2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumLINES need to = FINES for SOS/County
All over, states and counties are cutting back resources to save money on elections.
The most obvious result is long lines.
LINES are no different that the POLL TAX.
TIME = MONEY. The idiom is part of the vernacular for a reason. Time is VALUABLE.
If we're going to allow lines, we might as well just bring back the poll tax.
We need federal law that sets a maximum allowable wait time and penalizes state or county agencies responsible for under-allocating resources in a way that creates wait times that exceed the maximum allowed.
An election is neither free nor fair when it "costs" ANY voter a substantial amount of time.
It needs to be Federal. We could try to do it state by state, but we'd get nowhere in "Red states." (Particularly with the latest about the Koch bros putting big money into getting "their" people elected as SOS's.)
Penalties must be substantial enough to cost the state or county much more than than any "savings" they may have gained by cutting resources in the first place.
Other ideas welcome, but I think the only way things will change is to create a monetary incentive to allocate sufficient resources to run elections well.
The penalties need to be big enough to be scary. Begging and pleading for change, appealing to conscience, none of it is flying. It has come down to this; officials need to be frightened into doing the right thing.
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Glamrock
(11,780 posts)Great idea!
Vote of confidence much appreciated!
Given the lack of response to the post, it looks like getting the notion of the ground could take some work.
MyNameIsKhan
(2,205 posts)pat_k
(9,313 posts)Is this in re my Forum View post?
If so, my view is back to normal.
Not sure what was going on but appears to have resolved itself.
Mysteries of life in the digital world.
If relevant, I use Chrome on Windows 10.
It may be bad form, but with the tepid response from the night owls, figured I'd give it a kick and see if the notion appeals the midday/evening crowd.