What can we do to make people vote?

[Le Gaucher]

I busted my tail..going door to door. To talk about issues, and candidates. I have 2 jobs and is difficult for me to make time. Still I did. I knocked on doors in rain, wind and cold temperatures.

And yet 50% are so disengaged? Many have zero comprehension. They cannot see the difference between the individualistic ( typically what is in it for me, one vote make no difference) and collective aggregated effects of non voting.


Short of paying people to vote what else can be done?

[redstatebluegirl]

1. Make it easier to register, easier to change when you move.

[Le Gaucher]

2. When I can bank from my phone ...why not vote?

Is it possible to vote on phone.


Maybe use backend fingerprint certification to validate user.

The technology exits to make this happen. Political will - that I am not sure.

[LisaL]

15. How is anybody going to verify who is actually voting from your phone?

[Le Gaucher]

17. Fingerprint.... The vote must be submitted by fingerprint

[LisaL]

24. Well then you have to collect fingerprints from every eligible voter.

You don't see that as an issue?

[Le Gaucher]

25. West Virginia is doing it by facial recognition

https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/06/technology/mobile-voting-west-virginia-voatz/index.html

But this is for deployed military folks only

[tazkcmo]

3. Nothing.

Compulsory voting laws are out of the question, imo. Civics classes in every grade with an emphasis on citizen responsibility would go a long way towards your stated goal but there will always be a percentage of the population that doesn't vote.

[Le Gaucher]

4. Not saying compulsary... But there has to be a way to make people see

Reason or make it easier to vote

[PoliticAverse]

7. Making it easier/more convenient to vote would certainly help.

The problem with reason is that a thinking person knows that their single vote is extremely unlikely to
make a difference.

[tazkcmo]

8. Your stated goal was "everyone".

Yes, every effort should be made. I didn't suggest you mentioned compulsory voting laws, just pointing out that they wouldn't pass or might be deemed unconstitutional. I'm merely stating that getting everyone to vote is an excellent goal but probably unachievable. Still, we should try.

[murielm99]

5. Give everyone the day off on election day.

Make voting mandatory.

Otherwise, I don't know. I have busted my ass for about fifty years trying to get people to vote. Many of them just stand there with their bare faces hanging out.

Then, someone like 45 is elected. Suddenly, grassroots organizations are springing up overnight. Of course, they have all the answers, no matter how many years of indifference they have shown. They want to throw out all the people who have been working hard with no support.

I do like some of the grassroots organizations. Some of the people are growing and maturing. But will they still be around when 45 is history and we have regained the Presidency and the Senate?

[Le Gaucher]

6. Good idea.. Will be even better..day off only for those who vote

[handmade34]

9. one day is not enough

with our population we need a week (or more) to open the polls... online/mail in voting, mandatory registration, community action, etc... we must continue to keep getting as many D's in office as possible and maybe rules and laws can be changed to encourage voting and make it easier

[murielm99]

11. I agree that a week would be better.

But we would be lucky to get one day. Some ideas need to be put into place gradually. We will still have all kinds of people who balk at voting in the first place. They think both parties are the same.

[LisaL]

16. There is early voting, at least in some states.

Making early voting easier, increasing the number of locations, increasing early voting hours, etc, would make it easier to vote.

[JI7]

10. offer free drinks, snacks etc after they are done voting

[Loki Liesmith]

12. Unfortunately that's usually illegal

[vlyons]

13. How about a tax small credit

nt

[Le Gaucher]

27. I am not opposed to it.. Call it for the "trouble you have taken to vote"

I Like it

[LisaL]

14. Making it easier would be a a start to increase turnout.

In some places there are long lines. So in those places increasing number of voting places/machines should do the trick.

[Fullduplexxx]

19. even in states that have mail-in ballots there still is piss-poor results

[Fullduplexxx]

18. Nothing ... even in states that have mail-in ballots there still is piss-poor results

[treestar]

20. Has anyone done studies or interviews

of people who don't vote to find out what they might care about?

If they are so caught up in their personal stuff that they have no time for public thoughts, what is it that absorbs them that much in just their personal issues? Is it because they are struggling that much or because they are doing well enough no matter who holds the offices?

[In It to Win It]

21. Mandatory voting

If you don’t vote, you get fined.

If you don’t vote, you don’t get any tax cuts; no tax refunds.

If you don’t vote, no social safety net for you.

[LisaL]

23. That's a dictatorship.

I don't think that's what we actually want.

[Le Gaucher]

26. Voting is mandatory in Australia ..last when I check it is not dictatorship

If state can compel me to serve on Jury then why is voting different

The point is .. If this would have been advantageous for the rich and powerful .. Voting would already be compulsary

[LisaL]

29. Do you really want people to be obligated to vote?

We already have un-informed people voting. Now imagine people who don't actually want to vote being made to vote.
Thanks but no thanks.

[Le Gaucher]

30. That is so elitist.

If they can sit on a jury and decide your fate ...then they are competent to vote. There is no penalty for being laxy and not getting your facts straight

[LisaL]

31. I rather people voted that actually wanted to vote, than people being made to vote.

If that is elitist, so be it. As for being on a jury, I presume you know that it's a process with people being questioned first and then selected. So there is no comparison.

