Comments on: Morning Notes

By: CourthouseChris

CourthouseChris — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:26:25 +0000

You do realize there is more to Virginia than Arlington right? Just because the Arlington democrats tend to be rich enough to enjoy the luxury of waiting in a multi-hour line to vote doesn’t mean that the rest of the state’s labor force has that option.

By: David M

David M — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 21:28:56 +0000

So the 7pm closing time that HAS been in effect is discriminatory?! As if democrats don’t do well in the polls around here. puh-leeze.

By: DCBuff

DCBuff — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:45:36 +0000

With complimentary Froyo!

By: DCBuff

DCBuff — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:44:48 +0000

“I think on presidental years, voting day should actually be a federal holiday.” I was going to say “no” to this, but as long as APS is going to close schools and thus requiring parents to take leave, sure.

By: Josh S

Josh S — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:14:00 +0000

This. Pretty much solves all your problems.

By: novasteve

novasteve — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:56:00 +0000

we should also get “free” cabrides to the voting booth!

By: Arlingtoner

Arlingtoner — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:09:40 +0000

Great point, John.

I think on presidental years, voting day should actually be a federal holiday.

By: drax

drax — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:05:13 +0000

Terrific post, John. And that thinking should apply to lots of other things too. We do so many things certain ways just because we always have, even if they make no sense.

By: John Fontain

John Fontain — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:49:15 +0000

The question we should be asking is this: If we were designing voting rules now for the first time ever, how would we design them in this day and age?

Would we require a person to be physically present at a location and to manually cast their vote? Or would we also allow for mail or electronic voting (internet) voting?

Would we limit the physical voting to a single day? Or would we allow physical polls to be open for multiple days?

Thinking of the issue this way will tell us what changes we should be making while avoiding the error of “anchoring” to our old ways.

By: bubba

bubba — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:44:32 +0000

Clearly this isn’t really an Arlington issue. We all choose to live here to be closer to work. But we all haev coworkers who commute from the outer burbs of Loudon and Mannassas etc. it IS aproblem for those folk to make it by 7PM