and the voting issues begin...

[Sam3]

Early voting mayhem in Florida: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/04...ostpopular

If this isn't a move to disenfranchise voters, then I don't know what is. Shortening the amount of time to vote, making it harder for seniors to get out? 6-9 hours to vote???? Sheesh!

[cbelt3]

I have to ask.. is it 'voter supression' or simple stupidity and/or budget issues ? It costs a lot to have the board of election offices open on weekends.. all that double and triple overtime.

I ask this because I remember the charges of 'election manipulation' in Cleveland in 2008, which turned out to be simple stupidity and lack of budget by the Democratic party controlled county and city governments.

[Acer]

I'm sure those who deserve to vote can bootstrap themselves to the polls.

[$tevie]

I am frankly confused about early voting. I don't understand why it is suddenly considered some kind of fundamental right when it is in fact a fairly new concept -- and one that arrives just as many states have the least financial and manpower wherewithal to handle it.

I know for a fact that there are tons of people who are voting early who would have easily been able to vote on election day -- but chose to vote early for reasons that had nothing to do with being unable to get to the polls on a Tuesday. Maybe they should have waited instead of creating these endless lines for no reason. That way people who had a good reason to vote early could do so.

It is not the Governor's fault that for some inexplicable reason, early voting has become a trendy activity. This is a bogus controversy.

[cbelt3]

$tevie-
:agree:

Lawsuits and huge annoyances here in Ohio, because some heavily Democratic party leaning districts provided early voting in 2008, now ALL of Ohio has to do it. This includes rural counties where NOBODY early votes. The offices *have* to stay open on weekends, so the government employees sit around and play cards. Nothing else to do.

The upshot is that 'vote early' is the #1 'get out the vote' policy of the Democratic Party, at least in Ohio. Vans and buses scoop people up and off they go, 7 days a week.

I look at it this way:

Democratic Party voters procrastinate too much, and can't be bothered to set aside one day every two years on which they need to remember to stop at the polling place.

Republican voters are better organized. We plan for it, and do it.

[deckeda]

Surprising that the organizers didn't realize there would be long lines. If they did realize, the presumption is that you prep for it.

Florida has already shown they don't organize well enough to have trouble-free voting occur on just one day. Now they've extended the legacy.

[$tevie]

I still don't get WHY there are long lines. Seriously. Maybe people ought to be more considerate of those whom the early voting is intended to help.

According to the Constitutuon (The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.) there is no legal obligation to grant early voting and if it becomes too burdensome and controversial I imagine it will just go away.

[Lemon Drop]

Sam3 wrote:
Early voting mayhem in Florida: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/04...ostpopular

If this isn't a move to disenfranchise voters, then I don't know what is. Shortening the amount of time to vote, making it harder for seniors to get out? 6-9 hours to vote???? Sheesh!

Rick Scott. Competing hard for that title of "worst governor evah."

His predecessors accommodated voters, he's not even trying.

[deckeda]

Voting early is done as a convenience to both the voter and to relieve the "system" on voting day. To the extent it's permitted, the reasons WHY someone goes early are as irrelevant as are issues of who is "deserving."

Absentee voting is different and you historically? had to declare a reason for doing so.

In other words, I think it's unreasonable to show up, see long lines and immediately consider that everyone else is there because they can't be there on Tuesday and to go home. If doors are open, doors are open. Run the operation, and correctly.

At least that's my understanding of the intent.

The only way to "know" if people were voting "at the right time" vs. participating in a broken system (see? two different areas of blame) is to send everyone home if the lines get longer than some arbitrary number and deal with whatever overflow happens on election day --- assuming you having disenfranchised them and they don't even bother.

[Lemon Drop]

As each election goes by I wonder more why more states have not adopted complete vote by mail, like Washington and Oregon.

I can't fathom standing in a line to vote or only having specific times when I could vote or possibly missing a chance to vote because of some unexpected circumstance, like weather or political malfeasance.