We’re not wildly optimistic about its prospects for passage or
significant impact, but we’re still endorsing Congressman Mike
Honda’s proposal to change federal elections from Tuesdays to
weekends.
We’re not wildly optimistic about its prospects for passage or significant impact, but we’re still endorsing Congressman Mike Honda’s proposal to change federal elections from Tuesdays to weekends.
Honda is one of seven Democrats sponsoring the Election Weekend Act that would change voting to the first full weekend in November, to give people more time to vote and allow them to cast ballots on what are, for most people, non-working days.
“It’s an issue of trying to adjust to a change in our society,” Honda said of the reasoning behind the bill. “To have a 60 percent turnout in our nation begs for reassessment and self-examination. This should spark debate.”
We’re all for taking away likely excuses – lack of time, competition from workday commitments – from nonvoters, but we’re not expecting that this bill will significantly raise the shameful 30 to 40 percent turnout of registered voters.
After all, experiments with mail-in ballots – even locally, with Hazel Hawkins Hospital’s Measure L bond that just concluded – have not significantly increased voter turnout, and mail-in ballots should take away every inconvenience excuse associated with one-day, workday balloting.
The roots of low voter participation run deeper than convenience. We believe that ballot restrictions that make it nearly impossible for third parties to gain any real traction bear a big portion of the responsibility for low voter turnout. Negative campaigning, lack of distinction between the major parties, and frustration with copious political rhetoric and precious little reform also must shoulder the blame.
Political experts give the bill, H.R. 1647, little chance of passage in the Republican-controlled United States Congress.
Weekend voting is unlikely to get anywhere in the U.S. Congress in the near future because the current people who got elected won under the current system,” State University of New York in Oswego Political Science Professor Bruce Altschuler predicted. “Why would they want to bring in a bunch of voters that might not vote for them?”
Well, maybe, in a less cynical world, it might advance because encouraging voting is the right thing for our country.
Let’s hope so. The Weekend Voting Act might not solve the entire problem of abysmal voter participation, but it’s at least a step in the right direction.
