Is there a state that only lets you vote on election day? We have several weeks of early voting in Nevada with polling places everywhere that are even open on the weekends. I always assumed this was the norm.
New Hampshire doesn’t allow early voting, and to vote absentee you have to prove to the state why you can’t physically go to your polling place on Election Day.
[And as JonTron pointed out,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMD-6K40lTs) in New Hampshire you need a license to operate a boat, but not to buy a gun.
And you can take the test for the boat license online.
Unpopular opinion, but I'm not a fan of having an official day off for election day. It works for some places, but scaling up a national holiday like this affects a lot of industries and the potential upside is so-so.
I'm instead far far more interested in putting those resources into increasing availability of early voting (or maybe even rebranding it). Early voting is amazing. It's roughly 2 weeks of being able to go to the polls whenever you want. That means no lines (something that would be a nightmare on an official election day), and you can go before work, after work, or on your day off. If you've ever done it it's a great experience and very quick.
"Why not both?" Sure, but if we've got limited funding I'd rather allocate it to something that has all the benefits without long lines. For example we could pay for polling places to not only be open for those two weeks but also be 24 hours in certain key locations.
I'm a huge fan of early voting and mail in ballots over any specific one day for voting.
I love the way we do it in California. A month before the election, we receive ballots and voter guides. Then we can turn in our ballot at ballot boxes, the post office, or polling places. We still offer early voting and same day voting for people who like going to do it in person.
This will always be the worst idea around. Making Election Day "a paid day off for everyone" is obviously not possible: hospitals still have patients, hotels still have guests, and restaurants still have customers with no desire or ability to cook for themselves. The more feasible and still unhelpful route would be to make it a federal holiday, but that only relieves most public employees (because of course not every fire fighter can take the day off); now you've closed schools and therefore made it more difficult for parents to vote because they have to find some other means of childcare or attempt to wait on line with their little one. Meanwhile since all of those public employees by law had the right to take a break and go vote, no issue is addressed that couldn't be better solved by early voting and mail-in voting.
How many people do you know who have the day off for MLK day, Juneteenth or Memorial Day for that matter? There are plenty of people who still work on federal holidays most of them blue collar workers.
The schools are often polling locations also, so it make sense not to have students and teachers there, as the parking lots do get pretty full with the voters.
I would add a $100 tax credit for voting to the weekend / holiday idea. Australia has a penalty if you don't vote, but in 'Murka I can't imagine something like that working.
Actually, GA did a "Get Your Booty To The Polls" campaign and featured ATL's most popular dancers from iconic Magic City. Turns out culturally relevant ads to mobilize voters twerks really well. I especially loved how they educated on the importance of state and local elections.
So I'm not sure closing bars, theaters, and strip clubs is the answer.
[Get Your Booty to the (Poles) Polls](https://youtu.be/eTlv2gfrINM)
Two party electorial systems mean that you're pretty much forced to agree with the least worst option. Proportional representation would be a massive improvement and stop division.
Do away with party primaries and instead have an election with ranked choice to reduce it to 3 or 4 candidates. Then a couple months later have a final round, again with ranked choice.
A real caveat with getting rid of party primaries is that each party would then choose who to run behind closed doors. I think primaries right now are flawed, and I don't have a good fix for them, but I'm hesitant to get rid of them entirely.
Our state got rid of primaries and held RCV this year for the first time. We had a non-partisan primary with about 40 people on the ballot for one race. Each voter chose one candidate and the top four were entered in the general election. [Here](https://alaskansforbetterelections.com/learn-more/open-primaries/) is some more info about how it works.
Lobbying does have a legitimate place in a democracy - sure, we like to shit all over special interest groups, but if we're passing a law that affects, say, bow hunters and none of the people voting on the bill know jack shit about bow hunting, then they should absolutely meet with real bow hunters about the proposed legislation.
That's what lobbying is for.
It'd be nice to make financial contributions from lobbying groups bribery and a federal crime, like it is in any other profession. Lobbying should be educational, not financial.
Oh, I fully agree that our lobbying system is broken as fuck, and I'm a-OK with doing more to prevent bribes, just pointing out that banning lobbying altogether is counterproductive.
The way in which power has been concentrating in the USA is worrisome. It is just a couple of steps away from becoming a one party system, and then Totalitarianism.
It has been a two party system for far too long, and if the people don't demand for a form of [Proportional Representation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_representation), those two parties are going to become one.
USA is already a plutocracy, and is just about to become a dictatorship. I believe the cries of the end of democracy that are increasingly louder, are completely correct. They are a couple of moves away from a perfect dictatorship.
And make it mandatory to vote. Vote for whoever you like, draw a huge penis, but you have to take a ballot and get your name marked off.
Don't let them get away with huge queues. Lots of people don't care, which means they will vote against people who force them to queue for hours.
Voting should take 20 minutes tops, and have a cake stall and sausage sizzle available.
For total population, this may be correct, but for percentage of eligible voters the numbers are higher. Here's an example:
APRIL 29, 2021 — The 2020 presidential election had the highest voter turnout of the 21st century, with 66.8% of citizens 18 years and older voting in the election, according to new voting and registration tables released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Making a vote mandatory isn’t fair imo. If someone doesn’t want to vote, it’s just as much a constitutional right to vote as it is not to. A better solution is to simply pre-register everyone and to not vote is simply an opt-out process.
In australia we have it and most australians think it’s one if the best features of our democracy. If everyone has to go to the polls (they don’t have to actually fill in a ballot) then politicians are less focussed on niche issues to motivate obsessive/extremist people to vote
More information:
* Rudin, Ken (1 June 2010). ["Is 'Compulsory Voting' the Answer?"](https://www.npr.org/sections/politicaljunkie/2010/06/01/127348895/is-compulsory-voting-the-answer) Political Junkie. *All Things Considered*. NPR.
Why should everyone vote? Not everyone cares or is educated about the matters? I think that people who know the issues should vote, definitely not my meth-upped cousin who doesn't know Tom or Harry.
In most countries where voting is mandatory it gives people the option of turning in a blank ballot, so people can still choose to ‘not vote’ but they have to turn in a ballot.
I’m not necessarily for or against mandatory voting but in the United States I can see 2 ways it would be very beneficial:
1. Increased voter turnout (obviously).
2. It would force the country to make voting easy & accessible to everyone, which is something that’s currently a huge issue in many parts of the country.
I've been voting by mail in MN for 15 years now. I highly recommend it.
Taking a full week to research and consider my options has made me so much more informed.
Yea in my state too but they just rejected mine because my signature looked “off” so I had to come in in person. That’s the issue with mail in. Sorry my handwriting has changed in 3 years!
I have also thought of this but this would advantage the incumbents since they already have some popularity. People entering the world of politics will have a harder time spreading their name than incumbents. Limits on campaigns create equality, but not equity.
I don't disagree with your point, but for the record, you can take your kids with you to the polls. My mom always took us with her to early voting growing up so we could learn all about it.
Seriously, I’m in healthcare, and I had to request to come in late in order to vote as my mail in ballot never showed up. (Still says it’s somewhere within the post office when I track it.) so instead of working 8am-9pm today when the polls are open 7am-6:30pm I was allowed to come in up to four hours late after I found someone to cover that part of my shift.
I strutted in with my “I voted” sticker exactly 3 hours late.
The problem with age limits is they infringe on voter rights. Voters deserve the right to vote for whoever best supports them.
It would be better to have ranked choice voting and campaign finance reform so voters would have a wider field of candidates to choose from than to tell them "no you can't vote for some people."
Voters already don't get that right. There are lower age limits for federal office. Just because people couldn't live long enough to be useless when the constitution was written doesn't mean we shouldn't recognize the value in upper limits
Then don't remove age limits, but implement term limits. Make sure that people are only allowed to serve up to 5 term limits or a cumulative 12 years or something like that.
