Most people only pay attention during the month before an election. What if it was always the month before an election? Even as "strict churches are strong" would a strict democracy also be strong?
There's also just the logistics of monthly voting to consider. Here are a few logistical challenges off the top of my head (none of these are insurmountable, but would certainly require planning and resources to adjust.)
- Many polling places are in schools, fire departments, or other community buildings. Using those spaces as polling places once or twice a year is fine, but monthly elections would require a more permanent facility (especially for school buildings - unless election days move to the weekend, which is a different challenge, see below.)
- Currently most election staff work 1 or 2 days per year (for election day and perhaps for primary elections.) There are usually just a few full-time staff on local election boards and the rest only work election day. Monthly elections would require boards to hire more staff to work those elections, or convince the current workers to commit to working once per month. And unless there are also changes to the hours/days/laws associated with working the polls, many poll workers cannot or would not be able to work every month. As someone who has worked elections before, the current system makes for a very, very long day - workers must both open and close the polls meaning an arrival at 5:00 a.m. and if all goes smoothly, leaving at 9:00 pm. But, if , for instance, a machine is broken or some other snafu leads to a hand count, it can be 11 or midnight before folks go home. Again, it is one thing to do that once a year - quite another to do it monthly or even bi-monthly. [You could easily fix this issue by having 2 shifts of workers, but that would require even more staff and typically the Chief Election official of a particular polling location is required by law to be on premise for the entire voting process from beginning to end.]
- Already there is the problem for many that Election Day is on a Tuesday and many people have to work. It is not a national holiday and some employers are not empathetic to delays at polling places. Many simply don't vote because it is a hassle to try and get to the polling place before or after work shifts while juggling child care or other responsibilities. Sometimes people try to vote, but long lines mean they will be late for work and they leave without voting. Would monthly voting take place on the same day every month? Always a weekday or switch it to a weekend? Would a rotation of days make sense, or is that too confusing?
- Almost all of these concerns could be mitigated by making it easier to vote - more drop boxes, more polling places that are convenient to more people with simple, fast, electronic voting machines, more mail-in voting. Maybe ALL government buildings could also be polling places (the post office, the dmv, the courthouse, town hall, schools - and voters could vote in ANY of those places, not just a polling place assigned to them.) However, currently, there is one political party that is decidedly against easy voting, because it usually benefits them to suppress the vote. So in order to make it easier to vote monthly, we'd have to overcome that political reality. [And certainly there would be security concerns (whether real or imagined) with any of the above options. So if we make it easier to vote, we'll also need to show that security measures are in place to give legitimacy to the process.]
Certainly this is something that would take some easing into - perhaps as you say, starting small with a locality or a state (actually that brings up another interesting logistical challenge in that Election Boards are locally run, and different localities may have varying rules even within the same state, but must follow laws mandated by the state and federal government.) But you could also reduce the impacts of such a major shift (from 1 to 12 elections per year) by going with quarterly elections. People are somewhat used to doing things on a quarterly basis - certainly in the business world or by paying quarterly taxes, or even with report cards which come out by semester or quarter. Just a thought.
I like the idea of quarterly elections. I agree the logistics are difficult. You'll recall that my mom has volunteered at the polls every year from 1975 to 2018. And also, I think I've told you before, New Jersey has a law that says the poll workers must guarantee the chain of custody of the ballots from the moment the door opens at 6 AM to the moment that the ballots are delivered to city hall -- this meant that my mom had to work for 16 straight hours. As she got older, I became more and more worried about the health impact. And you might remember, in 2015 she worked a 16 hour day at the polls, for the primaries, and then the next day she suffered her first stroke, which was thankfully minor, but it was still a stroke. (And as you say, she was volunteering at a fire station.) I was hoping she would stop volunteering at the polls, but she went back in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
I noticed the other volunteers too: all of them women in their 60s and 70s and 80s. My thought then was that the USA system was just coasting, relying on a generation of civic minded volunteers, but I was doubtful that younger generations would step up and fill all of the necessary volunteer positions. And I remain doubtful. So I'm thinking there will have to be significant changes to the way the USA handles the polls. Either the work will have to be professionalized, or there will have to be a dramatic revival of the volunteer spirit. Your own volunteer efforts are admirable, but I worry the country does not have enough people like you. We need millions of Kathryns, but we don't have them.
Having said all that, right now there is the goal of having many polling spots because the election only happens on one day, so the goal is to be sure there is a polling location near to everyone's home. By contrast, if the polling stations were open every day, then there would not need to be so many of them. A few civic locations might do: the town hall, the town library, the town community center, the largest school. Add in a few drop boxes. If people have the whole month to vote, then it becomes reasonable to think they will have at least one day that month when they can make an effort to go somewhere and pick up a ballot, fill it in, and drop it off.
My point being, I think the logistical problems can be dealt with, and I think the need for that effort is inevitable, because, again, when I watched my mom, and her fellow volunteers, I saw a generation disappearing, and I saw a whole system of voting disappearing with them, because I don't see younger people stepping in to volunteer for all of those volunteer roles. Some changes must happen, which is worrisome, but these changes could potentially be a happy, positive step towards a more active kind of democracy. I hope.