[In It to Win It]

32. Yes! One of the principles we fight for is self-governance...

...and we can’t do that right if 50% or 60% of the country participates. We have a government that is in the care of a party that relies on people not voting to win.

Also, to be clear, you still have the choice to vote. You are free to stay out of the voting process. You won’t lose your freedom for it. You just will be fined. We could use whatever money made to buy new voting machines or something. Anything!

Government becomes more responsive to the people if more people voted.

It’s not dictatorship. If you don’t want to participate in our democracy, you should not enjoy the perks of our democracy (such as the ones mentioned in my previous post).

The majority of the country is with us on the issues, we can’t solve those issues because people don’t participate.

[Le Gaucher]

37. Instead of a stick ..I prefer carrot ..another user suggested a small

Tax credit for those who vote.. Even if we give 10 dollars ..a 200 million votes is just 2 billion ... What a small price to pay for getting greater participation!!!

[The Genealogist]

33. I'd not support that at all

This is a free country for now., anyway. Forcing people to vote flies in the face of what this country stands for. Trust me, I have little sympathy for people who won't vote. I think it is stupid and lazy. But it is their right to be stupid and lazy. If you want to get more people to vote, educate them. Show people that the parties are not the same, which is just a media construct to get people to watch their crappy ratings-driven horse race analysis.

[In It to Win It]

35. I don't think education alone will fix the problem.

[The Genealogist]

36. Options are limited, unfortunetely

I recognize this. I know people who dont give a damn. I know how hard it can be to persuade them to take even a passing interest in how they are governed. But mandating people to vote is not the solution to the problem.

[elocs]

22. Perhaps we need to look at states at the top of voter turnout election after election.

I live in Wisconsin and along with Minnesota (usually at the top of voter turnout) and Iowa we have a much better voter turnout than most states. So what is it about this cluster of 3 states in the upper midwest that makes people want to vote?
Frankly if you put voting places across the street from people and they could register at the polls on election day some would not bother. If people don't feel like their vote will make a difference they likely won't vote. If people believe there is no difference between the candidates, like the Big Lie swallowed even by voters on the Left in 2016, they are less likely to vote as well.
I think that if people are even casually engaged and based upon their own general philosophy they should know enough to vote when they realize that there are no perfect candidates (this especially applies to the Left).

But even with the Blue Wave this week there are still far too many people who usually vote Democratic that did not show up to vote and there are far too many who are not Republicans, not Trumpsters, who don't bother to vote either.
Like it or not, ours is a 2 party system in which the winner of nearly every election will be either the Republican candidate or the Democratic one. Is anybody here sad when people who are Republican choose not to vote or vote for a 3rd party? Of course not. When those on the Left choose not to vote or vote 3rd party, Republicans dance and celebrate that stupidity.
If a perceived choice is between bad and terrible, a rational person will do what they can to make sure that terrible does not prevail and when that's an election they will vote to stop terrible in the hope that bad can be made better.

[Demwolv]

28. Also...

I don't think it's just people thinking their vote doesn't count.

There is a vast group of people that we all seem to overlook every year. My best friend is one of them. They are the people who are willfully independent. I look at it as the left doesn't want to hear the right, the right doesn't want to hear the left and then there are those in the middle who think both are evil. How do we educate those in the middle to see differently? At this point I don't know considering we all want to live in our bubble and bend facts to our will. Just a thought I had the other day when talking to her.

(p.s. she did vote a split ticket this election, but I bet a lot of it was third party)

[beachbum bob]

34. hard to overcome, lazy, apathy and who give's a f*ck attitude. Unless something DIRECTLY affects

them, people usually sit out on the sidelines.

Its a real PIA when these SAME people bitch and complain about whats going on. We all know people like this. No answer to "I don't care" people.....

[Guppy]

38. The electoral college

is a vote suppressor. This makes people think their vote doesn't count.Make it proportional and not winner take all.

[Autumn]

39. A lot of younger people registered and voted for the first time this year, they were motivated.

Do some questionnaires to find out why people don't vote and go from there. But the number one thing is all voting should be done by mail. It should not be difficult to vote.

[Phoenix61]

40. Stop using voter registration lists to pull

for jury duty. A lot of people avoid registering to vote because they don't want to serve jury duty.

[Le Gaucher]

41. Jersey used Driver license to select jury .. If you arent a citizen then you can indicate that in

the response

[TreasonousBastard]

42. Has anyone studied if states with easier voting, such as...

early voting, more mail-in ballots, etc have increased turnout?

Could schools help with "senior year" registration? More civics classes?

The excuses we hear are "My vote doesn't count" "They're all the same" and a couple of others.

We spend billions on candidate advertising-- is there anyone out there willing to advertise just voting itself?

Through it all, though, we have to remember that there are plenty of forces out there trying to strangle the vote.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

43. income tax refund

Why stop "short of paying people to vote"? We have that "donate to campaign" box to check or not check on income tax forms. Why not use those sign-in books at the polls to tell the IRS that taxpayer X showed up to vote, and allow a tax credit of $10 for voting?

[Le Gaucher]

44. I really really like this idea..couple other folks above suggested this

As well