The New And Improved Unofficial R65 Forum V2
General Category => Totally Off-Topic Discussions, Rants, Tire & Oil Threads, Etc. => Topic started by: Bob_Roller on November 01, 2016, 03:59:11 PM
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A major national election is a week away here in the US .
I use the early voting option, as I'm on vacation and if I decide to get away, I don't want voting to get in my way .
Just filled out the early voting ballot this afternoon and gave it to the postal carrier .
I save all the information that I get in the mail from unbiased sources, for the local elections .
There were 336 decisions to make on the ballot I had .
It took me almost an hour to fill out the ballot I had . :o :o
Even with all the info I had, I still had no idea who around 100 candidates for local offices were .
How do people make informed decisions, that walk into a polling place and make their choices ???
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Eny meny miny moo
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With voting on a week day, how do they expect a good turn out ? Are workers allowed time off to vote ? Election days are always on a saturday in New Zealand, a more relaxed day, and most people find some time to get out and vote.
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I believe that companies in the US have to let workers off to vote although there are some caveats. However, I don't think that they are required to pay an employee for the time off. So although nobody would be kept from leaving work to do it, there might be other reasons the employee wouldn't want to.
Kind of like jury duty. My company pays me if I am serving on a jury but they aren't required to. But all companies have to let you go. Most people try to get out of it but especially so with people who will lose pay.
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How do people make informed decisions, that walk into a polling place and make their choices
Here in Southern Ca we have a radio station that has been going over the propositions and who is running for "school board in district 9". I lean on them when I get to something I know nothing about. ( They have the info up on their web site. )I also vote at home via "absentee ballot" so I will have time to research something rather than toss a dart at the answer when in a polling booth.
The way they title propositions here is almost outright fraud. VERY confusing!!! The proposition that is titled "for safer neighborhoods" actually lets a huge number of felons out of prison early.... go figure, huh
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Local newspapers in small towns normally have the whole ballot printed. Otherwise the ballot, including the basic write up of items other than offices, can be found on line under the election commission.
Information on any statewide issues are again covered extensively online. Locally we had a sales tax which is pretty straight forward.
I hope you voted my way.
Bob
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A general election in the UK is always on a weekday but this presents no problem as the polling stations are open from very early in the morning until late at night so that people can vote on the way to work or on the way home. There are polling stations in the smallest of communities so you can often walk to one in 10 mins. Many of them are in primary schools which means the kids get the day off. Hurrah !
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Bob, when I run out of ideas I usually vote for the candidate whose party affiliation most closely reflects my own values.
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There was no political party affiliation noted for these candidates .
It was for elementary school district, high school district, junior college district, county water district, county flood control district and a few others that I can't remember .
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In that case I probably would not vote for any of 'em...
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When I run out of ideas I vote for the one who is NOT running for re-election. The way I see it is the problem is too many career politicians spending all their time trying to get re-elected instead of doing the job they were elected to do in the first place. JMHO
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We had (1) senator, (2) congress reps, state governor, state executive council, state senate, state house, county sheriff, town selectboard, county attorney, and of course the president/v-p to vote for here. But no general ballot items.
There was a long line coming out of our little town hall - turns out this election has more new voters registering than ever before. A poll worker asked if I was a new voter, and whne I said "no", he brought me right in and I was back out in 10 minutes. Sometimes living in a small town is a blessing!
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The ballot I had. was 32 inches, .81 m. long and completely filled out on both sides .
I drove by my assigned polling place, a city police substation about . 5 miles, 1 km from my home at a little after 10 AM .
There were cars parked on both sides of the two streets that border this police station for a good 3 blocks north and south on one street and three blocks east on another street, plus the 150 or so parking spots at the police station .
Just guessing how many people were visible, and my guess would be 500 in line outside the building . :o
Waiting time to vote, was 3-4 hours .
I'm glad I use the early voting method .
nhmaf, unless you are having an emergency medical condition, it's always better to live in a small town !!!! :)
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It was SO nice to have NO political spam in my inbox when I went through overnight e-mails! I am so glad this political season is over. I think that the primaries need to be whacked down to about 3 months, general to half that, then vote. I am totally burned out ...
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I'm just glad the robo calls for politicians is over !!!
From 8 AM last Thursday, through 650 PM Tuesday, I received 487 political calls !!!!!!!! >:(
Some as early as 740 AM Sunday .
I'm not registered as being affiliated with any political party, so I get the wrath of both parties !!!!! :D
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Dang, Bob, I thought my 2-3 per day was bad. I didn't answer any of 'em but they were still an irritant.
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I went to Face Book this morning and wiped out every nasty thing I had posted in the last 5 months about the opposing candidate/s.......... I'm back to a lil sedate telephone man again and the remnants of the crazed psychotic voter have all been erased.......Not good for business...........
no matter who you were for........ at least 1/2 the world will hate you for it!