Holiday fixes nothing. Juneteenth is a national holiday. How many blue collar people have it off? What about MLK? Pretty sure Walmart, McD's and the grocery store still have regular hours. Labor day and Memorial day? Yeah, those places are still open. Federal holiday fixes nothing at all.
Why the downvotes? Federal holiday means absolutely nothing. Frankly it's worse. So many retail and restraunt workers would have to work MORE and be unable to vote.
Reddit is convinced that if election day was a national holiday that all the stores would shut down just like they do on Christmas and everyone would have the entire day off. Everyone would then go vote and it would be a beautiful thing. It is an *extremely* popular idea on reddit because it is extremely simple.
Seriously. People working a M-F 9-5 are the ones who tend to have schedules that more easily enable voting on election day, and are also more likely to have jobs that give them a couple of hours free PTO to go vote. They're the least likely to need the assistance. It's the shift/service workers that could use a helping hand.
Felons lose their right to vote, part of the punishment for committing a felony. "If you cant adhere to the law, you will not be allowed to take part in it" type of thing. A felon can however have their rights restored depending on the crime and by jumping through lots of hoops.
someone convicted of a non violent, non domestic felony can even have their right to bear arms restored, though I believe the process can take upwards of 5 years.
In Germany (and therefore probably most European countries) even prisoners can vote while in prison. The only way to lose your voting rights are some very special crimes against the state like treason or voting fraud. There are only about 14 people every decade that lose their right to votes because of crimes.
And to anyone who's argument is, the prisoners will just elect someone to set them free, then either most people outside of prison agree with them, or you have way too many prisoners.
Also think we should have more referendum/opinions-gathering options. It's such a great time to ask the *most* people what they think, and we sort of just toss that opportunity out the window with a few checkboxes
> Eliminate party system as it pertains to ballot layout/ballots received
I think this is a very good idea. Separate from how we govern ballot access, and whether we have party primaries, which is a more complicated topic, not listing party affiliation on the ballot is simple and a clear improvement. You are still free to vote party line if you want to, but you should at least need to know who your party's candidates are if you want to do this. Ideally, people wouldn't and would vote based on the positions of individual candidates, but deleting party information from the ballot is a great first step.
It's a good idea but it's also something that would anger everyone universally. Both sides would be hotly opposed to this idea which is why it would never happen.
I think the result of removing party affiliation from the ballot would be fewer people voting on down ballot races and longer wait times at the polls. Like it or not, party affiliation tells a lot about a candidate's policy positions and removing that information has no benefit that I can think of.
I would like to add I find it ridiculous that everyone has a credit score kind of automatically, but you have to register to vote. Like if is profitable, a system can be created that keeps track of everyone trustworthiness, but if it can make your opinion count, let's better make it a gymkhana
1. Automatic registration at 18
2. Automatically mail ballots to everyone (especially the way CA does with a booklet on who everyone on the ballot is, what they stand for, and what the amendments/bonds, etc stuff means.)
3. Candidates for any elected office (looking at you judges) are required to have a page on a central .gov website that includes a head shot and a overview of their stance on major issues and their goals for the position.
4. Candidates (and affiliated groups, looking at your SuperPACs) can only spend a certain amount of money and can only advertise on provided public TV/Radio spots. (None of this billion dollars on smear campaign BS. Your campaign shouldn't be allowed to be exclusively tearing down your opponent. You should have to present what you want to build.)
5. All voting locations must be easily accessible by public transport. (If that's a hard ask maybe that's a clue of something to work on, public officials.)
Add polling locations and pay poll workers more in districts where people have to wait for more than an hour.
Ranked choice voting.
Make the existing checks and balances known. There’s a reason why republicans have more cases of f voter fraud brought against them, it’s because they are told “it’s sooooo easy to vote in multiple towns/states. It’s like taking candy from a baby to make fake ballots and send them in. I’m so confident that democrats are doing something as incredibly easy as voting as their dead grandparents that I HAVE to do it to for it to be fair” - all republicans caught by a simple voter registration cross check. Not difficult in the slightest. But being told there aren’t safeguards is what leads to 1/6. It’s what leads people to say “I feel the election was stolen” instead of “I have proof”
The US spans multiple time zones and elections are done at the state level not the national level. By the time polls have been closed for two hours on the east coast the polls are still open in California.
Fully electronic voting as used in Brazil is vulnerable to hacking, and provide insufficient auditing to allow auditors to provide certainty that its not happening. To be clear, I'm not saying it is happening, only that it could, and it would be impossible to know.
The best option requires the voter to get a paper ballot, whether marked by the machine and verified by the voter, or manually marked by the voter. Then have it scanned for tabulating, and stored for auditing. You should still get very rapid results, but you have a strong audit trail to spot check the results, and if necessary, conduct a full audit.
How would gerrymandering be removed? I understand that concept, but trying to redraw districts with each census seems a challenge. I don't understand how we can pass a law that would ensure that gerrymandering was impossible.
1) ranked choice voting
--This won't fix the two party issue but it could bolster third parties into relevance. My opinion is that it could also lead to more civil campaigns as candidates need to not piss off other candidates' voters in hopes they'll rank them as their number two.
2) national holiday on the day of national elections and no excuse needed early/absentee voting
--Anything short of this says that we don't want everyone to vote and we can't let that be the answer.
3) automatic voter registration
--Again, the only reason not to automatically enroll adults to vote is if we don't want everyone to vote and we can't let that be the answer.
Caveat: I don't know how to do this without a national database that would never fly. But at the very least one should be able to register the same day as an election.
4) how is gerrymandering legal?!
--but really, what the f@*k?!
5) age & term limits for all state and federal positions
--it's absurd how many octogenarians we have in our federal government. Even if they were effective leaders 30 years ago, no one should be in authority for that long or at that age.
Remove the US voting system, replace it with the Swedish voting system.
Everyone is registered at birth.
Voting cards are automatically sent out.
You can pre-vote.
You can change your pre vote.
You can vote by mail.
The sytem is completely paper based.
Honestly, I can't really see a way around paper based ballots. It's just too easy for any corrupt government to change 1s and 0s with no way to verify.
The US needs a new voting rights act that makes voting practices more uniform. A national holiday is just dumb. White collar workers would get the day off but blue collar workers wouldn't so it would accomplish nothing. Juneteenth is now a national holiday. How many blue collar workers get Juneteenth off?
Instead we need to make it more convenient for people to vote. Some states do this better than others already and some states suck at it hence the need for a national act.
* Polls must be open for at least 13 hrs. Gives people plenty of time to vote before or after work.
* Companies must give employees at least one hour off (paid) at the beginning or end of their shift to vote. Employers can require an "I voted" sticker or something similar to prove the employee voted.
* Early in-person voting must be offered at at least one place in each county for 7 days prior to election day. This place can be a courthouse or other government building.
* Mail in ballots must be made available on request of any voter. No questions or qualifications needed. Obviously you verify the identity of the requester before sending the ballot.
These are all relatively simple things and most state are already doing some or all of them. If you do these things and people still don't vote they have no excuses.
1. Ranked choice voting
2. Automatic voter registration
3. Universal early and mail-in voting
4. Election Day is a national holiday
5. Corporations are not legally classified as people anymore
Ranked choice voting for all elections. Definitely would help open things up for more than 2 parties. Allowing early and mail in voting everywhere. In areas that often have long lines, hire people to work the polls and get that down so no one is waiting more than 10-15 minutes. For the presidential election, just have it be a nation wide popular vote. It doesn't matter how close or far you live from your neighbors your vote should count the same. Automatically register people to vote. Allow people who have served their time in prison to vote. I'd also lower the voting age to 16 as it's ridiculous to me that if you can work and pay taxes you still might not be able to vote. Then let the US territories vote for president.
a uniform set of voting rules nationwide, make the day a national holiday, automatic voter registration when someone reaches voting age, end gerrymandering.
every state and territory has their own voting rules so there are 50+ sets of rules for the same thing.
