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[MetalSlimeHunt]

I see no reason not to have a stick alongside the carrot. Works for New Zealand.

[smjjames]

Well, okay. How do the other countries with compulsory or mandatory voting do it? Like what's the leeway between totally forced to freely going 'nah, I don't want to'.

Well, I meant automatic ballot mailing.

Maybe not everybody wants to mail in their ballot.

Also, we really should find out a way to reliably vote online without the problems that often come by virtue of it being online and all that (mainly hacking, vote phishing, stuff).

[smjjames]

And forcing people to go to a poll would involve a massive decrease in voter apathy, result in only great candidates being elected, and lead the world into a borderless utopia devoid of scarcity.


A national holiday would be reasonably cool, although, at the end of the day, it's not that damn difficult to vote and being unable to go through the trouble is a strong point of contention to not being important to the productive flow of the country's discourse.

And stringing it out over maybe two or three days may also help.

How many countries have election day as a national holiday? Just wondering out loud.

[Cthulhu]

Returning to Oheeyo news, Issue 1 (Bipartisan voter council to vote on redistricting/anti-gerrymandering provisions) passed.

Issue 2 (no monopolies in state constitution) is still up in the air.

Issue 3 (legal monopoly on production of recreational marijuana) failed.

[TheBiggerFish]

Well, I meant automatic ballot mailing.

Maybe not everybody wants to mail in their ballot.

I meant like if you don't go to a polling location and vote.

[smjjames]

While it doesn't list the number of countries that have election day as a holiday, lots of countries have election day on the weekend.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_day

[Lord Shonus]

Issue 3 (legal monopoly on production of recreational marijuana) failed.

AP is reporting that, but every news station here is reporting that only a quarter of the precincts have issued results. Do you have a source that says otherwise?

[Frumple]

I think voter turnout is a good enough metric for that.

Really, really isn't. There's a lot of reasons beyond strict apathy to not vote, and voter turnout catches all of those alongside apathy. Fair amount of folks in this country are at risk for losing their job if they finagle their time to be able to vote, just as an example. It can be a sumbitch and a half to fit voting into a weekday schedule that's already screwing you up the arse, nevermind what doing that can mean for the day after or day before, depending on what time you can actually fit the act into your day. We could be doing a fair amount to improve turnout without budging apathy a whit.

Personally, I wouldn't exactly mind compulsory voting, providing you can write-in or vote none-of-the-above/abstain (which, y'know, m'fairly sure most democratic nations running the practice do). Would rather we just try to make things easier on that front, first, though. Holiday for election day, better assistance/infrastructure for mail-in/early voting, less obstructionist disenfranchising fuckery (Looking at you, GOP politicians, and kindly go screw yourself with a splintered broomstick on that front), all that sort of nice stuff.

[sluissa]

Issue 3 (legal monopoly on production of recreational marijuana) failed.

AP is reporting that, but every news station here is reporting that only a quarter of the precincts have issued results. Do you have a source that says otherwise?

The divide is already so big even with only 25% in that they feel confident in calling it. (Something like almost 2 to 1 against.) Sometimes there's a surprise, but not often. The occasional surprise has been bad for the media... but it has been a while since we've had a major surprise.

I think voter turnout is a good enough metric for that.

Really, really isn't. There's a lot of reasons beyond strict apathy to not vote, and voter turnout catches all of those alongside apathy. Fair amount of folks in this country are at risk for losing their job if they finagle their time to be able to vote, just as an example. It can be a sumbitch and a half to fit voting into a weekday schedule that's already screwing you up the arse, nevermind what doing that can mean for the day after or day before, depending on what time you can actually fit the act into your day. We could be doing a fair amount to improve turnout without budging apathy a whit.

Personally, I wouldn't exactly mind compulsory voting, providing you can write-in or vote none-of-the-above/abstain (which, y'know, m'fairly sure most democratic nations running the practice do). Would rather we just try to make things easier on that front, first, though. Holiday for election day, better assistance/infrastructure for mail-in/early voting, less obstructionist disenfranchising fuckery (Looking at you, GOP politicians, and kindly go screw yourself with a splintered broomstick on that front), all that sort of nice stuff.

Democrats are almost as bad about it as well. Election scheduling is a painful issue and Democrats try to keep numbers low on odd years.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-democrats-suppress-the-vote/

[smjjames]

Not to mention being able to vote online, which would go a long way. Just need to make sure that it's as free of problems as possible.

[Cthulhu]

Issue 3 (legal monopoly on production of recreational marijuana) failed.

AP is reporting that, but every news station here is reporting that only a quarter of the precincts have issued results. Do you have a source that says otherwise?

We're up to 50% reporting with a 65% lead on no.  It doesn't seem likely, I'm pretty sure all the big population centers have reported.

But you're right, AP was calling it at like 30%

[Flying Dice]

Not to mention being able to vote online, which would go a long way. Just need to make sure that it's as free of problems as possible.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Yeah, because electronic voting machines worked perfectly, weren't suspect at all, and generated no distrust or controversy.

At least physical ballot-stuffing is difficult to conceal, and it's more difficult to efficiently disenfranchise people that way.

[Lord Shonus]

Issue 3 (legal monopoly on production of recreational marijuana) failed.

AP is reporting that, but every news station here is reporting that only a quarter of the precincts have issued results. Do you have a source that says otherwise?

We're up to 50% reporting with a 65% lead on no.  It doesn't seem likely, I'm pretty sure all the big population centers have reported.

50% is a lot more reasonable to call it than 26%. However, it is very odd that every news source I can find reports a different number of reportinf precincts, (the ones here are at 26% still, I've seen a few at 30%, and now 51%) but the percentage is exactly the same.

This also reveals a very severe problem with polling, as of yesterday every poll reported 70% of respondents planning to vote FOR, and that indicates a severe problem with polling methodology.

[Baffler]

Issue 3 (legal monopoly on production of recreational marijuana) failed.

AP is reporting that, but every news station here is reporting that only a quarter of the precincts have issued results. Do you have a source that says otherwise?

We're up to 50% reporting with a 65% lead on no.  It doesn't seem likely, I'm pretty sure all the big population centers have reported.

50% is a lot more reasonable to call it than 26%. However, it is very odd that every news source I can find reports a different number of reportinf precincts, (the ones here are at 26% still, I've seen a few at 30%, and now 51%) but the percentage is exactly the same.

I wondered about this too. Does anyone know what's going on with that?

[Cthulhu]

What's impressing me is the turnout.  50% reporting right now and we're at less than two million total votes for issue 3.  Ohio's population is 11 million and something like 70% of that is of voting age.

So like 7-8 million voters and we might pass 2 million.  I couldn't vote because I had classes all day and they were all stuff I couldn't afford to skip, unfortunately.  Would've voted yes on 3.  Not a fan of hte monopoly but the laws wouldn't make it hard for independent ops.  All the plausible deniability is there, a basic license gives you four plans and up to eight ounces possession which is a ton, and since anyone 21 or over can possess up to an ounce (also a lot) there's not really any grounds to police casual dealing unless you're an idiot about it.

Doesn't matter now though.  I was okay either way.  Either we legalize and get rid of prohibition or we don't and we don't have to deal with the monopoly.  It works out.