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.
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.