McConnell: Bill to make Election Day a holiday is a ‘power grab’ by Democrats - Polidicks

I've had this idea for a while and this story kinda sparked my interest in it's debate, it is kinda fucked but I think it would work. On election years, depending on if it's state or federal elections, if you don't vote your tax returns from the respective governments get held for 6 months to help fund public investments like roads, water, gas and electrical infrastructure renovation, education, and other public work projects, from National Parks to State preserves. This would motivate people to become more politically involved because it would have an immediate impact on their life if they chose to not vote. Also incentivize voting through possible tax credits up to $1,200 depending on that persons marital status, amount of children, etc. So a married couple with one child would get $900 if it worked out to $300 per person.

This would motivate people to vote but would not motivate them to vote responsibly. Which is the entire issue with any form of compulsory voting. Just because you force someone to do something doesn't mean they're going to take the time to make sure they're doing it properly. In fact it's the opposite. Forcing someone to do something they don't want to will only ever result in them caring even less about it than they already did.

Well that's the thing, no one is forced to vote still, if anything they're inconvenienced because their returns are held for 6 months, but they still get the return in the end. And if you voted, you are rewarded for your choice, not anything else. It's not like someone saying "vote for me, I'll give you money", it's more "Just please vote, we'll give you money." when it comes to that aspect of my idea.

It's still a form of compulsory voting. Especially in a place like the US where a shit load of people are very reliant on those tax returns to actually make ends meet. No matter how you look at it, it's a very shortsighted idea.

I don’t think compulsory voting is the devil you make it out to be. You suggest that requiring people to vote will make them care even less about voting, but I would suggest that a society with compulsory voting would necessarily stimulate healthy political debate, as voters make the most of their obligation. Eg here in Australia (with compulsory voting) you don’t have people identifying as anything like ‘Democrat’ or ‘Republican’, rather, you have people who are more-inclined to vote for the Labor Party, others who are more inclined to vote for the Liberal Party, or certain independents or minor parties etc. There’s far less hatred and division in Australian political discourse, compared to the US. There are other benefits, too. Compulsory voting leads to elections with very high turnout, granting greater legitimacy for elected officials. A lack of compulsory voting also leads to poorer people not voting, as the benefits obtained from voting may not exceed the cost (time and effort) of going out to vote, leading to worse representation of poorer people. In a compulsory voting system, such a voter would be more inclined to vote, as not voting would have a greater cost (a fine) than the cost of voting.

Compulsory voting in America can only be feasible if mail in ballots become a national standard for all levels of elections. Good luck getting that through the conservative states.

Our election infrastructure is so abysmal it wouldn't be able to handle more than 70% voter turnout. And the party in control at the moment is anti-democracy.

How much you guys wanna bet that if this bill go through; the fucking turtle loses his job next election cycle, that's probably why he is against it. However since voting is an important part of a democracy, one would think that voting day should have been a holiday since the beginning.

I literally know an Australian who has voted for someone because, and I quote, "he had a funny nose". I dunno how that's responsible voting in any shape or form. Which is totally irrelevant and completely disconnected to the idea of compulsory voting? The hatred and division in the US is explicitly because one party is complete and utter divisive and obstructive garbage backed up by literal propaganda. Compulsory voting and being poor are still completely disconnected though? It's quite easy to, y'know, just make elections count as paid time off if you want to vote. If you do that then the poor will actually go out and vote?? You seem to be making some really weird ass assumptions that somehow Australia's democracy is better than the US' specifically because of compulsory voting despite there not being much reason to believe that. Australia's democracy is better because it's newer (and thus had the benefit of learning about some of the downsides of the American method) and doesn't have a morally bankrupt obstructive major party in power that's backed up by an extremely widespread propaganda network.

This fuck is up for re-election in 2020. Anyone from Kentucky here, please vote this fucker out. He's the most hazardous man to American democracy since fucking Nixon.

I've said this many times before, but McConnell is a perfect example of a parasite who's massively overstayed their welcome in this life, meanwhile lots of good people seem to die way too early.

In Canada if you're working on the day of an election you can tell your employer and they have to give you time off to go vote. By law, eligible electors must have three consecutive hours to cast their vote on election day. If your hours of work do not allow for three consecutive hours to vote, your employer must give you time off. For example, if you live in a riding where voting hours are 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and you usually work from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., your hours of work will not allow three consecutive hours for voting. To give you three consecutive hours to vote, your employer could allow you to arrive late (at 12:30 p.m.), let you leave early (at 6:30 p.m.), or give you three hours off at some point during the work day. Your employer has the right to decide when the time off will be given. http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=faq&document=faqvoting&lang=e&