much empirical evidence that voter purges removes legal voters. That is a direct assault on Americans constitutional right. Let's be truthful, its done to limit the number of Democratic voters. 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/31/politics/mcconnell-democrats-house-bill/index.html

Judicial watch has won a court case in California for the voters roles to be reviewed and cleaned up. There were shown to be 3.5M questionable voters on the roles making it very suspect to voter fraud.

 

[Steve]

You are both absolutely right. Voter rolls need to be accurate. But the fact is that its being used in some areas to remove legit voters. When one party controls the party its an invitation for abuse. 

I am all for scrubbing rolls IF its a bipartisan process. Other than that, its suspect. And there is too many instances of abuse to suggest otherwise. 

[Mekong]

CS voter rolls and accuracy, long since disappeared in the UK, seats which were Tory held (Democrat) were made into three, seats where as Labour held (Republican) were amalgumated into one, the UK political system has been crying out for Proportional Representation for decades. 

i think I voted in 3 general elections in the UK, all against Thatcher, I wasn’t being heard so I packed my bags, well actually one bag and one Guitar case, looking for something new. 

I would not say that I am “Above Politics” far from it, but I made the conscious decision to escape the bullshit and just fit in within a third country, keep my mouth shut and opinions to myself. People may say “Easy when in top 10 percentile of earners” Oi, I was bottom 10%  when I got out, but did something about it

[buffalo_bill]

Election day in Germany is always on a Sunday. So where is a problem?

[Steve]

It would be great if we made a weekend thing. Saturday and Sunday with the agreement of not posting exit poll numbers until after the polls are closed as we do now. May not be feasible, to have it that long. But the overall gist is to make it easier to vote. 

I think in the future, tech will take over and there will be some sort of bioscan prior to voting where you can vote anywhere. A bioscan will pretty much eliminate chances of voter fraud and allow someone to vote from their phone while in Patpong watching bar girls. 

[passingthru69]

But, it will hamper the poor. It might cost money they can't afford. Never mind they have ID for speedy cash your check here and liquor sales...

Just venting on the US thing..

Oh it's a poll tax.. unfair....