So simple, so easy. Is it any wonder why the US doesn't use it? ~_^
I'd also like to see Election Day be one of those holidays where everything is closed, just like Christmas. After all, a significant number of people in poor neighbourhoods here in Ohio had waited in lines for a couple of hours in 2004, and had to leave the line to go to work, having not had the chance to vote. It's not even like you can use the excuse that they should have left earliers, since many polling places had long lines before they opened.
The US system is broken, and no one wants to do anything to make sure it's fixed properly.
I get the impression that one of the reasons they don't want to fix the system is it's broken in ways that are useful to the two parties in power. One example of this is gerrymandering.. setting the polling boundaries in ways that increase the likelyhood of one party or the other getting a seat. In Canada, Elections Canada sets the polling boundaries and they are generally straight lines or follow some easy to understand local feature (county lines, rivers, the border with the US, etc). I've seen electoral maps in some states that look like abstract paintings, and made little sense at all unless you knew that the people making the map wanted to ensure that 'their party' got in and based the boundaries on the map entirely on assuring this end.
We had a referendum here last November on setting up an independent board to draw the boundaries. It was defeated pretty soundly. And I live in one of those areas with weird borders. This map shows my district. Thesemaps are two other districts, one that is about 200 feet to the south of where I'm sitting, the other is about 500 feet to the east. And while they do follow county lines outside of this county (where the counties are rural and Republican-dominated), this county is carved up in a most illogical way, dividing the mostly minority population three ways between them.
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I'd also like to see Election Day be one of those holidays where everything is closed, just like Christmas. After all, a significant number of people in poor neighbourhoods here in Ohio had waited in lines for a couple of hours in 2004, and had to leave the line to go to work, having not had the chance to vote. It's not even like you can use the excuse that they should have left earliers, since many polling places had long lines before they opened.
The US system is broken, and no one wants to do anything to make sure it's fixed properly.
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We had a referendum here last November on setting up an independent board to draw the boundaries. It was defeated pretty soundly. And I live in one of those areas with weird borders. This map shows my district. These maps are two other districts, one that is about 200 feet to the south of where I'm sitting, the other is about 500 feet to the east. And while they do follow county lines outside of this county (where the counties are rural and Republican-dominated), this county is carved up in a most illogical way, dividing the mostly minority population three ways between them.
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