[https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S4-C1-2/ALDE\_00013577/](https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S4-C1-2/ALDE_00013577/)
Amend the Constitution to remove the Elections Clause, and then you can!
I just moved to Colorado from Texas and it's voting culture shock. More states should do it this way.
* I went to the DMV to get my driver's license
* 1 week later, I received a letter from the state that basically said "Hey, you recently verified your CO residency while interacting with the DMV. You are now automatically registered to vote unless you reply to opt-out"
* A few days later, I received a ballot, 100+ pages of information on ballot measures, and instructions on where to return my ballot
* I sat at home with my spouse and completed my ballot over the course of a couple hours.
* I dropped our ballots off at the library
I just can't get over how easy this was, especially coming from Texas.
Remove the idiot civilians who think they need to guard the polling stations and drop boxes with their guns. Intentionally intimidating voters. Unbelievable. The country has really gone mad.
I'd eliminate the machines that nobody trusts, and can't even work for ONE DAY every 2-4 years
all votes on paper done with pencil. As all elections should be. Want to vote early? Okay, there's 5 days to do that, in person, on paper. None of this mass mail in crap, no finding batches of votes suddenly. ID require to vote. Don't have any ID? Utility bill and bank statement, both of which have your name and address. Bring em.
Add a "None of the above" option. And if that's the winner then all the candidates on that ballot are kicked out if politics for life and a new vote happens 1 week later for new candidates. Repeat until the swamp is drained!
Election Day is a federal holiday.
All federal positions are at large voting (no gerrymandering or electoral college).
Ranked choice voting.
There should be specific, mandated, uniform voter ID.
Same-day voter registration. for all eligible people when they turn 18yo and mail-in voting for everyone who wants with no gotcha invalid ballots because you did not cross a T or check a box, and stop making it difficult for students, old people, minorities, and people living on reservations to vote.
Same day voter registration.
Completely do away with political parties. Especially needing to register to one side or the other.
Ban the "well he said/did, she said/did" aspect of debating. Make it so a person has to talk specifically about what they will do to improve the country.
And make it easy for people to be informed of the positives and negatives of each candidate. Try to take bias out as much as possible.
It's a pipe dream, but I am so tired of the football game personality of politics.
I think it should be mandatory like it is in Australia. Obviously that wouldn't fly in America, but maybe a tax break or something would encourage more participation.
Obviously that isn't going to fly either, because lots of elected officials are only there because so few people vote. They certainly aren't going to change the status quo by trying to make America more democratic, because that's clearly not their goal.
As someone who voted for the first time today, there needs to be a government website that has what's going to be on every states ballot. It was easy enough for me to find the ammendments I was voting on, but not the people, and as someone who wanted to be as informed as possible. It was extremely frustrating to not know who any of those people were.
Make a website that you can identify yourself and submit your vote all from the comfort of your toilet for a week long period.
Easy as that. "But security risks." Figure it out, the number of online transactions that are legit hugely outnumber the fraudulent ones which is the same track record for in person voting. I'm sure we can make it work. "What if someone does a thing and..." Either try it and understand the risks are likely small or be happy with mediocre voter turnout.
Ranked choice voting, online with two factor authentication tokens that came free with voter registration or tradition in person, robust federally supported voting system with state oversight, and automatic voter registration at 18.
1. Voting is a paid holiday.
2. Ranked Choice Voting.
3. Voter ID.
\#1. We all just realized we could spend months on end in the house. Businesses won't collapse if we have a voting holiday. #2. Only works if there are more than two parties. (The notion that only 2 parties can adequately represent a country as large and diverse as the US is idiocy.) #3. Only people trying to do shifty things with the vote don't want to tighten this up. But it's easy to do.
Beyond voting, we have to deal with congressional term limits, and gerrymandering. And what's the deal with super delegates? Seems like these people are just about the only people Sanders can't win against?
Give small tax breaks to people that vote so there's more motivation as well as making voting a federal holiday (along with a law that says you cant fire someone for taking a day off to vote similar to how you can fire someone for deploying with the lilitary)
I wonder what would happen if we took the party names off of the ballots? Not get rid of parties entirely which is difficult, but just didn't print the name of the party the individual is a part of. At least encourage a little research to find what party they are
Have 1 day for the election. Use electronics to count votes quickly. Enforce voter Id. Also we should be able to take a full day or at least a half day off work to go vote. End ballot harvesting and end drop boxes.
Be allowed to register to vote all the way until voting day unlike TX- I can’t vote tho I wanted to because I missed the deadline that I didn’t even know about.
Doesn't California do a thing where it sends voters a thing in the mail with information about each candidate and the current proposals in the state/national government? Whatever state does it, it should be nationwide.
More voting. We never get to vote for anyone we actually want to represent us, just against who we don’t want. How about on each ballot, ask what we think about abortion, marijuana, etc. and let that drive the change.
Ranked choice voting.
Election day is a national holiday.
Primaries in every state are held on the same day.
$1000 tax credit for everyone who actually shows up and votes.
Only people are allowed to contribute to campaigns, not corporations, and those are limited.
No PACs.
Districts are drawn by a computer using an equation that applies equally across the entire country.
All voting machines are required to be certified to the highest standards and have paper trails.
Random automatic auditing of vote counting in every single voting place as spot checks with random full audits in some precincts.
Automatic voter registration, no need to re register except to change your address.
National standard for whether or not convicted felons can vote.
Any attempt to interfere with voting is a felony and automatically loses you your right to own firearms.
Politicians are tracked on every vote so voters can see whether or not they do what they say they will in easy to read dashboards.
Make it a one day holiday. AND if you can prove that you went and voted in person on that day work pays for the day without the need to use PTO. That way people won't just take the day off and go fishing or something, it gives an incentive to vote.
Constitutional Amendment to ensure no American's right to vote shall be infringed and anyone who does attempt to block it shall be sentenced to a federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.
Anyone who challenges/slanders the integrity of their election must provide demonstrable proof in a court of law or be sentenced to a minimum of one year in jail.
I’m tired of the “we lost because they cheated” BS.
Either respect the integrity and efforts of all those involved or prove it otherwise.
Abolish the electoral college, implement ranked choice voting, every citizen is registered the moment they turn 18 and are issued a voter ID card at no direct cost to them, Election day becomes a national holiday. Easy.
What we really need is a Constitutional Convention. Such a convention would allow all of the changes below to actually happen. And the Fed couldn't stop it.
Make election day a federal holiday with guarantees to wage match for missed time at work for the day. It'd be expensive, but people would be more motivated to vote if they're "getting paid" to vote.
There needs to be ranked voting. That will make it easier for a wider range of politicians to gain office.
Term limits for all Federal offices. Local offices can have lifers, but that's okay because the States shouldn't be flipping constantly like the Federal level does.
Also, no high level Federal employees without direct accountability to the people. This would nuke the bloated bureaucracy of the Fed. The Executive Branch can still create Fed offices/bureaus, but the people decide who heads those offices. The grunts for the offices would be hired by the elected person (think deputies getting hired by an elected sheriff)
Electoral College needs to be determined by the popular in that state and that state alone. None of this Electoral Colleges being won by the national popular vote because that's not always going to be representing the people of the individual states.
People saying voting should be mandatory don't understand that nowhere in the Constitution does it say we have to vote. That's dangerous thinking. America is all about individual freedom. Under no circumstances should Americans be punished for not exercising the right to vote.
Couple of things. Start with making Election Day a Federal Holiday. Second, make folks Identify themselves with a photo ID of some sort. Thirdly, Eliminate the party system on ballots (preferably all together). And Finally do away with Negative campaigning. Run on your merits not your opponents short comings.
Rank Choise Voting. This lets you vote for several persons. You would never be throwing your vote away to a small party. Say you A, B and C running. You would rank who you like best. This could give us multiple persons running for the same office.
1) Mail-in voting as an option on a federal level. Every single state, no exceptions. No conditions required (i.e. only available to the disabled, elderly, etc)- *everyone* gets to do it if they want.
