For the first time in my life I’ve got that sweet, sweet swing state vote in PA. If we win by one, you’re all welcome and there will be a big party at my place… Assuming coronavirus hasn’t gotten us.
(I’m actually starting to worry they’ll be able to use it to suppress the vote if it’s still around in the fall.)
I got more clarification. If he votes for say, Warren and she drops out before the convention then he can’t vote in the general! Does that make any sense? He lives in Tucson, AZ. Would anyone know if that can possibly be true? Or is he misunderstanding
He’s either misunderstanding and it’s the point I already made, or they’re lying to suppress votes.
He’s almost certainly misunderstanding.
If you are registered independent or NPA in FL you cannot vote in primaries at all
Thanks. He sent me a screen shot of what it said and it was only for the primaries. He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he’s a good friend and votes blue lol
Do you really have to wait 2hrs? The longest I’ve waited is 15 minutes and that was just before closing. Who knew Australian bureaucracy was reasonably efficient at times?!
Is he a waiter, by chance?
Sometimes yes. I mailed mine in this year. But right before the 2016 primary AZ closed a bunch of polling locations in college, minority and lower income areas. I waited in line with my ex for over 2 hours before she gave up. Some people waited over 4 hours.
First post after lurking since Sept. Is Australia (my home country) the only place in the world with mandatory voting? Don’t see any complaints here from either side of the aisle but it never occurred to me what a person would do when faced with all terrible choices.
Welcome,
22 countries have compulsory voting, with 10 countries enforcing it.
I’m pretty sympathetic to the critiques of voting, both that it’s part of the system of oppression and that a lot of votes are so close to worthless it makes no odds, but I always do it because I get a kick out of the experience. It’s a delight every time to greet the volunteers, get your name ticked off and then go to the little booth and fill in the form and/or stuff the envelope. Probably just the illusion of control, but you have to take what you can get these days.
(Queuing for hours is miserable, though, I’m just lucky to have never experienced that.)
Wow I’m dumber than my friend haha. 5 people like a joke I don’t get. Judging from those who hearted it, it’s gotta be an insult, but I’d still like to understand it. Movie reference? Gay waiter is all I can come up with
It’s a reference to a different thread. Simplicitus got called out for calling Bernie supporters dumber than Warren voters and strongly suggesting that lawyers are smarter than waiters. It doesn’t actually matter, calling out classism this way is turning into a meme here.
If I’m not mistaken, @Riverman didn’t even say mandatory voting, just mandatory paid holiday.
Compulsory voting makes more sense than the garbage fire system we currently have in the US.
Can you come up with a system of voting that makes less sense than the garbage fire system we currently have in the US?
I’d be fine with mandatory voting, but several days of voting or a mandatory day off is the least we could do. You shouldn’t have to choose between working to pay your bills and voting… and polling places shouldn’t have hours long lines. We can afford to support convenient voting in a country as rich as this one, the only reason we don’t is that it benefits some people politically that we don’t.
It should also be possible to vote by mail obviously. The only reason I don’t think you should be able to vote online is that I am against almost every form of electronic voting for obvious reasons.
It’s baffling how people can think the answer to combat fascism is to compel people to vote. The reason to have a democracy is to secure freedom. The problem with fascism is not that you don’t get to vote, it’s that you’re not free.
Yeah Australia sure is a fascist country.
How about we stop with the slippery slope arguments. There are situations where compelling people to do something is fine, and I’d argue that making biannual participation in our elections into a responsibility of citizenship instead of a privilege of citizenship would probably make the country a better place. I’m also in favor of making the whole thing as painless as possible.
If it ever becomes compulsory, I will never do it.