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Because President’s Day is for buying stuff. Clearly what we need is to allow stores to set up in polling places to get it to be a holiday. /s
Because they don’t want the workers voting.
If you “can’t go to the ballot because you need to work” you are a plebeian, and so they have a way of excluding you while technically not excluding you.
A lot of modern oligarchy is powered by these technicalities. Technically everyone has a “right to” participate in the system, but the whole apparatus is rigged in such a way that in material reality only the same nobility caste that has called the shots since the bronze fucking age gets to call the shots.
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”
By law employers are required to allow their workers an opportunity to vote. The problem is other stuff like taking their kids to school and having to go to work right after and by the time you make it to the poll through rush hour traffic, the line is out the door and they shut it down and don’t let you vote even though you waited for an hour.
The thing is
“The law says it has to happen” doesn’t mean it happens.
And the weaker labour protections are in your country, the more bosses can walk all over their employees.
In the US, with their so-called “at-will” employment system, you can be fired at any time for any reason, and if you need the job to like, live, you won’t even bring up your legal rights.
Mind you even on countries where polling happens exclusively on Sunday (like mine!) there are other subtle ways The Poors tm are kept from enfranchisement. “Voting happens on a work day” is just one of the ways it happens in one of our world’s oligarchies.
If you’re in food service, election day is likely an all hands on deck situation. Incredibly shitty. And here in the US a ton of people work weekends. I didn’t get a job that had weekends off until my mid 30s.
So the bare minimum that even my little Eastern European hellhole could do was that a polling place closing means that those in line can still vote.
A poll worker gets in line exactly at closing time, and those in front get to vote however long that takes. It’s not hard to organize.
Yeah, it’s exactly the same in the very opposite end of Europe (and about as poor) - Portugal - which I know becaused I maned the polling places a couple of times and read the rule book.
Thanks for your service, unironically
People generally do it because they’re in a political party, plus you get paid for it though I think it takes many months for it to come in (never really worried enough about it to keep an eye out for that money coming into my bank account) and it doesn’t add up to much per hour for what’s a really long day (from about 6 AM to around 10 - 12PM depending on how long it takes to count the votes of one’s polling station).
It’s an interesting experience if a bit tiring.
My roommate asked for time off to vote; her employer literally laughed at her. Now, there is legal recourse there, and she would have likely won and even gotten awarded a money judgment.
But she needed that job without interruption. This was in Canada, by the way.
This is why you don’t ask.
Also, you don’t really need a whole day. I’m also Canadian. Employers are required to allow you time to do it, not an entire day.
I would phrase the question like this: “I need to take time to go vote. Would you prefer I take the morning or afternoon off?”
If they so no to both, you say “you know it’s illegal not to allow me time off to vote, right?”
I’ve changed careers since the last election, but as a driver I’d just say “I’m going to swing by the polling place in my way to or back from wherever” and it was never a problem.
It really depends on how much you need that job to like
Not be homeless
And how hard it was to get the job in the first place.
You can make your legal rights count if you have options.
If you don’t, you let your boss walk all over you and thank them for it.
I mean you do have options. We have the labour board here in Canada.
You don’t tell your employer you’re talking to them. You let them contact the employer. They can’t fire you while an investigation is ongoing.
A job I had for a couple of years had really annoying emails sent based on badging in/out. When I’d come back from voting I’d get one for some out of office violation and would just reply to HR with a link to the MN statute requiring paid time off for voting:
https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/election-day-voting/time-off-work-to-vote/
I’m so glad my state has mail-in voting. Sorry buddy.
The law also doesn’t require employers to pay for that time, so many can’t afford to take the time off even if their employer is chill about it.
Oh no it’s never paid, but they have to allow them time to vote. Usually that means wake up at 6am to get to the polls by 7
it’s never paid
As a salaried worker your pay will not change just because you took time off to vote. So it is de facto requires to pay for the time, but only for those who already have the privilege of a salaried position.
Edit to make my point even more clear: the current law is structural discrimination against poor people.
You are arguing semantics on whether it’s paid or not. No one cares. The point is, paid or not, your job has to give you time to vote, usually at the employees expense.
Thanks for your reply! I am not arguing semantics at all. I am pointing out an inherent disadvantage faced by lower paid workers in an unfair system. Which is the entire point of this discussion. The fact that you don’t care about a few hours of paid time perfectly demonstrates that the privileged benefactors of the current system don’t even realize that others are being actively oppressed through technicalities of the law.
No need to make it a day off, just need to guarantee enough hours to vote (in Canada employers need to adjust your schedule so you have 4h off work while voting stations are open, in most cases they don’t need to do anything because they’re open late enough that after work is 4h)
We have it in Malaysia if the polling date is in weekdays, and we usually have general election on Saturday so most people have no reason not to vote. And even then, we have law that said employer cannot stop employees from going to vote and this is heavily enforced. Though our election is only one day, and once the polling station close, anything or anyone that arrive afterward is not counted
Like 95% of the US get neither off
Yeah, my current position is this way, and I’m a $programmingLanguage Developer.
You are getting President’s Day off?
I do, try living in a blue state.
I live in a red state and have the day off, champ.
Nice, here is an actual relevant map:
https://www.lgbtmap.org/democracy-maps/election_day_holiday_paid_time_off_to_vote
It’s really about split whether or not states will let you leave work to vote
I live in blue state, no day off on election day.
It also helps to have an employer that cares about most holidays.
Businesses like food service can often be five times busier on a holiday. It’s all hands on deck. Even the ones where there isn’t a federal day off like Halloween and Election Day
Cause Americans want to BBQ not do their civic duty. If you made election day a holiday, voting numbers would Plummet while Americans get drunk and grill burgers
Welcome to Costco, I love you.
Electrolytes?
I’m in Texas and we’ve had damn near 2 weeks of early voting. I’m going in on Friday. If you don’t vote, you don’t have a ton of good excuses, especially with mail in voting.
Not that I ultimately disagree, I think election day should be a national holiday, including midterms.
Also in Texas and I was surprised at the line for early voting when I went. Usually I just walk in and walk out because there’s no one there before election day.
Some states (I want to say Mississippi?) have no early voting and only absentee ballots with a good excuse. So yeah, a federal holiday or some provision for time off to vote would be awesome.
I’ll give you 3 guesses
- pancakes
- adamantium
- squirrels
(I’m bad at guessing)
You got 2 out of 3 correct.
Yay, C+!
I just need one.
- Money
'cause apparently you guys elect a king every 4 years, with the power to completely change the course of your country, so it’s only right you honour him accordingly
Sure, here you go: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7329
One of many such bills.
Take a look at the sponsors. I’ll give you 1 guess at which party would vote it down, because it would hurt them in elections.
It’s the same reason Puerto Rico will never be a state.
“We”? Who are “we”? Star fleet?
People have to remember that this is the Internet, this thing is global.
The poor and desperate will vote less under the current conditions. It is all baked into the US cake. Wait until you realize that the US never passed the Equal Rights Amendment. Still waiting on those bastard laggard states to ratify it for nearly 50 years.
Because only people who are able to afford a day off are supposed to vote. That’s also why republicans agitate against postal voting and why early vote ballot drop-offs are burning.
early vote ballot drop-offs are burning
omfjc… Thanks for the heads up. Link for anyone else who blinked and missed this on Monday.
Authorities, including the FBI, were investigating Monday after early morning fires were set in U.S. ballot drop boxes in Portland, Ore., and in nearby Vancouver, Wash., where hundreds of ballots were destroyed.