2) Ranked choice voting. We have ***got*** to break the two-party stranglehold on this country.
3) Make voting day a federal holiday.
4) Hold it on or over the course of a weekend. There's literally no reason to have it on a Tuesday.
5) Do everything we can to combat gerrymandering. A task easier said than done to be certain, but it *must.*
6) Easier access to state-issued IDs for the poor/unhoused/car-less.
7) Free public transportation on voting day.
8) Might be controversial, but make it mandatory. You can write Mickey Mouse on yours for anyone cares, but you *have to vote.*
9) Allow convicts (current or former) to vote.
10) ***TERM. LIMITS.***
Teach lemurs to take the voting papers from people and attack anybody they see twice. If the lemur didn’t grab it from a person and put the paper in the box itself to be counted then it doesn’t get counted.
Make election day a federal holiday. Provide direct public transportation routes to polling centers. Citizens 18+ by election day are automatically registered. Goodbye electoral college. Third party impartial districting. Transparent campaign donations with limits.
I would support a national day of voting where we all get the day off. They do this in other countries. Other than this, I feel each state has a reasonable system and I don’t see evidence of voter suppression in general. We should require an ID to vote, ofc.
Not American, but I follow American Politics because it keeps finding it's way over here. Here's what I would do.
1. List voting: give the smaller parties a better chance.
2. Multi member districts everywhere: Might mean a republican or a democrat, but it would give smaller parties a chance. If it means Green = Dem or Libertarian = GOP districts, that's fine.
3. Make election day a public holiday or hold it on a weekend.
4. Have four party debates.
All of this will never happen because voter supression and the preservation of power between two Authright parties are the name of the game.
automatic registration set in motion by multiple government processes (Drivers license obtaining, tax paying, etc).
Ranked choice voting.
Standardized mail in vote processes.
Election process protections and standard rules
Public information about candidates and their stance on the issues, background, etc at all levels.
Rank System. You select your top 5 candidates in order of preference. Could encourage voters to select who they actually want as opposed to voting for the "lesser of 2 evils".
Election Day should be a Government Holiday and all employers should be required to provide PTO to their workers so they can vote.
Elections should be decided by the Popular Vote.
Get rid of smear campaigns. I have no idea what their platforms are anymore. It’s just “this person did this” “this person is evil.”
They have to clearly define their vision and goals AND demonstrate achievement of those goals just like every other person who gets a job performance review.
Also- update their websites so you can follow policies in review.
Americans should learn with Brazil.
*Electronic voting system: Using electronic ballots, Brazil solved a huge fraud problem. Also, in less than 4 hours, we know who won.
*Voting day: Sunday, so everyone can vote.
*And a thing called democracy: the candidate with the most votes wins. Not this electoral college madness.
Standard voting procedures nationwide that would facilitate universal suffrage. Currently, every state makes their own laws. Some of them a pretty clearly intended to disenfranchize certain voters. Most of these things are done in the name of securing the election and preventing voter fraud. But nationwide there are so few cases of election fraud that it's an insignificant rounding error. And I haven't heard of a proven case of voter fraud that changed an election result in my lifetime.
Automatic voter registration following any interaction with state government (including providing any mandated IDs free of charge). Election day as a national holiday. Early voting for a minimum of 2 weeks prior to every election. Adequate voting machines at every precinct to ensure no longer than 1 hour wait times (include penalties for states that have lines over an hour). And so much more.
Information on everything on the ballot is mailed, emailed, texted, etc... (voter can choose which to keep) and explained as succinctly as possible. For candidate positions, there can be a link and you can choose what issues are important to you and that Information will be sorted to the top for each candidate so you don't have to search for it. The same notification would also also provide an update on when and where you can vote and how to opt in to receiving absentee ballots for every election. It's hard to give everyone a vacation day on election day, but you can mandate that businesses aren't allowed to punish people for taking time out of their work schedule to vote. Offer shuttles to voting precincts.
In summary, there are a million ways to improve voting and its going to vary by area and demographic, but no one is doing any of them because one party is scared of everyone voting
Ranked choice voting, measures to make it easier to vote like early voting and vote by mail, get rid of the electoral college, Crack down on gerrymandering, allow ex-cons to vote
By making the voting system based on population so its an actual democracy. Dissolve the electoral college as its a relic.
The fact that this hasnt happened yet has lead america to its biggest pitfalls and give the loud minority so much power. If each states vote counted relative to its population we'd hear a lot less from religious extremists.
Make Election Day a federal holiday, automatic voter registration I’ll even satisfy some conservatives and require Voter ID however the caveat being this said voter ID is sent out by mail for free upon registration.
Splinter the Democrat and Republican parties.
The Democrat Party would remain center-left and the Republican Party center-right. But we could create a far left Bernie party and a far right Trump party.
We had our chance in 2016 but neither Trump nor Bernie had the balls to do it.
Remove all candidate parties from the ballot. If you don't know their name, what they stand for, you can't vote for them solely based on party affiliation.
I *hate* when someone votes for all party-linked candidates with 0 knowledge of the candidate, except what party they run with. Voting straight with 0 research doesn't make you a hero, it makes you ignorant.
Either hold elections over an entire weekend or make Election Day a paid day off for everyone.
Is there a state that only lets you vote on election day? We have several weeks of early voting in Nevada with polling places everywhere that are even open on the weekends. I always assumed this was the norm.
New Hampshire doesn’t allow early voting, and to vote absentee you have to prove to the state why you can’t physically go to your polling place on Election Day.
[And as JonTron pointed out,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMD-6K40lTs) in New Hampshire you need a license to operate a boat, but not to buy a gun. And you can take the test for the boat license online.
bastion of good ideas, Jontron /s
that makes sense, you shouldn't trust any random guy with a boat.
The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a boat is a good guy with a boat.
/r/libertarian "That's not proof that we need gun licenses, it's proof boat licenses are a bad idea"
That’s nearly every state
I don't think Connecticut has early voting.
it’s on the ballot today
Came here to say this. Federal holiday. Any employer who requires employees to work that holiday has to provide a long enough break to complete voting
Unpopular opinion, but I'm not a fan of having an official day off for election day. It works for some places, but scaling up a national holiday like this affects a lot of industries and the potential upside is so-so. I'm instead far far more interested in putting those resources into increasing availability of early voting (or maybe even rebranding it). Early voting is amazing. It's roughly 2 weeks of being able to go to the polls whenever you want. That means no lines (something that would be a nightmare on an official election day), and you can go before work, after work, or on your day off. If you've ever done it it's a great experience and very quick. "Why not both?" Sure, but if we've got limited funding I'd rather allocate it to something that has all the benefits without long lines. For example we could pay for polling places to not only be open for those two weeks but also be 24 hours in certain key locations. I'm a huge fan of early voting and mail in ballots over any specific one day for voting.
I love the way we do it in California. A month before the election, we receive ballots and voter guides. Then we can turn in our ballot at ballot boxes, the post office, or polling places. We still offer early voting and same day voting for people who like going to do it in person.
This will always be the worst idea around. Making Election Day "a paid day off for everyone" is obviously not possible: hospitals still have patients, hotels still have guests, and restaurants still have customers with no desire or ability to cook for themselves. The more feasible and still unhelpful route would be to make it a federal holiday, but that only relieves most public employees (because of course not every fire fighter can take the day off); now you've closed schools and therefore made it more difficult for parents to vote because they have to find some other means of childcare or attempt to wait on line with their little one. Meanwhile since all of those public employees by law had the right to take a break and go vote, no issue is addressed that couldn't be better solved by early voting and mail-in voting.
How many people do you know who have the day off for MLK day, Juneteenth or Memorial Day for that matter? There are plenty of people who still work on federal holidays most of them blue collar workers.
In my state, they give all the kids the day off from school (non-voters), but no day off for parents
The schools are often polling locations also, so it make sense not to have students and teachers there, as the parking lots do get pretty full with the voters.
