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As a non-American, I don't know exactly how your polling works, but why am I seeing "plan your voting day" or "set a voting strategy" like they've done on the Cards Against Humanity voting campaign?

Where I live, it's just show up on voting day and cast your ballot, or ask for a mail in ballot, or go to a special voting station if you need (or want) to vote early. Is it the same in the US, and this is just getting people to gather those last pieces of information early and put a reminder in the calendar? Or is there more to it than that?

Thanks!

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[-] nutsack@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

i vote in every election and ive never even seen a polling place. i don't know why people would need to go to one

[-] hperrin@lemmy.world 55 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

America has been turned into a dystopia by republicans where in order to vote, you have to provide birth certificate, social security card, a signed permission slip from your late parents, a blood sample, a piece of the Shroud of Turin, a moon rock, and 75 thousand dollars in unmarked non-consecutive bills.

[-] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 14 points 5 hours ago

I'm in Texas. The serials on the bills have to follow the Fibonacci sequence.

[-] Good_morning@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 3 hours ago

Damn it, I thought they had to add up to avogadro's #

[-] Rhoeri@lemmy.world 15 points 5 hours ago

If you’re a conservative however, all you need is a drivers license or state ID, and the names of all your dead relatives who are also voting.

[-] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 5 points 5 hours ago

And then they save you time by giving you a ballot with all the Republican candidates already checked.

[-] cabbage@piefed.social 131 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Studies have shown that if you ask people to make a plan for voting, they are more likely to actually go out and vote. It's even cited in the FAQ of cards against humanity.

So we ask people to make a plan because it's an efficient way to make them more involved and more likely to actually go out and vote when the day comes. Not because it's so hard that they need a plan (unless you live in certain states of course), but because it forces you to think actively about it rather than just passively.

[-] sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world 138 points 1 day ago

Lines can be long, polls have limited hours (often conflicting with work hours), a person may need a ride to the polling location, etc. Some states have stupid rules like you can't give people in line to vote food or water, which makes standing in line for hours more challenging.

[-] undercrust@lemmy.ca 94 points 1 day ago

Wait, you can't give people food or water if they're standing in the line? Why the hell not?

And hours in line?? What? Why!

[-] chuckleslord@lemmy.world 31 points 19 hours ago

"We hate that poors get to vote in our country. Don't they know that this was a country founded with the ideals that only landowning white men could vote? Apparently they changed that law at some point, so we just make new ones to make the poors not want to vote. Like depriving them of things they need to live if they choose to do so. It's what they get for being poors. Johohoho!"

  • American lawmakers in poor, conservative states

In all honesty, it's fucked. It's so fucked.

[-] Soapbox1858@lemm.ee 90 points 1 day ago

As many have mentioned the real reason is to suppress votes by making the experience miserable.

The cover story for the rules is to prevent campaigns or other groups from "buying votes" by giving people in line food/water in exchange for a promise to vote for their candidate.

[-] undefined@links.hackliberty.org 5 points 10 hours ago

…which is so dumb because I can tell everyone I’m voting for then go in there and vote for instead. 😒

[-] Red_October@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Sure, but they're not asking you before they do it. If one candidate has gone on record saying a certain demographic should have their rights stripped, and there's a district that is populated by mainly that demographic, they don't need to poll the area to guess who's going to lose that district.

[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 18 points 21 hours ago

The American political system will do everything it can to prevent poor people from voting

[-] SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 53 points 1 day ago

To discourage people from voting. As was pointed out elsewhere, the Republicans only really flourish when a small number of people vote. So they make it as inconvenient as possible for people who are lower income, usually people of colour.

[-] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 23 points 1 day ago

Wait what? And that sort of things is legal? Are you serious? You know, there are countries where voting is obligatory, and others where it is made as easy as possible.

[-] rsuri@lemmy.world 7 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Wait what? And that sort of things is legal?

Technically no, if it can be proven that the goal is racial discrimination specifically. Every so often there's a lawsuit claiming just that. Problem is, it tends to get resolved by the Supreme Court which is two-thirds chosen by the "let's make it harder to vote" party.

[-] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 4 points 10 hours ago

Reading this discussion has made me understand a little bit better why America seems to be always on fire…

[-] SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 23 points 23 hours ago

Wait til you learn about Gerrymandering. I'll not get into it in depth, but essentially the local/state government in the US will set up voting regions to guarantee that one party has a massive advantage.

