What should be done to increase voter turnout in the US?

How about this plan?

https://similarworlds.com/18-Politics/3254730-Should-states-be-adjusting-voting-laws-for


@LeopoldBloom

@jackjjackson That's a great idea. They've had vote by mail for years in Oregon, and it works great.

The only problem is that it takes time to change a complex system. With vote by mail, it's like an absentee ballot - your signature on the envelope is compared to your official signature. How do other states hire and train enough workers in time to do this? And I've read that national vote by mail will result in an envelope shortage.

Envelope shortage. 😂😂😂 good one! Poll workers who are untrained compare signatures for walk up voting now. @LeopoldBloom

@jackjjackson Poll workers are trained, and you'd need a lot more of them to process the entire country. We'd have to start ramping them up now.

Did you know that we don't even need to hold elections at all? Primaries can be replaced by the respective parties holding conventions and the delegates choosing the candidate. Notice that most small third parties don't hold national primaries; the party bigwigs in the Peace & Freedom or Constitution parties choose the candidate.

What most people don't know is that we don't need to hold a general election either. Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution states "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors..." and as we all know, the Electoral College elects the President. For a long time now, every state has allowed the voters of that state to choose the electors, but they don't have to do it that way. Presumably, the party having the majority in the state legislature will choose electors committed to that party's candidate.

Since the electoral votes of states with Republican-controlled state legislatures exceed the ones in states that are Democratic-controlled, if every state did this, Trump would win the EC by a small margin. And we would probably have a revolution.

Excellent analysis. @LeopoldBloom

@jackjjackson I learned that on electoral-vote.com.

The problem with that explanation is most states have the election date set by law. So the legislature can't unilaterally change it; the governor would have to go along with it. So going by the states with Democratic governors, those electoral votes add up to more than 270.

Realistically, no one is going to change the election date as they know it would be political suicide. Not to mention, other offices are chosen along with the president, so if a state postponed an election, they would be left without legislators and other offices when the current terms run out. It's not like terms can be extended, there's no provision for that.

For example, let's say there's no election at all. That means Trump's and Pence's terms both end at noon on Jan. 20, 2021. Next in line is Nancy Pelosi, but guess what - her term ran out too because House members have to be elected every two years. One-third of Senators would also be gone. That means the presidency would devolve to President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Chuck Grassley (R-IA) since his current term doesn't end until 2025.

If you enjoy this stuff, electoral-vote.com is a great site.

Thanks for the info. Grassley huh? We could do worse. @LeopoldBloom

@jackjjackson I wouldn't have said that four years ago, but I have to agree with you now. I'd trade him for Trump in a New York minute.

You’re too much 😂 @LeopoldBloom