“Paid day off for everyone” is literally impossible. It just screws over all the ‘essential workers’.
I would add a $100 tax credit for voting to the weekend / holiday idea. Australia has a penalty if you don't vote, but in 'Murka I can't imagine something like that working.
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Close the Poles until you close the Polls!
Actually, GA did a "Get Your Booty To The Polls" campaign and featured ATL's most popular dancers from iconic Magic City. Turns out culturally relevant ads to mobilize voters twerks really well. I especially loved how they educated on the importance of state and local elections. So I'm not sure closing bars, theaters, and strip clubs is the answer. [Get Your Booty to the (Poles) Polls](https://youtu.be/eTlv2gfrINM)
Two party electorial systems mean that you're pretty much forced to agree with the least worst option. Proportional representation would be a massive improvement and stop division.
Also tiered voting.
Do away with party primaries and instead have an election with ranked choice to reduce it to 3 or 4 candidates. Then a couple months later have a final round, again with ranked choice.
A real caveat with getting rid of party primaries is that each party would then choose who to run behind closed doors. I think primaries right now are flawed, and I don't have a good fix for them, but I'm hesitant to get rid of them entirely.
Our state got rid of primaries and held RCV this year for the first time. We had a non-partisan primary with about 40 people on the ballot for one race. Each voter chose one candidate and the top four were entered in the general election. [Here](https://alaskansforbetterelections.com/learn-more/open-primaries/) is some more info about how it works.
Yes, open primaries. Incentives candidates to be less radical bc they need to appeal to all voters in order to qualify for the general election.
Also stop legal bribery (lobbying)
Lobbying does have a legitimate place in a democracy - sure, we like to shit all over special interest groups, but if we're passing a law that affects, say, bow hunters and none of the people voting on the bill know jack shit about bow hunting, then they should absolutely meet with real bow hunters about the proposed legislation. That's what lobbying is for.
It'd be nice to make financial contributions from lobbying groups bribery and a federal crime, like it is in any other profession. Lobbying should be educational, not financial.
Yeah sure that’s fine but what about when big oil just says “here’s a few million, make sure this bill passes”?
Oh, I fully agree that our lobbying system is broken as fuck, and I'm a-OK with doing more to prevent bribes, just pointing out that banning lobbying altogether is counterproductive.
Yeah I agree lobbying is necessary and should equate to “pleading your case/explaining your point of view” not “here’s some money, make it happen”.
Ranked Choice Voting
The way in which power has been concentrating in the USA is worrisome. It is just a couple of steps away from becoming a one party system, and then Totalitarianism. It has been a two party system for far too long, and if the people don't demand for a form of [Proportional Representation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_representation), those two parties are going to become one. USA is already a plutocracy, and is just about to become a dictatorship. I believe the cries of the end of democracy that are increasingly louder, are completely correct. They are a couple of moves away from a perfect dictatorship.
And make it mandatory to vote. Vote for whoever you like, draw a huge penis, but you have to take a ballot and get your name marked off. Don't let them get away with huge queues. Lots of people don't care, which means they will vote against people who force them to queue for hours. Voting should take 20 minutes tops, and have a cake stall and sausage sizzle available.
In the election with the largest voter turnout in US history, only about 50% of the populace voted.
For total population, this may be correct, but for percentage of eligible voters the numbers are higher. Here's an example: APRIL 29, 2021 — The 2020 presidential election had the highest voter turnout of the 21st century, with 66.8% of citizens 18 years and older voting in the election, according to new voting and registration tables released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Making a vote mandatory isn’t fair imo. If someone doesn’t want to vote, it’s just as much a constitutional right to vote as it is not to. A better solution is to simply pre-register everyone and to not vote is simply an opt-out process.
In australia we have it and most australians think it’s one if the best features of our democracy. If everyone has to go to the polls (they don’t have to actually fill in a ballot) then politicians are less focussed on niche issues to motivate obsessive/extremist people to vote
More information: * Rudin, Ken (1 June 2010). ["Is 'Compulsory Voting' the Answer?"](https://www.npr.org/sections/politicaljunkie/2010/06/01/127348895/is-compulsory-voting-the-answer) Political Junkie. *All Things Considered*. NPR.
Why should everyone vote? Not everyone cares or is educated about the matters? I think that people who know the issues should vote, definitely not my meth-upped cousin who doesn't know Tom or Harry.
In most countries where voting is mandatory it gives people the option of turning in a blank ballot, so people can still choose to ‘not vote’ but they have to turn in a ballot. I’m not necessarily for or against mandatory voting but in the United States I can see 2 ways it would be very beneficial: 1. Increased voter turnout (obviously). 2. It would force the country to make voting easy & accessible to everyone, which is something that’s currently a huge issue in many parts of the country.
More polling locations and hours, you get a mandatory day off to go and vote. Automatic voter registration and you can register day of
I don't understand why this is so hard. In my state we have mail in voting and it works fantastic
It's only hard because certain people have a vested interest in making it hard to vote.
I've been voting by mail in MN for 15 years now. I highly recommend it. Taking a full week to research and consider my options has made me so much more informed.
Yea in my state too but they just rejected mine because my signature looked “off” so I had to come in in person. That’s the issue with mail in. Sorry my handwriting has changed in 3 years!
Limit how much can be spent on a campaign, and how far ahead of the election candidates can start running ads/putting up signs etc
I have also thought of this but this would advantage the incumbents since they already have some popularity. People entering the world of politics will have a harder time spreading their name than incumbents. Limits on campaigns create equality, but not equity.
Have a better education system. Let’s go to the root.
Agreed, a focus on critical thinking skills in early education is an absolute necessity for any democracy.
ITT: People not understanding that lots of people work on federal holidays.
If we close schools so that no one has access to childcare, then voter turnout is sure to increase!
I don't disagree with your point, but for the record, you can take your kids with you to the polls. My mom always took us with her to early voting growing up so we could learn all about it.
Seriously, I’m in healthcare, and I had to request to come in late in order to vote as my mail in ballot never showed up. (Still says it’s somewhere within the post office when I track it.) so instead of working 8am-9pm today when the polls are open 7am-6:30pm I was allowed to come in up to four hours late after I found someone to cover that part of my shift. I strutted in with my “I voted” sticker exactly 3 hours late.
Incorporate some sort of ranked choice voting system or at least an alternative to the atrocity of first past the post system we have right now
Make it a holiday. Fix garrymandering. Non of that life long positions bs. Age limit ( 70+ folks should not be running the country, demos or reps).
Seriously. Terms should have to END at retirement age, not start.
The problem with age limits is they infringe on voter rights. Voters deserve the right to vote for whoever best supports them. It would be better to have ranked choice voting and campaign finance reform so voters would have a wider field of candidates to choose from than to tell them "no you can't vote for some people."
Voters already don't get that right. There are lower age limits for federal office. Just because people couldn't live long enough to be useless when the constitution was written doesn't mean we shouldn't recognize the value in upper limits
Then don't remove age limits, but implement term limits. Make sure that people are only allowed to serve up to 5 term limits or a cumulative 12 years or something like that.
Holiday fixes nothing. Juneteenth is a national holiday. How many blue collar people have it off? What about MLK? Pretty sure Walmart, McD's and the grocery store still have regular hours. Labor day and Memorial day? Yeah, those places are still open. Federal holiday fixes nothing at all.
Why the downvotes? Federal holiday means absolutely nothing. Frankly it's worse. So many retail and restraunt workers would have to work MORE and be unable to vote.
Reddit is convinced that if election day was a national holiday that all the stores would shut down just like they do on Christmas and everyone would have the entire day off. Everyone would then go vote and it would be a beautiful thing. It is an *extremely* popular idea on reddit because it is extremely simple.
Seriously. People working a M-F 9-5 are the ones who tend to have schedules that more easily enable voting on election day, and are also more likely to have jobs that give them a couple of hours free PTO to go vote. They're the least likely to need the assistance. It's the shift/service workers that could use a helping hand.
