I understand it, I really do. Still, I wish the primary election were being held today, rather than Thursday.
In New York State, the primary is the second Tuesday in September for non-federal elections. September 11, 2001, was a Tuesday, and the voting, of course, was suspended for a week. In fact, it had not even started in upstate New York, where polling begins at noon on primary days.
The rationale for moving the voting to Thursday this year is so that folks can participate in 9/11 memorials. For me, though, nothing would be more symbolic than to be able to cast a ballot on the anniversary of that day.
Thursday, BTW, will be the fourth of five voting opportunities in the state. On April 24, there was the Presidential primary, moved up from June so that it would matter to the final outcome; it still didn’t, as all of Mitt Romney’s opponents had dropped out by then. On May 15, there was the school budget vote, held statewide for most districts. In June, there were the primaries for the federal, non-Presidential primary; that would be for the House of Representatives and the US Senate, per some federal voting law which requires a certain number of days to allow for military absentee ballots. Then September 13, and, of course, November 6.
When I was growing up, even in Presidential years, there were only two voting opportunities, in June and November. All these elections are expensive, and it’d be nice if there was some way to consolidate at least the June and September ballots.
As a secondary consideration, I hate voting on Thursdays – and I really DO need to vote, since there are competitive races – since it means I can’t vote before I go to work (the polls aren’t open yet), so I must vote when I get home, when everyone else is at the polls, then eat, take out the trash, and go back out to choir rehearsal. There is some provision in my work regulations that say that I can get up to a couple of hours off from work to vote. I’ve never actually used that in 20 years, but I’d be seriously tempted on Thursday.
We don’t get so many chances to vote in the UK – just local and national elections – but they are always on a Thursday. I used to find it a chore because that was once my five-a-side football night and I had the same problem of having to rush to vote.
Our pollingday is tomorrow. I do hope that we get a left wing parliament . We have so many parties that many people are confused. The main parties are Labour, Liberal ( a party for rich, young, healthy and well educated conservatives) , the Socialist Party, and a couple of christian parties of which the CDA is the greatest. Then we have many parties consisting of one, two or three persons. We have proportional representation. All in all we have 20 parties. Each of them has issues which are good , other ideas not so good. I think we are a true democracy.
If only the USA that many parties and choices. At this point, voting for me has become choosing the lesser of two evils rather than a good candidate.
@Steve, Jay Leno called it, “the lesser of two weasels”!!
This would be a perfect primary day. The simple act of casting a vote, of exercising your constitutional rights, would be more symbolic than another parade or whatever. I was one of the few Americans who did not festoon my car and house with flags like Betsy Ross just threw up all over the place. Why? Because I was in mourning and saw the flags as a knee-jerk reaction, patriotism being the last refuge… oh, never mind. I didn’t mind other folks’ flags, but when they let them get tattered, when they let them stay up in the wind, rain, and darkness of night… I wondered if these folks truly knew how to properly handle and display a flag in the first place… let alone how to dispose of one.
Thanks, Roger. This was a good meditation. Peace, Amy
http://sharplittlepencil.com/2012/09/11/comes-the-revolution-for-riley/
I was in Canada when Jimmy Carter stood AND WON. I can’t understand how this primary system works.