8 Ways To Make Voting Incredibly Easier
A lot of people don’t vote in the United States. In fact, the most powerful nation on Earth lags behind 30 other countries when it comes to voter turnout, according to the Pew Research Center.
Yet, the U.S.’s low voter turnout could be curbed by some simple governmental actions that encourage voting. Read below 8 ways that voting could be made easier in America.
Make election day a national holiday
Various countries, such as Austria, India and New Zealand, have made election day a national holiday. By creating a national holiday for election day, people’s schedules are freed up for the polls. Today, an employer is required to give an employee up to two paid hours at the beginning or end of their shift to go vote.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is neck and neck with Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in the first two Democratic primaries, is supporting legislation that will name a new national holiday called “Democracy Day” on the date of any elections. Plus, having an election holiday would likely foster a sense of civic duty and up voter turnout across the U.S.
Election day on weekends instead of Tuesday
In 1875, congress decreed that elections would be held on Tuesdays. The rule hasn’t change since. On weekdays, many people are working or are stressed out, making it hard for potential voters to find time in their busy day to reach the polls.
Congress could change election day to fall on a Saturday or Sunday. Germany, a country that in 2013 had a 66 percent voter turnout compared to the U.S.’s 53 percent turnout in 2012, is one country with laws that put election day on a weekend.
Automatically register people to vote
Today, the U.S. is among the few western nations that doesn’t automatically register people to vote. Under current voter registration requirements, more than one in four Americans aren’t registered to vote, according to U.S. Census Data.
Last month, California passed a law that, beginning in 2016, automatically registers eligible citizens to vote when they received a California ID or driver’s license.
California joins Oregon, which passed a similar law in March of this year. Instead of having to opt-in to vote, citizens will have three weeks to opt-out of voting after they’ve been automatically registered at the Oregon DMV.
More mail-in ballots
If people are unable to make it to a polling station, they could mail in their vote instead. Oregon, Washington and Colorado conduct all their voting by mail and states like California give voters the choice to vote by mail or at a poll. Yet, only 27 of the US’ 50 states allow voters to vote by mail without an excuse.
Loosen voter ID laws
32 U.S. states request to see a photo ID – with varying degrees of strictness – to vote. In other states, like New Mexico and North Carolina, you only need to check yourself in from a list of names at your designated polling place. Voter ID laws exist to prevent voter fraud, but they also make it harder for people to cast a ballot.
More early voting
Early voting gives people more time to get to the polls, resulting in an overall increase in voter turnout. Early voting is only available in 33 U.S. states.
Mandatory voting
Another way to ensure high participation is to force people to vote. This is the case in Australia, where they slap a fine on citizens who fail to cast a ballot. Mandatory voting is unlikely in the U.S., unless it was enforced through a constitutional amendment.
Online voting
A controversial way to increase voter participation is voting through the Internet. Online voting would make the ballot counting process faster and reel in younger tech savvy generations – who notoriously have a low voter turnout – into the democratic process. There is of course a concern that online voting would be more susceptible to cyber attacks and hacking.
[Photo via Joshua Lott / Getty Images]
