Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Why vote on Tuesdays? No good reason
Jacob Soboroff, the writer of this article, brings up some very good points that exploit how stupid the reason we vote on Tuesday really is. I think if this day was changed, there would be a much greater turnout, especially in youths. Read this article and write a reaction...what do you think the ideal day to vote is?
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I don't think voting on Tuesday is so bad. The weekends can't really be used because voting takes up a lot of a county's most used buildings. For example, a lot of our sports teams practice on saturday at Penncrest, what would we do if there were hundreds of voters here? However, voting on Tuesday has some set backs as the article pointed out. I just think that people need to accept the fact that Tuesday is voting day and they just need to get out there and vote. Does the author here even consider the fact that it might be because people are just too lazy to vote?
ReplyDeleteI think this makes a lot of sense. Voter turnout is greater in countries with weekend voting, but I think the low voter percentage can attributed to more than just the day of the week. The law is obviously antiquated, but I don't think there's anybody insisting that we keep it. I feel like this issue is probably too menial for Congress to devote the scarce time that they have to bother voting on changing the voting day. There's no point continuing to vote on Tuesdays, but then again, the pay-off may not be worth the time spent debating.
ReplyDeleteI think this makes a lot of sense. Voter turnout is greater in countries with weekend voting, but I think the low voter percentage can attributed to more than just the day of the week. The law is obviously antiquated, but I don't think there's anybody insisting that we keep it. I feel like this issue is probably too menial for Congress to devote the scarce time that they have to bother voting on changing the voting day. There's no point continuing to vote on Tuesdays, but then again, the pay-off may not be worth the time spent debating.
ReplyDeleteI think that any day that you make Voting day is going to have issues. You keep voting day on Tuesday and you never know if it would increase if you switched it to a weekend, but if you move it to a weekend, you cause other conflicts. Personally, I think that the day of the week that Congress declares voting day doesn't really have that much of an effect on voter turnout - other factors definitely play a much bigger role.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be completely honest here when I say that I have no problems with Tuesday. Tuesday is a perfectly reasonably day to vote. I just don't believe that there can be any good day to vote though because on weekends most people make plans to do something, which would potentially keep them from voting. Also and weekday is just the same with hardships as there will always be something to do during the day on a weekday. But as I said, Tuesday is a great day, and I will not discriminate against it, so I say we keep it. #mytwocents
ReplyDeleteIn my overall opinion I do not believe changing the day at which we vote would benefit out voter turnouts. As the author of this article mentioned “we have voted on the same day for 166 years,” it has become a tradition over the past generations set forth back in 1845. Most Americans are well aware of the actions that take place on Tuesday after the first Monday in November, so they have the opportunity to make time in their day to participate in this event. Changing the day is not an obligation it’s just a suggestion of interest. There are more important things our government has to worry about, compared to changing the day citizen’s vote.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article I agree with what it brings up. I have never really thought about it, but yes, it doesn't make much sense why election day would be on a Tuesday. It would make much more sense, especially if they wanted to raise youth voting participation, to hold election day on a Saturday. On Tuesday you are in the middle of the week, swamped with homework, if your not a senior, sports, after school clubs and other such events. On a Saturday teen voters would be able to get our easier, as would voters off all other ages.
ReplyDeleteTradition is irrelevant. Last presidential election the people voted for "change." It' s unfortunate that our many laws and normalities are due to the way things used to be. Changing the day of the election is easy, moving a date back is as easy as telling everyone that the date has changed. Moving the date to a different date is an easy way to encourage the younger generation to vote, just as we brainstormed with out projects earlier this year.
ReplyDeleteVoting on Tuesday's has always been the norm. To alter the norm would cause conflict to some. While voter turnout is low already in general, shifting the voting day to the weekend may be a rational idea. It's something new to experiment with and there's not much to lose. I agree with Alex that voter turnout is already low and people have to take into account the fact that people are just too lazy to go out and cast a vote. The only downfall, agreeing with Jim Boyle being "people make plans on the weekend", we "the young" probably aren't going to stoked to be casting some votes on our weekends.
ReplyDeleteA very interesting article and some very thoughtful responses here. I think weekend voting would be an improvement but there are concerns about that, as well-- for example, don't some people go away at the weekend? Aren't most people home during the work-week? What is most important to remember is that voting takes only a few minutes, and the polling places are open from 7 am until 8 pm (here in Pennsylvania). Shouldn't most people be able to find 10 minutes to vote between those hours, regardless of what day it is?
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