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Motu, it is written in the US constitution that national elections will be held on the second Tuesday of November .
It would take constitutional amendment to change this, not an easy task to accomplish .
Polling places are open from 6 AM to 7 PM .
If you are in line at 7PM you will be allowed to vote .
Employers are required by law to give employees time off to vote .
This topic has come up a few times in the Phoenix area and they found out, that 40% of the residents of the Phoenix area of voting age, work Saturday and Sunday .
So, they would inconvenience about the same amount of people if voting were on a weekend day .
There is early voting, if you sign up for this, you will get a ballot in the mail 4 weeks before the election, as long as you mail it 7 days before the election, you're ballot will be counted .
If you miss this time frame, you can drop your sealed ballot off at your designated polling place on election day .
I work as an aircraft mechanic for an airline and I get sent out of town with less than 30 minutes notice, most of the times I don't get back until the next day .
So, I've been using the early voting method for 40 years .
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We select a date, it can be any time of the year, and always a saturday. You can have an election night party and not have to take the next day off work.
I always usually protest vote (never vote them in, always vote them out), always someone other than the major players to give a thumbs up to. After an election where the party with the most votes didn't get in, we changed to a proportional representation system...still a drama, but much better than just a 2 party system. The US needs to make changes when it's obvious set in stone systems don't work. ''It's in the constitution'' - well just change it!
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Who said the current method in the US does not work ?
You a person that's not a citizen of the US ??
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Like I said, I don't know, and don't want to know how your system works, it's of no interest to me. But something strange has happened, people are reacting and protesting, they are obviously not happy with how it worked. Watching newsbites from the otherside of the world, it was good entertainment for a while, but we have something more important happening here now.
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The US needs to make changes when it's obvious set in stone systems don't work.
It has worked pretty well for 200+ years.
The thing that changed is the folks now days are used to getting a trophy for second place and they don't know what to do walking off the playing field empty handed.
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This is probably getting into political content but the reason for Brexit and Trump and no doubt other elections to follow is not a broken electoral system. It's simply that the working and middle classes are fed up with the elite class getting richer while they get poorer. The idea that "we are all in this together" is simply nonsense and the electorate knows it. Populism is on the march and that's why an unlikely candidate like Trump can get elected and why the UK is fed up with the Eurocrats.
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Heard a new term on the news last night.. "Frexit" seems the French peasants are ready to revolt, add Holland and Denmark to that list too.
Is History reapeating its self, anyone thrown any Tea overboard latley ?
Lou
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Lou, just had a cup of PG Tipps! Woukld that have made me a "loyalist" way back in the day? ;D
Motu- People are protesting and rioting because their candidate didn't win - sad part is that a high percentage of the arrested "protesters," by their admission, didn't even bother to vote! There were/are Craig's list ads soliciting paid protesters and when they are turned lose the sheeple follow.
I blame this on political correctness, no discipline in the schools and home, spoiled brats that think they were "cheated" so are throwing a temper tantrum.
I better quit before I get to wound up and really offend somebody.
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Heard a new term on the news last night.. "Frexit" seems the French peasants are ready to revolt, add Holland and Denmark to that list too.
Lou, do you think the EU is in danger of disintegrating? Seems everything over there looked pretty good, overall, to an observer from afar but the encroaching "muslim hoard" is getting people more and more wound up. Living in a US border state I can sympathize with them...
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Heard a new term on the news last night.. "Frexit" seems the French peasants are ready to revolt, add Holland and Denmark to that list too.
Lou, do you think the EU is in danger of disintegrating? Seems everything over there looked pretty good, overall, to an observer from afar but the encroaching "muslim hoard" is getting people more and more wound up. Living in a US border state I can sympathize with them...
Yes........... Germany keep bailing out the Southern EU Countries who should never have adopted the Euro as their currency they cannot keep propping up a failing currency and there is massive youth unemployment 50% in Spain and Greece yet idiot Merkel tells everyone to come from anywhere? most migrants are economic not fleeing war. The effect on ordinary folk is wage compression poor public services and anarchy from the hoards of "Young" men roaming in gangs. We agreed to take children from one of the camps in France I swear some of them were older than me and I am in my 60,s just go on uTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkIocH91j0w check out what happened on New years eve in Cologne and whats been happening in Sweden,
The other big issue is the lack of accountability from the EU leadership who are not elected but appointed by ? some of Nigel Farage's speeches in the EU Parliament are brilliant, This clip tells you all you need to know about the EU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7740W8DPm9A if you feel this post is too political feel free to delete it I wont be offended.
Lou
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To avoid those annoying phone calls we have a "do not call register" and funnily enough it actually works!
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I've been on the national do not call registry for years, these are automated calls, next to impossible to get these to stop .