[-] stoned_ape@lemmy.world 2 points 26 minutes ago

Bruh the shit going on in Ohio this election cycle where LaRose has reworded (see also the abortion amendment where his "summary" was longer than the actual text of the amendment) the ballot to obfuscate the actual intent of Issue 1 to make people vote No which helps consolidate the Republicans grip

It's ridiculous. My wife is relatively intelligent and she doesn't understand the wording on the ballot and I explained to her that despite the reading, a No vote will continue the status quo. Like I'm a free speech kind of guy but just put the damn text on the damn ballot like don't bullshit us Frankie!

Fuckin schmucks

[-] SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 minutes ago

But if they don't do everything they can to obfuscate the ramifications of voting No then everyone would vote Yes!

They know what they're doing is against the wishes of the majority, otherwise they would put the choices in plain language, or weight the obfuscation the other way....

[-] undefined@links.hackliberty.org 3 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

I like how I vividly remember learning about this in middle school and being told it’s illegal, then as an adult I just see it happening????

[-] visor841@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

It's only illegal federally to gerrymander to dilute minorities. Otherwise it's up to the individual states.

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[-] Red_October@lemmy.world 48 points 1 day ago

Because certain people with power find it advantageous to make it difficult for the people in certain areas to vote. If you know that district isn't going to vote for you, and morality is a thing that happens to other people, you could make the polling place too small with too few workers.

[-] Illuminostro@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago

So they won't wait long enough to vote. The excuse used to ban is that they're being "bribed" with food and water. It's just pure voter suppression, but who are you going to complain to? The mayor and the police who watch Fox every night?

[-] expr@programming.dev 9 points 20 hours ago

In Nebraska, I get my ballot by mail way in advance. I fill it out at my leisure, doing research on candidates as needed. I can then either mail the ballot back or drop it off at one of several locations around town (including any of the public libraries). I haven't voted in person in years. This method is so much better.

[-] DrBob@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 day ago

It's voter suppression. By limiting the number of voting locations and understanding them you make long lines where people will wait for hours to vote. By not allowing food or water to be handed out they hope people will get discouraged and leave the line. The official reason is that it could be construed as a bribe to vote a certain way.

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[-] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 30 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Wow. That's a stark contrast to where I live. I don't have to register or anything. Just bring that notice I got in the mail. And I've never waited in line for more than 15-20 minutes. And we germans keep all the supermarkets, shops and most businesses closed on sundays, so voting will just take place on a sunday and it won't collide with work either...

Does anyboy know why it's a tuesday in the USA? I guess sunday would at least help people with a regular office job? Malice? Something that was important in the 18th century when you had to travel by horse to the voting place? Or some mundane reason?

[-] MagosInformaticus@sopuli.xyz 4 points 8 hours ago

Federal election times are set by 2 U.S. Code § 7 as 1 day after the 1st Monday in November (of even numbered years). The law is from 1875 and from what I can tell is indeed nominally motivated by the voters' need to first observe rest day on Sunday and then travel to their polling place. Keeping it and not having a federal holiday coinciding with it is largely aimed at keeping voter turnout low.

[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 47 points 1 day ago

It is Tuesday for some outdated reason that no longer matters and it is kept as a tradition because it conflicts with working days where minorities and other lower income folks will find it harderr to vote.

The lines are long in places where Republicans want to suppress the vote, by not providing enough staffing, minimizing voting stations, and throwing in other hurdles. They also oppose early voting snd mail in voting to make it harder for everyone to vote, because their angry voters are more likely to stick it out through those barriers.

I live in a Republican state that hasn't gone Dem for president since Nixon, and of course I have never waited more than 5 minutes in line and started voting early when that option was added. I don't vote Republican, but most of the people do so they haven't gone as malicious on voter suppression like in the states that have a chance of going Dem.

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[-] foggy@lemmy.world 46 points 1 day ago

If you live in a swing state there might be a lot being done to make voting difficult.

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[-] tyler@programming.dev 30 points 1 day ago

Anywhere you’ve got decades long republicans in office you will find it extremely hard to vote in America. Elsewhere it’s relatively easy. In Colorado I literally don’t do anything, a booklet explaining all the laws shows up in the mail a few weeks before the ballots do, then the ballot shows up and I can either drop it off in one of the numerous drop boxes, put it in the mail, or ignore it and go vote in person where the lines are short because nobody votes in person.

[-] StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 11 hours ago

Not always. I live in Alabama. Usually in and out in 20 minutes. But then I do live in a more suburban area.

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this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2024
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