Day: November 1, 2024

Why November?

This is another of my questions I ask myself and go about researching for the answer.

Since our vote is just days away I have questions in search of answers.

Why do we vote in November? It seems that late Spring or early Summer would be a better time….weather is nicer and it would be more conducive to getting people to the polls.

As usual I have a bit of a history lesson in the post.

If you’re a voter in the United States, you may be formulating your Election Day plan. When’s the best time to go to the polls so you don’t miss any recurring Tuesday obligations while still avoiding long lines? It’s inconvenient for many now, but it turns out choosing a Tuesday in November as Election Day was all about making things easy for farmers.

In the United States, citizens vote for the president, but it’s actually a group of electors who use those results to vote and ultimately elect the commander-in-chief. The original Constitution gave Congress the power to decide when presidential electors must cast their votes.

In 1792, Congress decided that electors would vote for president and vice president on the first Wednesday in December. But before electors vote, the population must vote—so states were allowed to hold elections on any of the 34 days leading up to that Wednesday. Most opted for early November.

But having elections occur over an extended period of time led to concern about election fraud. People could conceivably cross state lines and vote multiple times, particularly as travel became easier [PDF]. Another worry was that early results in some states might affect how people in other states voted.

In response to those concerns, an 1845 law was passed that created one single Election Day throughout the United States. All subsequent presidential elections would be held on “the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November” [PDF]. Seems kind of wordy and specific, but it’s for good reason. (A good mid-19th century reason, at least.

At the time, most eligible voters were farmers who had to travel to the polls for at least a day. The spring and early summer months were inconvenient because they comprised the crop-planting season. Late summer and early fall were spent harvesting. November was late enough in the year to not interfere with the harvest, but early enough that voters could avoid traveling through freezing temperatures and snowstorms.

As for Tuesday being the chosen day of the week, farming was another limiting factor. Farmers sold their crops on Wednesdays. There were also religious obligations to consider. Most eligible voters were Christian and couldn’t spend Sunday traveling to the polls because they were at church. The law also needed to ensure that Election Day wasn’t November 1, the Christian holiday All Saints’ Day. Plus, merchants spent the first day of the month bookkeeping. That explains the “Tuesday next after the first Monday” wording.

Modern Election Days

In 2024, most of those 19th-century reasons aren’t as compelling. In an effort to improve voter turnout, there have been proposals for Election Day to fall on a weekend or become a federal holiday. They haven’t ever moved past the committee phase.

For people with other commitments on Election Day, there’s early voting. Absentee voting has been around since the Civil War, when soldiers could send their ballots to family members to submit. States eventually formalized the practice of mailing in ballots (which were initially only available to those in the military), with each state setting its own rules. In the upcoming November 2024 general election, 47 states and Washington, D.C. will offer in-person early voting, according to the Center for Election Innovation and Research, which notes that “These 47 states account for nearly 97 [percent] of the current citizen voting age population.”

So although “the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November” remains Election Day according to the law books, many people can vote early (and 28 states require employers to give their employees time off to cast their ballots). In the 2022 election, 50 percent of votes were cast early, and an even higher percentage is expected this year.

(mentalfloss.com)

There you have it…..the answer I was looking for…..the agriculture thing seems reasonable for the day.
 
I can rest easy now for my question has been answered.
 
Please choose wisely in your vote the nation depends on you.
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

The Pathetic Party System

A mere few days and the nation will have it say on who is to be president…..the problems this country is having goes back to the pathetic party system that we hold dear.

We all are well aware of just how divided the country is and that division is along political party lines. This system has held this country back for generations and made hatred and suspicion the norm for politics.

I do not expect many to agree with me on this for most Americans get their identities from their politics….

First the advantage…..

Political parties are essential institutions of democracy. By competing in elections parties offer citizens a choice in governance, and while in opposition they can hold governments accountable. When citizens join political parties, volunteer their time, donate money and vote for their leaders, they are exercising their basic democratic rights. Participation of citizens in political parties offers unique benefits, including opportunities to influence policy choices, choose and engage political leaders, and run for office.

Before I go any further…..when was the last time you influenced policies….how can it be so democratic when the only choices you have are the ones the system gives you?

Americans dislike and distrust our political parties; a mere 11% of Americans express high confidence in them when compared to many other institutions, reflecting their well-deserved reputation as a vulnerability to American democratic stability. And yet, parties are essential organizing institutions in any modern democracy. The size and complexity of the multiple levels of government in the United States and the diverse and distributed nature of the electorate necessitate organizations that can serve as the connective tissue of our politics and promote a multiracial, pluralistic democracy. Accordingly, “modern democracy is unthinkable save in terms of the parties.”

Yet, there is a natural impulse to view the parties as the problem and seek to further weaken or even try to eliminate them from our politics completely. Despite the understandable frustration with our political parties and a historical context that includes their intentional exclusion from the Constitution, a variety of reforms that weakened parties over time have served only to exacerbate the problems we have today.

For a healthy democracy to function effectively, it needs political parties.

While there are many ways in which political parties contribute to stabilizing and bolstering democracy, the following are vital to sustaining a system that is representative, responsive, and resistant to authoritarian takeover.

https://protectdemocracy.org/work/why-do-we-need-political-parties/

Resistant to authoritarian takeover?

Then explain the GOP and its Project 2025.

Then what are the disadvantages?

A two-party system is a structure where two major political parties rule and dominate the government. Political parties are significant as they represent specific social, economic, and political issues within a given space of interest. They establish a philosophical platform linked to voters, aiming to facilitate the election of a specific candidate to public office.

Candidates aiming at public office use their individual party’s platform to share their concerns with voters. They also propose different strategies they’ve set in place to tackle these problems in case they’re elected to office. There are many disadvantages of the two-party system, and we’ll address some of them in this article.

Read the disadvantages!!!!!

https://goodparty.org/blog/article/disadvantages-of-the-two-party-system

The biggest problem for me is the promotion of centrism.    There was a time when it was a good thing but these days it is the kiss of death to our way of life.

I tend to agree with Jesse Ventura….”I will not be a Democrat or a Republican. They are the problem, not the solution. We need to abolish political parties in this country.”

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”