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this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2024
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politics
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I don’t really think we need to police the extra day off. If someone was unable to vote that day for some reason, they shouldn’t be penalized.
While I agree we should police it, have you ever worked for a big corporation, they are going to police it...
The law can be written to prevent that easily. One flex day off for every employee during the election season is mandatory to give people the opportunity to vote.
That is how every other major holiday is handled. Just because I get a winter holiday break every year doesn’t mean that my employer checks to see if I was Santa eligible before I get the vacation.
The goal isn't to get people an extra day off, it's to get them to vote.
When I go to a conference or take paid time for education I'm required to prove what I was doing.
We should also fight to get people more general vacation time, sure. But as far as mandating days off for voting I think it makes sense to make sure that they use that day to vote.
Otherwise we'll just end up with a lot of cheap weekend cruises popping up to take advantage of all the extra holiday time around elections with no increase in voter turnout.
God forbid Americans get more holiday time, especially considering that the rest of the developed world tends to get a lot more than we do.
The purpose of a day off for election day is to get people to vote. Tying it to a requirement to actually vote (not even necessarily on the same day) gives an incentive to vote instead of just another day off.
They should be getting an extra month of vacation time in general, absolutely, but that has nothing to do with incentivizing voting.
I got extra time off work for having a Covid vaccination. Since I was getting vaccinated anyway, it was just more time off just like a voting day would be. But for some people, the extra time off was enough incentive to get them to go to Walgreens and get a shot. If they'd just given everybody extra time off for Covid vaccinations without us having to prove that we did it, then those who weren't planning to get the shot still wouldn't have. And the point was to get people vaccinated for public health.
The problem with that is that it incentivizes people who are uninformed about politics to vote randomly for a day off. Our issue is not that everyone needs to vote, but that everyone who chooses to is able to and not hindered by a company.
If they want to incentivize people to get informed and get involved, then they should abolish the electoral college so people will feel like their votes count in states where they are a minority. Reinstating voting rights for felons would also get people motivated, because people who have been burned by the system may want to work to change it.
Even with all that, there will be people who do not care, do not learn, and will not want to vote, and they should be given that option. They have deemed themselves unqualified, and that should be believed.
It's perfectly legal to turn in a blank ballot. When there's an uncontested candidate running for office in my area that I do not support our I don't know the difference between the candidates I simply don't select a candidate for that position while voting for the candidates and issues I do understand.
Yes, but if someone intends not to vote at all, why waste their time and make lines longer by having them turn in a totally blank ballot?
If inconveniencing a hundred thousand lazy assholes into spending 5 minutes turning in a blank ballot is the cost of getting thousands of other people to engage in the political process I think that's pretty cheap.
Especially if we do it annually and tie it to local elections. I'm a government employee and I've seen local elections with high stakes affecting a hundred thousand people get 50 votes total.
God, Americans are so cucked when it comes to employee rights (I'm an American). Oh no, someone might get an extra day off!? Disgusting!
I get your point, and yes people should use the day to vote. But trying to mandate it, or police it in some way to make sure you didn't accidentally give your employee a day off for "no reason," is fucking absurd.
I imagine in most cases, it would probably even cost more to monitor, than the amount they lost for not having that employee for one day.
This isn't about making sure businesses make more money. It's about incentivizing people to vote.
My business gave extra time off to people who got Covid vaccines because it incentivizes people to do something that's good for them and for society. For people who were already getting the vaccines it was a bonus day, and it gave the push for people on the fence.
It should be the same with voting. The reality is most people do have the opportunity to vote, but choose not to take the time to do it. An extra holiday won't change that.
Giving them an extra day off no-strings attached is a good thing. They should get an extra month. But if we are specifically trying to get people to vote, then that particular day off should come with strings just like my vaccine day.
Your response to me saying how cucked we are here with regards to employee rights is this?
