| PROBLEM | Poorly staffed polls make our elections insecure, opening the door to election fraud. |
The United States holds elections on Tuesday, a day that is a work day, squarely in the middle of work week for most Americans. Consequently, this means there are less people available to properly staff the polls.
Poorly Staffed Polling Stations Make Our Elections Insecure
Poorly staffed polling stations result in overwhelmed poll workers and long voter lines. Overwhelmed poll workers in turn leaves the door open wide for mistakes and for corruption to happen unobserved.
Poll Workers are the Frontline to Our Elections
Nearly a million people are needed to staff the polls on Election Day. According to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) in the 2016 election, nearly 65 percent of jurisdictions reported that it was “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult” to obtain a sufficient number of poll workers. Elections require a full day investment from poll workers who not only work long hours on election day itself, but may need to work into the wee hours of the next day. This makes it difficult for persons who work Monday to Friday to take part in working the polls, thereby reducing the number of qualified people to fill the required positions.
Why Are Our Elections Held on a Tuesday?
Federal law originally permitted each state to hold elections on any day they wished to within a 34 day time period before the first Wednesday of December — which was the day set for the meeting of the electoral college to cast ballots for the U.S. president and vice-president. For a variety of reasons it was eventually deemed that allowing states to hold elections on a multitude of days across the country was problematic, so in 1845 Congress passed a bill mandating that federal elections be held on a uniform date.
U.S. federal legislation now states that elections must be held in even numbered years on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November. Sounds convoluted? It is. However, if our forefathers had made it simple and proclaimed the first Tuesday of November shall be Election Day from this day forward, Election Day would not always have fallen within the 34 day time frame mandated by the Electoral College guidelines. Instead of changing the Electoral College guidelines, they opted to include a workaround, which was to prescribe that Election Day be held on the Tuesday following the first Monday of the month, thereby ensuring it would always fall within the required 34 day time frame.
“Tuesday” was selected in the 19th century as the day to hold the elections because it was the most practical, convenient day for people at that time. Tuesday elections did not interfere with market day which was often held on a Wednesday or with Sunday Sabbath, a day observed for rest. It allowed people time to travel to and from the county seat by carriage. Citizens could leave on Monday, cast their vote Tuesday morning or afternoon and then return in time for Market day. Election day, itself, was often celebrated with parades, dressing up in finer clothes, and festivities.
Nowadays, Tuesday elections fall on a work day squarely in the middle of the work week for most citizens, making it more difficult for voters to cast a vote and to find persons to staff the polls.
What if We Made Election Tuesday a National Civic Holiday?
Election Tuesday could be designated as a national civic holiday. Doing so would make it easier for Americans to cast a vote, but it is not the best option to address staffing problems at the polls. Election Day starts for many poll workers at 5:00 A.M. and may not end until midnight, or later. Most Americans who work Monday to Friday will still be unlikely to sign up to work the polls in the midst of a busy work week due to the long, late hours required.
What about having people work 1/2 day shifts to reduce the number of hours a person covers? We already struggle to properly staff the polling stations across the country on election day. Splitting shifts into two means we’d need to identify and train even more workers. It would require more manpower to hunt for the additional people to fill all the positions and cost more to train a second round of poll workers. This would not be an obvious solution to fix our poll worker shortages.
What if we move Election Day to Sunday?
Moving Election Day to Sundays would likewise make it easier for voters to cast a vote, but once again many citizens would be likely to avoid volunteering to work the polls due to the fact it is oftentimes necessary to work into the wee hours of the night on Election Day or even into the morning hours of the next day, which would be a workday (Monday) for most people. So, moving Election Day to Sundays would also not be the best solution to solve our Poll Worker shortages.
What if We Hold Election Day on Veteran’s Day?
Merging Election Day and Veteran’s Day together has been proposed as a solution by some people. This is intriguing on the surface because it would be a great way for Americans to honor our veterans. There is a clear drawback, however, to holding Election Day on Veterans Day (November 11th) because November 11th falls on different days of the week each year.
November 11th will sometimes fall on a weekend, in which case it would be observed as a 3-day holiday weekend. People are more inclined to take advantage of 3-day weekends for going on family trips out of town, making it potentially even harder to get people to commit to staffing the polls in the years that it falls on a weekend.
November 11th will also fall on weekdays in the middle of the work week, which we have already established is problematic for sufficiently staffing the polls. So, holding Election Day on November 11th would also not be an ideal solution to fix our poll worker shortages.
What if we cast votes from home using electronic devices or mail-in ballots?
Our intent is to make our elections more secure, not less. Both of these voting methods leave the door open to fraud in a multitude of ways from manipulation of the vote itself, to coercion, vote buying, and more. See the document “Ways Voting Methods are Insecure.” [Add Link] to learn more.
What if we Move Election Day to Saturday?
Most citizens are neither required to work on Saturday nor required to work the following day. This means the pool of available people to staff the polls would immediately increase. Aha. Now, this is one solution that works! Weekend elections have already been tested and proven to work well in other westernized countries, so the beta testing for this solution is already complete.
What About Holding the Election on Both Saturday & Sunday?
In theory, it sounds great to increase the number of days people can cast a vote. But, this would double the workload, expense, and complexity of planning every election. Election Day poll workers often start at 5 A.M. and may not finish until 11 P.M. or later, resulting in a workday that can be 18+ hours or more. It would be impractical (and cruel) to request the same people to work two 18+ hour days in a row, so this means that it would be necessary to schedule two different sets of workers. Keep in mind, that it is already extremely difficult to find nearly a million people across the nation to cover one day every two to four years!
Most countries hold their elections on one day and it appears to work just fine, so adding in more complexity and cost, especially when our country is already trillions of dollars in debt would not make sense.
But, But…Changing the Day We Hold Elections Breaks a Tradition!
Our forefathers chose “Tuesday” as Election Day because it made the most logical, practical sense at that time. The “tradition” part can and arguably should be to “hold elections on a day that makes practical sense for the times.” Our forefathers made adjustments to the original Election Day parameters when it was relevant to do so to fix a problem. We should follow their wise lead and do the same.
What’s the Best Option?
The experts at the Hackathon will ultimately have the final say on which day of the week is selected. The goal will be to choose a day that will make it easier to properly staff the polls, as necessary to keep the elections secure. Based on the information outlined above, it appears moving Election Day to Saturday would be the best option. Moving Election Day from Tuesday to Saturday is a viable, simple way to enhance the security of elections. This solution can easily be implemented without adding to our national debt. A win-win solution in all respects. The “Solution” page explores details that need to be further addressed, if Saturday is selected as Election Day. [Attach to Solution Page]
