In the United States, voting in elections is extremely inconvenient and inaccessible. Election Day is the first Tuesday of November. In most states, the polling times begin as the work day is starting and closes a few hours after the work day ends. There is no real reason for that, except to make voting inaccessible to the working class.
In other countries, the day to vote is on a day without work, whether it be a Sunday or work is cancelled. This allows for higher voter turnout, and tells those who are voting in their election that every vote matters. Those who complain about the lack of voter turnout in the U.S. have not taken into account that people, especially the middle and lower class, cannot necessarily take time off of work to go and vote.
In 30 U.S. states, taking three hours off work to vote is permitted. That is, of course, not entirely protected, especially if their shift does not start before the polls open. If an employee needs to be clocked in at 8a.m., then depending on the commute, they do not have time to stop at the polls before they need to be at work. This allows the government to stop those with retail or fast-food positions to take time to vote. If an employee requests the three hours off from work on Election Day, but another employee does not, the employer could find an excuse to fire the former employee for an irrelevant reason. This causes an even stronger dissuasion to take time off of work to go and vote, especially for the lower class.
An easy solution to this would be to make Election Day a national holiday. The U.S. government should give all workers the day off, or at least a few hours, so there is no fear of losing a position. For a few hours on one Tuesday, individuals should be ok about missing out on Starbucks.
The other major issue with our election system is the transportation. Those who do not have a car or cannot afford a bus pass could have a difficult time making their way to the polling place. This is especially true of those who are taking the three hours during their work day to get to the polling location. Depending on the length of the commute, potential voters do not have the time to wait for the bus. If a shuttle service for the polls is impossible due to funding, the simple solution would be to make the polls open on two separate days. Of course, this could lead to more voter fraud, but, in the 2016 election, there were only four recorded and proven cases, so that is not really an issue.
By making voting inaccessible to avoid voter fraud in a way, is to tax without representation. This is both unconstitutional and against everything that the U.S. was founded on.
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