Wow, how magnanimous of them! I'm sure that having a vaccinated work force during a global pandemic that was killing millions to prevent your employees from dropping like flies had nothing to do with it... They just wanted to give you guys that "bonus" day. How sweet of them.
Yeah - how dare they do something that's good for the employees AND their bottom line! The nerve!
Though actually not true because I work in municipal government where there is no profit or shareholders. If we get extra money it goes into things like overdue infrastructure repair.
It's not good for all employees, only the ones who vote.
Makes me think of the people who want to enforce drug testing on welfare recipients. Costs more money to enforce than if they had just given them the benefits in the first place. But then we would be giving it to "people who 'shouldn't' have it," or "don't deserve it," and we just can't have that can we?
It's just a bullshit worldview.
Give everyone the day off, encourage voting and make sure that they know that it's literally the reason they have that day off from work. Because of the people that were voted in, etc. Show them how important it is... Then hope they vote. Change the culture around it.
Again, unless you want to do it like Australia and make it compulsory.
Other than that, you're literally just wasting money just to make sure a bunch of people don't have off work who (you deem) "don't deserve it." Nah, fuck all that. Just let people enjoy their fucking life, Jesus Christ.
Edit: now that I think about it... I have to wonder how you'd feel if this were a religious holiday, and only the people who observe (and we're talking, go to services, etc.) and can prove it, get those days off... Sorry atheists and agnostics, no Christmas or Easter holidays for you. And only the kids of the practicing Jews get off school for Ros Hashanah.
Or to keep it secular, only black people should get off for Martin Luther King Day right? Or to be even more specific, black Americans who are descendants of slaves. If you cannot prove that, sorry, no MLK Day for you.
Let's just start an entire new federal agency meant to confirm that only the people who are associated with each holiday can get that day off. Because there's gonna be a whole lot of paperwork. Lots of jobs though, I guess!
Yeah. That's how incentives work.
There's government incentives to buy electric cars. My car isn't electric so I don't get to take advantage of them.
If people are essentially being paid to vote, they should vote. It's not that complicated.
A national holiday isn't an incentive, it's just the opportunity. The incentive would be a separate undertaking.
And that's the fundamental problem with your point of view here. In no universe should making election day a national holiday be considered "paying people to vote." It's not a transaction.
I would love to hear about why my atheist ass should have off for Easter when I don't celebrate shit that day. Or why my white ass should have off for MLK Day or Juneteenth (oh look, they can make new holidays and it turns out it's not that big of a fucking deal).
I mean, I know why it doesn't work that way as well, but that's a different conversation. I would just like to understand how you square that up in your mind.
You're looking it as a holiday. That's not what it is. Not energy type of leave gets used by everyone.
I don't have any children and never will, so I don't get paternity leave that I 100% support being given to others.
I have been injured on the job and taken paid leave for recovery that others didn't get to take.
Is this literally not what this entire post was about? About making Election Day a National Holiday?
What you want to make it is something else entirely. Sounds like you want "paid leave to vote". These are two very different things as I think we've covered.
Obviously, either one would be better than what we have. But I just think making it a holiday is a much better/easier/cheaper solution, and its win/win/win. I see zero downsides with it that do not involve corporate profits.
The downside is it probably won't significantly increase voter turnout. People hate voting negative of long lines. Giving everyone the same day off to vote would just make it that much worse.
Very few people can honestly say that the lack of a voter holiday is the reason they don't vote.
I live in Texas, where voting is famously difficult, but even I have 5 separate locations whets I can vote 7 days a week during early voting. The 21st through the 27th available times are Monday through Friday 8-5, Saturday 7-7, and Sunday is 9-3. The 28th thriving the first is 7-7.
During those time periods it's rare to have a line at all, and there's a ton of groups that will take you to the polling station if you don't have transportation.
If someone is too lazy to take 10 minutes to vote during early voting, giving them a day off on election day won't change their behavior.
If the goal is to just give people another day off, that's fine. Just say that. If the goal is to get people to vote, you should tie the benefit to voting.