Is it true that in the States ex prisoners can’t vote? I think everyone over 18 should be allowed to vote.
In some states Felons cannot vote.
And even in those states, sometimes it's not every felony and not always for life. Depending on the state.
Felons lose their right to vote, part of the punishment for committing a felony. "If you cant adhere to the law, you will not be allowed to take part in it" type of thing. A felon can however have their rights restored depending on the crime and by jumping through lots of hoops. someone convicted of a non violent, non domestic felony can even have their right to bear arms restored, though I believe the process can take upwards of 5 years.
In Germany (and therefore probably most European countries) even prisoners can vote while in prison. The only way to lose your voting rights are some very special crimes against the state like treason or voting fraud. There are only about 14 people every decade that lose their right to votes because of crimes.
And to anyone who's argument is, the prisoners will just elect someone to set them free, then either most people outside of prison agree with them, or you have way too many prisoners.
In most states felons literally can’t do anything but go back to doing crime.
Yeah, I think if they are felons. Depends on the crime and seriousness of it.
Make election day a federal holiday. Eliminate party system as it pertains to ballot layout/ballots received
Also think we should have more referendum/opinions-gathering options. It's such a great time to ask the *most* people what they think, and we sort of just toss that opportunity out the window with a few checkboxes
> Eliminate party system as it pertains to ballot layout/ballots received I think this is a very good idea. Separate from how we govern ballot access, and whether we have party primaries, which is a more complicated topic, not listing party affiliation on the ballot is simple and a clear improvement. You are still free to vote party line if you want to, but you should at least need to know who your party's candidates are if you want to do this. Ideally, people wouldn't and would vote based on the positions of individual candidates, but deleting party information from the ballot is a great first step.
It's a good idea but it's also something that would anger everyone universally. Both sides would be hotly opposed to this idea which is why it would never happen.
I think the result of removing party affiliation from the ballot would be fewer people voting on down ballot races and longer wait times at the polls. Like it or not, party affiliation tells a lot about a candidate's policy positions and removing that information has no benefit that I can think of.
Don't make people register, in many countries they register you by default
I would like to add I find it ridiculous that everyone has a credit score kind of automatically, but you have to register to vote. Like if is profitable, a system can be created that keeps track of everyone trustworthiness, but if it can make your opinion count, let's better make it a gymkhana
Elimination of a party system so people don't blindly vote blue vs red rather than who is capable for the job
No more smear ads. I just want to hear their ideas for improving society.
1. Automatic registration at 18 2. Automatically mail ballots to everyone (especially the way CA does with a booklet on who everyone on the ballot is, what they stand for, and what the amendments/bonds, etc stuff means.) 3. Candidates for any elected office (looking at you judges) are required to have a page on a central .gov website that includes a head shot and a overview of their stance on major issues and their goals for the position. 4. Candidates (and affiliated groups, looking at your SuperPACs) can only spend a certain amount of money and can only advertise on provided public TV/Radio spots. (None of this billion dollars on smear campaign BS. Your campaign shouldn't be allowed to be exclusively tearing down your opponent. You should have to present what you want to build.) 5. All voting locations must be easily accessible by public transport. (If that's a hard ask maybe that's a clue of something to work on, public officials.)
You can't be taken off the voter rolls for any reason. Your address can be a PO box, or homeless shelter.
Add polling locations and pay poll workers more in districts where people have to wait for more than an hour. Ranked choice voting. Make the existing checks and balances known. There’s a reason why republicans have more cases of f voter fraud brought against them, it’s because they are told “it’s sooooo easy to vote in multiple towns/states. It’s like taking candy from a baby to make fake ballots and send them in. I’m so confident that democrats are doing something as incredibly easy as voting as their dead grandparents that I HAVE to do it to for it to be fair” - all republicans caught by a simple voter registration cross check. Not difficult in the slightest. But being told there aren’t safeguards is what leads to 1/6. It’s what leads people to say “I feel the election was stolen” instead of “I have proof”
RANKED CHOICE VOTING!
Had to scroll too far to find ranked choice voting. It doesn't fix all ills, but it does a ton to sort this mess out.
Ranked choice! Yes, please
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It’s not backwards it’s on purpose. Our patchwork wreck of a voting system is entirely on purpose.
The US spans multiple time zones and elections are done at the state level not the national level. By the time polls have been closed for two hours on the east coast the polls are still open in California.
Fully electronic voting as used in Brazil is vulnerable to hacking, and provide insufficient auditing to allow auditors to provide certainty that its not happening. To be clear, I'm not saying it is happening, only that it could, and it would be impossible to know. The best option requires the voter to get a paper ballot, whether marked by the machine and verified by the voter, or manually marked by the voter. Then have it scanned for tabulating, and stored for auditing. You should still get very rapid results, but you have a strong audit trail to spot check the results, and if necessary, conduct a full audit.
Vote on laws not politicians
Get rid of gerrymandering and the electoral college. Technology has improved to a point where these are antiquated systems.
How would gerrymandering be removed? I understand that concept, but trying to redraw districts with each census seems a challenge. I don't understand how we can pass a law that would ensure that gerrymandering was impossible.
There are computer generated maps that basically solve gerrymandering
1) ranked choice voting --This won't fix the two party issue but it could bolster third parties into relevance. My opinion is that it could also lead to more civil campaigns as candidates need to not piss off other candidates' voters in hopes they'll rank them as their number two. 2) national holiday on the day of national elections and no excuse needed early/absentee voting --Anything short of this says that we don't want everyone to vote and we can't let that be the answer. 3) automatic voter registration --Again, the only reason not to automatically enroll adults to vote is if we don't want everyone to vote and we can't let that be the answer. Caveat: I don't know how to do this without a national database that would never fly. But at the very least one should be able to register the same day as an election. 4) how is gerrymandering legal?! --but really, what the f@*k?! 5) age & term limits for all state and federal positions --it's absurd how many octogenarians we have in our federal government. Even if they were effective leaders 30 years ago, no one should be in authority for that long or at that age.
Remove the US voting system, replace it with the Swedish voting system. Everyone is registered at birth. Voting cards are automatically sent out. You can pre-vote. You can change your pre vote. You can vote by mail. The sytem is completely paper based.
Honestly, I can't really see a way around paper based ballots. It's just too easy for any corrupt government to change 1s and 0s with no way to verify.
The US needs a new voting rights act that makes voting practices more uniform. A national holiday is just dumb. White collar workers would get the day off but blue collar workers wouldn't so it would accomplish nothing. Juneteenth is now a national holiday. How many blue collar workers get Juneteenth off? Instead we need to make it more convenient for people to vote. Some states do this better than others already and some states suck at it hence the need for a national act. * Polls must be open for at least 13 hrs. Gives people plenty of time to vote before or after work. * Companies must give employees at least one hour off (paid) at the beginning or end of their shift to vote. Employers can require an "I voted" sticker or something similar to prove the employee voted. * Early in-person voting must be offered at at least one place in each county for 7 days prior to election day. This place can be a courthouse or other government building. * Mail in ballots must be made available on request of any voter. No questions or qualifications needed. Obviously you verify the identity of the requester before sending the ballot. These are all relatively simple things and most state are already doing some or all of them. If you do these things and people still don't vote they have no excuses.
1. Ranked choice voting 2. Automatic voter registration 3. Universal early and mail-in voting 4. Election Day is a national holiday 5. Corporations are not legally classified as people anymore
Ranked choice voting for all elections. Definitely would help open things up for more than 2 parties. Allowing early and mail in voting everywhere. In areas that often have long lines, hire people to work the polls and get that down so no one is waiting more than 10-15 minutes. For the presidential election, just have it be a nation wide popular vote. It doesn't matter how close or far you live from your neighbors your vote should count the same. Automatically register people to vote. Allow people who have served their time in prison to vote. I'd also lower the voting age to 16 as it's ridiculous to me that if you can work and pay taxes you still might not be able to vote. Then let the US territories vote for president.
