Why don't we vote on the weekend?

[Untouchedalarm]

Just curious

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[elehhhhna]

10. Why does Untouchedalarm hate our freedoms?

[Untouchedalarm]

11. Insensitive and very uncalled for

Freedom is having the right to ask a question? It is people like you that make people leave the DU.

[elehhhhna]

12. Please don't be so thin skinned. Sarcasm is welcome here.

Sorry if it hurt your feelings.

[Eric J in MN]

2. If we had one day voting of Saturday or Sunday,

there might be a religious issue.

Though if it were both Sat. and Sunday, not really.

[uppityperson]

3. Why isn't it a holiday so we can vote easier?

[sandnsea]

15. Kerry introduced that legislation

It was to make holidays for the 2002 and 2004 election and then see if it improved voter turnout. Guess people were too busy pissing on him to get behind important legislation. Kind of like the kids' health act now. Then they'll turn around and say he's done nothing on health care for the last 10 years.

[jrthin]

4. Cause democracy

is what we preach, not what we practice.

[leftofthedial]

5. because then more people would vote

and repukes would lose every election

[happyslug]

6. Congressional action in the late 1800s

Prior to the 1880s when people voted was set by the States. People could (and often did) vote for President on different days depending on when in the fall their state decided to hold it elections. In the 1880s Congress decided all FEDERAL elections should be held on one day. Since this was the 1880s and people travel by horse and wagon, Some Christians objected to having to vote or even travel on Sunday so to vote (Some people still had to travel up to a day to vote in the 1880s). Thus Congress decided that Tuesday be the best day to vote. That way People would not have to travel on Sunday to vote on Monday. This has been the rule ever since. As to Saturday, the same Congress did not want to interfere with the Jewish Sabbath since their were avoiding the Christian Sabbath, thus Saturday was out as well as Sunday (and some evidence that Friday was out for concerns even then for Moslem's whose sabbath was Friday).

Thus once Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday were out of the race for Voting Day, Voting day became Tuesday.

Remember most people lived in Rural America prior to the 1920 Census thus the concern of Rural America had to be considered by Congress. When Primaries started to be introduced in the late 1880s and 1890s Tuesday Voting had already become the norm and became the norm even for most State Elections.

[Untouchedalarm]

8. Thanks

[Journeyman]

7. Why don't we vote for three days?. . .

It'd relieve a lot of the congestion we saw in the last election, give people some options for when they make it to the polls, and provide at least three opportunities for activists to make those GOTV calls the evening before the polls opened.

At least an increasing number of states are adopting early voting and relaxing their regulations on absentee voting.

[signmike]

9. Why not use absentee ballots and mail them in? I do.

Barring they provide an "illegal weight of paper" and take 6 weeks redoing them...

[Cats Against Frist]

13. Uh, because they want as few people to vote as possible

Political Science 101

[autorank]

14. And like the Ukraine, why don't we use exit polls to detect fraud?

[jarab]

16. Beause we're a selfish

bunch of mofos. How dare we be required to give up our play time (weekend) for something as insignificant as democracy.
...O...