There's also just the logistics of monthly voting to consider. Here are a few logistical challenges off the top of my head (none of these are insurmountable, but would certainly require planning and resources to adjust.)
- Many polling places are in schools, fire departments, or other community buildings. Using those spaces as polling places once or twice a year is fine, but monthly elections would require a more permanent facility (especially for school buildings - unless election days move to the weekend, which is a different challenge, see below.)
- Currently most election staff work 1 or 2 days per year (for election day and perhaps for primary elections.) There are usually just a few full-time staff on local election boards and the rest only work election day. Monthly elections would require boards to hire more staff to work those elections, or convince the current workers to commit to working once per month. And unless there are also changes to the hours/days/laws associated with working the polls, many poll workers cannot or would not be able to work every month. As someone who has worked elections before, the current system makes for a very, very long day - workers must both open and close the polls meaning an arrival at 5:00 a.m. and if all goes smoothly, leaving at 9:00 pm. But, if , for instance, a machine is broken or some other snafu leads to a hand count, it can be 11 or midnight before folks go home. Again, it is one thing to do that once a year - quite another to do it monthly or even bi-monthly. [You could easily fix this issue by having 2 shifts of workers, but that would require even more staff and typically the Chief Election official of a particular polling location is required by law to be on premise for the entire voting process from beginning to end.]
- Already there is the problem for many that Election Day is on a Tuesday and many people have to work. It is not a national holiday and some employers are not empathetic to delays at polling places. Many simply don't vote because it is a hassle to try and get to the polling place before or after work shifts while juggling child care or other responsibilities. Sometimes people try to vote, but long lines mean they will be late for work and they leave without voting. Would monthly voting take place on the same day every month? Always a weekday or switch it to a weekend? Would a rotation of days make sense, or is that too confusing?
- Almost all of these concerns could be mitigated by making it easier to vote - more drop boxes, more polling places that are convenient to more people with simple, fast, electronic voting machines, more mail-in voting. Maybe ALL government buildings could also be polling places (the post office, the dmv, the courthouse, town hall, schools - and voters could vote in ANY of those places, not just a polling place assigned to them.) However, currently, there is one political party that is decidedly against easy voting, because it usually benefits them to suppress the vote. So in order to make it easier to vote monthly, we'd have to overcome that political reality. [And certainly there would be security concerns (whether real or imagined) with any of the above options. So if we make it easier to vote, we'll also need to show that security measures are in place to give legitimacy to the process.]
Certainly this is something that would take some easing into - perhaps as you say, starting small with a locality or a state (actually that brings up another interesting logistical challenge in that Election Boards are locally run, and different localities may have varying rules even within the same state, but must follow laws mandated by the state and federal government.) But you could also reduce the impacts of such a major shift (from 1 to 12 elections per year) by going with quarterly elections. People are somewhat used to doing things on a quarterly basis - certainly in the business world or by paying quarterly taxes, or even with report cards which come out by semester or quarter. Just a thought.
I like the idea of quarterly elections. I agree the logistics are difficult. You'll recall that my mom has volunteered at the polls every year from 1975 to 2018. And also, I think I've told you before, New Jersey has a law that says the poll workers must guarantee the chain of custody of the ballots from the moment the door opens at 6 AM to the moment that the ballots are delivered to city hall -- this meant that my mom had to work for 16 straight hours. As she got older, I became more and more worried about the health impact. And you might remember, in 2015 she worked a 16 hour day at the polls, for the primaries, and then the next day she suffered her first stroke, which was thankfully minor, but it was still a stroke. (And as you say, she was volunteering at a fire station.) I was hoping she would stop volunteering at the polls, but she went back in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
I noticed the other volunteers too: all of them women in their 60s and 70s and 80s. My thought then was that the USA system was just coasting, relying on a generation of civic minded volunteers, but I was doubtful that younger generations would step up and fill all of the necessary volunteer positions. And I remain doubtful. So I'm thinking there will have to be significant changes to the way the USA handles the polls. Either the work will have to be professionalized, or there will have to be a dramatic revival of the volunteer spirit. Your own volunteer efforts are admirable, but I worry the country does not have enough people like you. We need millions of Kathryns, but we don't have them.
Having said all that, right now there is the goal of having many polling spots because the election only happens on one day, so the goal is to be sure there is a polling location near to everyone's home. By contrast, if the polling stations were open every day, then there would not need to be so many of them. A few civic locations might do: the town hall, the town library, the town community center, the largest school. Add in a few drop boxes. If people have the whole month to vote, then it becomes reasonable to think they will have at least one day that month when they can make an effort to go somewhere and pick up a ballot, fill it in, and drop it off.
My point being, I think the logistical problems can be dealt with, and I think the need for that effort is inevitable, because, again, when I watched my mom, and her fellow volunteers, I saw a generation disappearing, and I saw a whole system of voting disappearing with them, because I don't see younger people stepping in to volunteer for all of those volunteer roles. Some changes must happen, which is worrisome, but these changes could potentially be a happy, positive step towards a more active kind of democracy. I hope.