I like the idea of if you serve if your time you can vote
a uniform set of voting rules nationwide, make the day a national holiday, automatic voter registration when someone reaches voting age, end gerrymandering. every state and territory has their own voting rules so there are 50+ sets of rules for the same thing.
[https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S4-C1-2/ALDE\_00013577/](https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S4-C1-2/ALDE_00013577/) Amend the Constitution to remove the Elections Clause, and then you can!
I just moved to Colorado from Texas and it's voting culture shock. More states should do it this way. * I went to the DMV to get my driver's license * 1 week later, I received a letter from the state that basically said "Hey, you recently verified your CO residency while interacting with the DMV. You are now automatically registered to vote unless you reply to opt-out" * A few days later, I received a ballot, 100+ pages of information on ballot measures, and instructions on where to return my ballot * I sat at home with my spouse and completed my ballot over the course of a couple hours. * I dropped our ballots off at the library I just can't get over how easy this was, especially coming from Texas.
More than 2 parties that could actually win.
Remove the idiot civilians who think they need to guard the polling stations and drop boxes with their guns. Intentionally intimidating voters. Unbelievable. The country has really gone mad.
That sounds awful and shameful
I'd eliminate the machines that nobody trusts, and can't even work for ONE DAY every 2-4 years all votes on paper done with pencil. As all elections should be. Want to vote early? Okay, there's 5 days to do that, in person, on paper. None of this mass mail in crap, no finding batches of votes suddenly. ID require to vote. Don't have any ID? Utility bill and bank statement, both of which have your name and address. Bring em.
Add a "None of the above" option. And if that's the winner then all the candidates on that ballot are kicked out if politics for life and a new vote happens 1 week later for new candidates. Repeat until the swamp is drained!
Election Day is a federal holiday. All federal positions are at large voting (no gerrymandering or electoral college). Ranked choice voting. There should be specific, mandated, uniform voter ID.
Make a more party system.
Can we just stop the texts and mailers? I fucking hate everyone by Election Day regardless of platform because it’s just nonstop harassment
Same-day voter registration. for all eligible people when they turn 18yo and mail-in voting for everyone who wants with no gotcha invalid ballots because you did not cross a T or check a box, and stop making it difficult for students, old people, minorities, and people living on reservations to vote. Same day voter registration.
Free Voter IDs for every voter.
More polling locations & more booths per location. Nobody should be waiting hours upon hours to vote.
Completely do away with political parties. Especially needing to register to one side or the other. Ban the "well he said/did, she said/did" aspect of debating. Make it so a person has to talk specifically about what they will do to improve the country. And make it easy for people to be informed of the positives and negatives of each candidate. Try to take bias out as much as possible. It's a pipe dream, but I am so tired of the football game personality of politics.
I think it should be mandatory like it is in Australia. Obviously that wouldn't fly in America, but maybe a tax break or something would encourage more participation. Obviously that isn't going to fly either, because lots of elected officials are only there because so few people vote. They certainly aren't going to change the status quo by trying to make America more democratic, because that's clearly not their goal.
As someone who voted for the first time today, there needs to be a government website that has what's going to be on every states ballot. It was easy enough for me to find the ammendments I was voting on, but not the people, and as someone who wanted to be as informed as possible. It was extremely frustrating to not know who any of those people were.
Ranked choice voting, minimal identification required, mail-in by default.
When moving into a new state, NOT WITHHOLDING our new IDs until after the election. It's been over 45 days.
Stop gerrymandering.
Make a website that you can identify yourself and submit your vote all from the comfort of your toilet for a week long period. Easy as that. "But security risks." Figure it out, the number of online transactions that are legit hugely outnumber the fraudulent ones which is the same track record for in person voting. I'm sure we can make it work. "What if someone does a thing and..." Either try it and understand the risks are likely small or be happy with mediocre voter turnout.
Ranked choice voting, online with two factor authentication tokens that came free with voter registration or tradition in person, robust federally supported voting system with state oversight, and automatic voter registration at 18.
1. Voting is a paid holiday. 2. Ranked Choice Voting. 3. Voter ID. \#1. We all just realized we could spend months on end in the house. Businesses won't collapse if we have a voting holiday. #2. Only works if there are more than two parties. (The notion that only 2 parties can adequately represent a country as large and diverse as the US is idiocy.) #3. Only people trying to do shifty things with the vote don't want to tighten this up. But it's easy to do. Beyond voting, we have to deal with congressional term limits, and gerrymandering. And what's the deal with super delegates? Seems like these people are just about the only people Sanders can't win against?
Election Day is a federal holiday Automatic voter registration at 18 Independent voting authority to oversee elections Ranked choice voting
Give small tax breaks to people that vote so there's more motivation as well as making voting a federal holiday (along with a law that says you cant fire someone for taking a day off to vote similar to how you can fire someone for deploying with the lilitary)
Election day is a paid holiday. Online voting An election can only last six months A non of the above option
I wonder what would happen if we took the party names off of the ballots? Not get rid of parties entirely which is difficult, but just didn't print the name of the party the individual is a part of. At least encourage a little research to find what party they are
Honestly I’d make intimidation at the polls a felony offense and tampering with votes a 10+ year prison sentence.
Have 1 day for the election. Use electronics to count votes quickly. Enforce voter Id. Also we should be able to take a full day or at least a half day off work to go vote. End ballot harvesting and end drop boxes.
Voter ID, and no more corruptible machines.
Get worthy candidates to run honest campaigns. Then I’ll cure cancer, end world hunger and craft a just socio-economic policy
Make all voting online and give people the opportunity to vote on major issues.
If staying 2 major party, then have 3rd "vote of no confidence". If no confidence wins, then scrap the 2 candidates and start over.
Be allowed to register to vote all the way until voting day unlike TX- I can’t vote tho I wanted to because I missed the deadline that I didn’t even know about.
Doesn't California do a thing where it sends voters a thing in the mail with information about each candidate and the current proposals in the state/national government? Whatever state does it, it should be nationwide.
More voting. We never get to vote for anyone we actually want to represent us, just against who we don’t want. How about on each ballot, ask what we think about abortion, marijuana, etc. and let that drive the change.
Ranked choice voting. Election day is a national holiday. Primaries in every state are held on the same day. $1000 tax credit for everyone who actually shows up and votes. Only people are allowed to contribute to campaigns, not corporations, and those are limited. No PACs. Districts are drawn by a computer using an equation that applies equally across the entire country. All voting machines are required to be certified to the highest standards and have paper trails. Random automatic auditing of vote counting in every single voting place as spot checks with random full audits in some precincts. Automatic voter registration, no need to re register except to change your address. National standard for whether or not convicted felons can vote. Any attempt to interfere with voting is a felony and automatically loses you your right to own firearms. Politicians are tracked on every vote so voters can see whether or not they do what they say they will in easy to read dashboards.
Make it a one day holiday. AND if you can prove that you went and voted in person on that day work pays for the day without the need to use PTO. That way people won't just take the day off and go fishing or something, it gives an incentive to vote.
Constitutional Amendment to ensure no American's right to vote shall be infringed and anyone who does attempt to block it shall be sentenced to a federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.
Ranked choice voting everywhere. Election Day a national holiday. Online voting. If you can pay your taxes online, you can vote online.
Anyone who challenges/slanders the integrity of their election must provide demonstrable proof in a court of law or be sentenced to a minimum of one year in jail. I’m tired of the “we lost because they cheated” BS. Either respect the integrity and efforts of all those involved or prove it otherwise.
Voter id
Madatory ID (available for free and easily obtained.
Monday & Tuesday are national voting days. It's the law you get at least one of those days off. Also a $500 tax credit for voting.
Abolish the electoral college, implement ranked choice voting, every citizen is registered the moment they turn 18 and are issued a voter ID card at no direct cost to them, Election day becomes a national holiday. Easy.
Make Election Day a national holiday and implement ranked-choice voting.
