I would like to see the national elections made a major holiday, with no work, so that more people can vote more easily. I'd like to see companies have to give paid time off to people (an hour or whatever) to vote in their local elections. I would like to see registration standardized and simplified, nation-wide. I would like to see all sorts of improvements in this area.
Yeah, I think those are great ideas. In Australia the election can be on any day of the week, and has been on Saturday for at least the length of time I've been voting, for that reason. Works great unless some twit tries to schedule it on Grand Final day.
Oh, by the way, most of the time I get a public holiday for your elections. Melbourne Cup Day is also a first Tuesday in November kind of deal. Isn't that ironic?
I'd like to see companies have to give paid time off to people (an hour or whatever) to vote in their local elections.
According to the bigass "KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!" info board posted in my office's kitchen, employers (in NY state, at least) have to give employees 2 hours at either the beginning of the end of their shift to vote, if the employee does not have 4 hours of their own time to spare.
According to the bigass "KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!" info board posted in my office's kitchen, employers (in NY state, at least) have to give employees 2 hours at either the beginning of the end of their shift to vote, if the employee does not have 4 hours of their own time to spare.
Is it compensated or uncompensated, Jess?
Happy late b-day to ND!!!
Owen and Deena!Babies are adorable. Love the monkey cake!! I want one for my b-day next month.
I'm now calling into a conf call from hell.
t cries and cries
Edit to change not to now. Freudian slip there?
Vote by mail does not take very long at all.
But I am a big old wonk these days, and not at all sympathetic to the "they're all crooked, so who cares" argument, for instance.
What's a furphy?
Ah. Another Australianism (now I'm back home, I don't police my language for international consumption as tightly). Basically an erroneous or improbable story.
Why the random ordering on Australian Ballots if not to minimalise the effect of some sorts of random voting?
Another furphy (ask for it by name!). Donkey voting isn't the same thing as uninformed voting, it's closer to an intent to register an invalid vote. Random ordering isn't intended as an intelligence test.
Has it been over 90% the whole time?
Yep. The first election was the lowest turnout, in recent years it's been around 95%. Interestingly, the Senate vote is generally slightly higher than the House vote.
Vote by mail does not take very long at all. But I am a big old wonk these days, and not at all sympathetic to the "they're all crooked, so who cares" argument, for instance.
Yes, even though it is true. We're looking for a plumb line. Skewed? We can work with. Fusilli? Not so much.
According to the bigass "KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!" info board posted in my office's kitchen, employers (in NY state, at least) have to give employees 2 hours at either the beginning of the end of their shift to vote, if the employee does not have 4 hours of their own time to spare.
And with compulsory voting, this would be a lot more likely to actually happen, or for workers to actually feel free to request this without fear of repercussions.
Well, it usually takes me about half an hour. But I was thinking of the people who had to wait in line eight hours to vote....
And that again is something that does seem to disproportionately affect lower income areas.
