this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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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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[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 48 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It is Tuesday for some outdated reason that no longer matters and it is kept as a tradition because it conflicts with working days where minorities and other lower income folks will find it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

[–] illi@lemm.ee 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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...

https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-act-supreme-court-black-voters-6f840911e360c44fd2e4947cc743baa2

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.

[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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. Every time I read about some more details, I'm more convinced that one of your major parties doesn't like democracy, or the original idea behind the USA.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The US was founded on wealthy white male landowners who mostly owned slaves being able to vote, just like their Greek and Roman inspirations.

Expending that concept to the general population took a couple nearly two centuries, and we still haven't embraced it. We have sucked at being a democracy the whole time.

Also, the parties traded the racists in the 60s and 70s. Republicans were the equal rights party prior to the Southern Strategy while the Dems were the racists up to that point, but Republicans have been on the wrong side of history since then.

[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I think democracy as a concept is alright, though. It has some flaws baked in... But I don't think there is a casual relationship to humans being humans and needing centuries to realize women are people, too. And so are people with a different skin color, poor people... Deciding if slavery is a good or a bad thing also has a very prominent place in US history. And we here in Europe also didn't do much better.

I'm proud that we left lots of that behind and we're doing much better now. We're certainly not done yet, there is still quite some way to go... I think it's just a shame that we can't do any better. Or that it'll take decades to get anything productive done, because of the way politics is set up to work. And meanwhile we also have to fight populists, corruption and all the usual annoyances of giving power to people.

[–] illi@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I'd expect some equality be ensured on 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

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

That's what the Voting Rights Act was...

[–] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] undefined@links.hackliberty.org 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The swing state thing really makes my blood boil mainly because moving from my shithole red state with the same population as the city I live in now (Los Angeles) my vote means nothing. In fact, I always chuckle when I get political mail here because it’s like “why waste your time?”

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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.

Personally ever since I figured this out I treat such self-complimenting boasts (both at an individual and at a nation level) as big red flags and so far that rule of thumb hasn't failed me.

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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?

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Personally the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the one I find that really beats all others in this.

[–] ardorhb@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 month ago (3 children)

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?

[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] ardorhb@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 month ago (3 children)
[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Private companies are not obligated to provide any amount of leave, paid or unpaid as a general requirement. Some states may have requirements, but there is no federal requirement and many states have none.

The one requirement that I know of is allowing an employee two hours to vote on the one voting day every two years if necessary to make it to the polls. I am fairly certain this only applies if their shift is the entirety of the time the polls are open, and it is not required to be paid time.

[–] undefined@links.hackliberty.org 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Your second paragraph lines up with state law in California.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Well shit, I thought that was national since even Kansas has it. It is only law 28 states!

[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Federal holidays can be observed by private companies, but then who will run the movie theaters on Christmas for us to go watch CGI robots fight each other? Or serve us fast food on Labor Day? Etc etc. It’s stupid.

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago

Here’s an idea: Have a few weeks of early voting for people who need to work during the actual voting day, which is on Sunday. Yeah, I know it’s radical and this sort of thing will probably start at least one civil war and a century of chaos and destruction.

[–] GBU_28@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago

The trick is do you want ANYTHING open on the holiday? Grocery, train station, etc? In America, if anything is open, then the cats out of the bag

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.

[–] stinerman@midwest.social 2 points 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.