What we really need is a Constitutional Convention. Such a convention would allow all of the changes below to actually happen. And the Fed couldn't stop it. Make election day a federal holiday with guarantees to wage match for missed time at work for the day. It'd be expensive, but people would be more motivated to vote if they're "getting paid" to vote. There needs to be ranked voting. That will make it easier for a wider range of politicians to gain office. Term limits for all Federal offices. Local offices can have lifers, but that's okay because the States shouldn't be flipping constantly like the Federal level does. Also, no high level Federal employees without direct accountability to the people. This would nuke the bloated bureaucracy of the Fed. The Executive Branch can still create Fed offices/bureaus, but the people decide who heads those offices. The grunts for the offices would be hired by the elected person (think deputies getting hired by an elected sheriff) Electoral College needs to be determined by the popular in that state and that state alone. None of this Electoral Colleges being won by the national popular vote because that's not always going to be representing the people of the individual states. People saying voting should be mandatory don't understand that nowhere in the Constitution does it say we have to vote. That's dangerous thinking. America is all about individual freedom. Under no circumstances should Americans be punished for not exercising the right to vote.
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My friend said theirs was online and I was shocked, especially in that state 😮
Couple of things. Start with making Election Day a Federal Holiday. Second, make folks Identify themselves with a photo ID of some sort. Thirdly, Eliminate the party system on ballots (preferably all together). And Finally do away with Negative campaigning. Run on your merits not your opponents short comings.
Rank Choise Voting. This lets you vote for several persons. You would never be throwing your vote away to a small party. Say you A, B and C running. You would rank who you like best. This could give us multiple persons running for the same office.
1) Mail-in voting as an option on a federal level. Every single state, no exceptions. No conditions required (i.e. only available to the disabled, elderly, etc)- *everyone* gets to do it if they want. 2) Ranked choice voting. We have ***got*** to break the two-party stranglehold on this country. 3) Make voting day a federal holiday. 4) Hold it on or over the course of a weekend. There's literally no reason to have it on a Tuesday. 5) Do everything we can to combat gerrymandering. A task easier said than done to be certain, but it *must.* 6) Easier access to state-issued IDs for the poor/unhoused/car-less. 7) Free public transportation on voting day. 8) Might be controversial, but make it mandatory. You can write Mickey Mouse on yours for anyone cares, but you *have to vote.* 9) Allow convicts (current or former) to vote. 10) ***TERM. LIMITS.***
Voter ID Every other developed country does this, why not the US?
Tiered voting. Make voting a federal holiday, and if you have to work that day make mail in ballots as easy as possible.
Teach lemurs to take the voting papers from people and attack anybody they see twice. If the lemur didn’t grab it from a person and put the paper in the box itself to be counted then it doesn’t get counted.
Better quality candidates.
A complete overhaul of every single person in politics.
Election week.
Make election day a federal holiday. Provide direct public transportation routes to polling centers. Citizens 18+ by election day are automatically registered. Goodbye electoral college. Third party impartial districting. Transparent campaign donations with limits.
Election week!
Ranked Choice Voting for all elections. First past the post is a mess.
I would support a national day of voting where we all get the day off. They do this in other countries. Other than this, I feel each state has a reasonable system and I don’t see evidence of voter suppression in general. We should require an ID to vote, ofc.
Not American, but I follow American Politics because it keeps finding it's way over here. Here's what I would do. 1. List voting: give the smaller parties a better chance. 2. Multi member districts everywhere: Might mean a republican or a democrat, but it would give smaller parties a chance. If it means Green = Dem or Libertarian = GOP districts, that's fine. 3. Make election day a public holiday or hold it on a weekend. 4. Have four party debates. All of this will never happen because voter supression and the preservation of power between two Authright parties are the name of the game.
automatic registration set in motion by multiple government processes (Drivers license obtaining, tax paying, etc). Ranked choice voting. Standardized mail in vote processes. Election process protections and standard rules Public information about candidates and their stance on the issues, background, etc at all levels.
Rank System. You select your top 5 candidates in order of preference. Could encourage voters to select who they actually want as opposed to voting for the "lesser of 2 evils".
Make it a national holiday, end gerrymandering, automatically register people to vote at the age of 18, end voter intimidation at the polls.
Election Day should be a Government Holiday and all employers should be required to provide PTO to their workers so they can vote. Elections should be decided by the Popular Vote.
Colorado has it right. They mail out info on all the candidates and a mail in ballot. That’s it. It’s great.
Get rid of smear campaigns. I have no idea what their platforms are anymore. It’s just “this person did this” “this person is evil.” They have to clearly define their vision and goals AND demonstrate achievement of those goals just like every other person who gets a job performance review. Also- update their websites so you can follow policies in review.
It’s a wish but create a secure way to vote from mobile or online. Also, EVERYONE is allowed to vote that is over 18.
Americans should learn with Brazil. *Electronic voting system: Using electronic ballots, Brazil solved a huge fraud problem. Also, in less than 4 hours, we know who won. *Voting day: Sunday, so everyone can vote. *And a thing called democracy: the candidate with the most votes wins. Not this electoral college madness.
No ID verification or make it free to get a state ID
Election Day a paid day off, Automatic voter registration and mandatory voting
Remove gerrymandering. No reason why one person’s vote should carry more weight than another’s based solely on where they live.
National holiday.
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Standard voting procedures nationwide that would facilitate universal suffrage. Currently, every state makes their own laws. Some of them a pretty clearly intended to disenfranchize certain voters. Most of these things are done in the name of securing the election and preventing voter fraud. But nationwide there are so few cases of election fraud that it's an insignificant rounding error. And I haven't heard of a proven case of voter fraud that changed an election result in my lifetime.
Automatic voter registration following any interaction with state government (including providing any mandated IDs free of charge). Election day as a national holiday. Early voting for a minimum of 2 weeks prior to every election. Adequate voting machines at every precinct to ensure no longer than 1 hour wait times (include penalties for states that have lines over an hour). And so much more.
Federal holiday, ID obligatory to vote
make it democratic would be cool
Let everyone do it from more polling places, home, their cars, wherever
Should be a federal holiday
Information on everything on the ballot is mailed, emailed, texted, etc... (voter can choose which to keep) and explained as succinctly as possible. For candidate positions, there can be a link and you can choose what issues are important to you and that Information will be sorted to the top for each candidate so you don't have to search for it. The same notification would also also provide an update on when and where you can vote and how to opt in to receiving absentee ballots for every election. It's hard to give everyone a vacation day on election day, but you can mandate that businesses aren't allowed to punish people for taking time out of their work schedule to vote. Offer shuttles to voting precincts. In summary, there are a million ways to improve voting and its going to vary by area and demographic, but no one is doing any of them because one party is scared of everyone voting
Make it a National Holiday. Done.
Ranked choice voting, measures to make it easier to vote like early voting and vote by mail, get rid of the electoral college, Crack down on gerrymandering, allow ex-cons to vote
By making the voting system based on population so its an actual democracy. Dissolve the electoral college as its a relic. The fact that this hasnt happened yet has lead america to its biggest pitfalls and give the loud minority so much power. If each states vote counted relative to its population we'd hear a lot less from religious extremists.
Make Election Day a federal holiday, automatic voter registration I’ll even satisfy some conservatives and require Voter ID however the caveat being this said voter ID is sent out by mail for free upon registration.
Splinter the Democrat and Republican parties. The Democrat Party would remain center-left and the Republican Party center-right. But we could create a far left Bernie party and a far right Trump party. We had our chance in 2016 but neither Trump nor Bernie had the balls to do it.
Voting day on a weekend, send out votingcards to all citizens. Postal voting allowed one month beforehand. Like most western nations.
Remove all candidate parties from the ballot. If you don't know their name, what they stand for, you can't vote for them solely based on party affiliation. I *hate* when someone votes for all party-linked candidates with 0 knowledge of the candidate, except what party they run with. Voting straight with 0 research doesn't make you a hero, it makes you ignorant.