Just a thought: How about we nix Presidents’ Day and make Election Day a national holiday instead?

@Strandjunker I'm definitely in favor of this excellent idea.

@benroyce @Strandjunker I think voting needs to be a two day affair, with a mandated time off for everyone.

So places like hospitals can schedule.

@nuintari @Strandjunker

i like that

*someone* has to be working, no escaping it

so make it 2 days so the absolutely essential work can be covered by a coworker, then the next day, reversed

@benroyce @Strandjunker Yeap, this.

Also, voting is mandatory.

You can abstain all you want, but you HAVE to show up and cast a ballot as such.

@nuintari @Strandjunker

i used to disagree

that if you make voting mandatory, people will draw dicks on their ballot or do joke votes

and you do see that in places where voting is mandatory

but i've changed my view

you can't force people to care, yes

but enough say they "care" but then won't do fucking shit to prove it in an extremely effective way: by voting

so now i think getting enough of those lazy entitled assholes off their asses and voting outweighs the sabotage/ vandalism effect

@benroyce @Strandjunker Yes, this. Some people will always be fuckasses, but more will just fucking actually vote.

We get this, then we fix our two party system. Ranked choice...

@nuintari @Strandjunker

yes! ranked choice next!

Psychotic Network Ferret i love you

@benroyce @Strandjunker Awww, I love me too!

I mean you, I love you too!

@nuintari @Strandjunker

@benroyce @nuintari @Strandjunker they work in Australia where everyone has to vote and mark their preferences. Voting takes place on a weekend so most people are off. They have mobile teams to visit hospitals and aged care facilities as well as remote communities. You just have to front up and collect the paperwork.

It is said that politicians have to say in the centre if they want to appeal to the majority. The system supports that.

@Lats @benroyce @Strandjunker Heaven forbid we HELP people participate in our so called perfect democracy!

Hell naw! Those people without cars? They should pick themselves up by their bootstraps and GET IT DONE!

/s - of course, the USA is so fundamentally broken on so many levels.

@Strandjunker or you could vote on Saturday or Sunday like the rest of the civilised world

@Lats @benroyce @nuintari @Strandjunker In Graz, Austria. When there's an election, we have >270 voting places in the city. That's for a total population of about 300k or around 200 k eligible voters. Your voting place is right around the corner. And you can still mail it in if you like.

@Lats @benroyce @nuintari @Strandjunker And mail in voting too. And you can't pester/advertise too close to the venue. And you can get a democracy sausage afterwards! And as you say, the popular parties are centre right and centre left. On the downside we aren't getting a full on socialist party government any time soon, on the plus side we won't get full on MAGA, if they aren't close to the centre they aren't getting in. And our centre is to the left of the US Democrats anyway.

@nuintari @Lats @benroyce @Strandjunker Not really.

It only really became that way because of a certain president ruining it im the 1980s. Basically undoing what could have been progress.

@Strandjunker How about both?

@benroyce
Here in Australia where voting is mandatory it puts the onus on the government to make voting possible for everyone.
Elections happen on a Saturday, employees must be given time off to vote, there are booths available and accessible everywhere (usually the local school hall, which gives schools an opportunity to fundraise, hence the traditional "democracy sausage") and they provide pre-polling in the week leading up to the election. Generally wait times that are short enough for you to be able to vote within half an hour.
At the last election in informal votes were 5.6% of the vote. That includes dick votes, but the majority are votes where someone made a mistake (we have ranked choice voting so you need to have a valid sequence of numbers).
@nuintari @Strandjunker

@Lats @benroyce @nuintari @Strandjunker

Worth adding that here in Australia, if you expect to not be able to vote on the day (overseas / working / volunteering), you can vote in advance at set locations. I think embassies will also take votes. On the day, if in an urban area you can walk to your local polling booth. There is NO excuse here for not voting. By memory the informal vote is around 10%

@twobiscuits @Lats @benroyce @nuintari @Strandjunker Last three general elections in NZ I've voted at:
offical voting station, in my district;
pop-up voting station in a train station concourse, outside my district, on my way to work;
pop-up voting station in a shopping mall, outside my district, on my lunch break.
All of these stations had the full hardcopy voter roll for the entire metropolitan area of >1.5 million people. If you were from further away you could still submit your vote, but it would go in an outer envelope to your home town where it would be counted.

@cameron_bosch @nuintari @benroyce @Strandjunker I wrote this on another thread, it relates to the underpinnings of the current mess.
https://aus.social/@Lats/115959280349232730