It's time for a uniform poll closing time, and possibly weekend voting.

[Pab Sungenis]

The talk of a possible landslide affecting votes out west -- as it did in 1980, 1984, 1988, and possibly 1992 -- once again brings up the need for a change to when we vote, instead of how we vote.

With far more than 270 electoral votes decided before 10 PM Eastern, more than an hour before the polls close in California and well before they close in Alaska and Hawaii, there is a good chance that some stragglers will not bother to vote in western states if it looks like their vote "won't matter" in the big race, which affects downticket races and initiatives. In 1984 it was obvious Reagan was going to win before even 9 PM Eastern, and in 1980 Carter had even conceded before Californians were done voting.

The answer to this is uniform poll opening and closing times. And with a country stretching across six time zones like ours, that means we probably need to vote over more than one day.

Here's a modest proposal:

Election weekend is moved to the first weekend in November. Polls open nationwide at 8 AM EST on Friday. Voting continues through 9 PM EST on Sunday (6 PM PST, 5 PM AKST, 4 PM HST), more than enough time to allow everyone to vote. All polls in all states close at the exact same time.

This would prevent the problem of an apparent early result. Most analysts agree that it could be apparent as early as 7 PM EST, when Virginia and Indiana close their polls, who the winner is, even if not enough votes have been predicted to actually call it. We need to make sure that everyone who wants to vote does vote. instead of thinking "why bother."

[alarimer]

1. People voting in CA at 6 am?

I think that would suppress the vote even more. I suggest just barring news outlets from reporting the results before ALL the polls have closed. So it would be the next day before we knew, so what?

[realisticphish]

3. ?

they have 3 days to vote

[realisticphish]

2. sounds good to me

i don't see how limiting voting to one day makes fraud less likely :shrug:

[LiberalFighter]

4. Too many would be too busy on the weekend. They would procrastinate.

[KharmaTrain]

5. Things Are Already Changing...Early Voting

I've always been critical of having just one day to vote...especially in November in northern areas where bad weather will suppress turn-out and where the media could manipulate a result by reporting results while polls are open, but I see that changing. Oregon will already have voted...via mail...and we're already seeing millions casting votes early...few of these people will be swayed by the results on Nov. 4th.

The Obama campaign isn't taking anything for granted here...there's a large GOTV effort already underway and no one will breath easy until November 5th.