The Easy-Peezy Election Day Solution

I have invited my brother over to the house this year to watch the Election Day returns this coming November 4th, hoping for a result that we agree upon.  When he asked me what time to show up, I got to thinking a bit.

Polls will close in some states around 7pm Eastern, and then every hour thereafter some other states will close their polls and results will start trickling in.  The news media do a "reasonable" job of keeping their polling-at-the-polls a secret until the polls in the local area close, but at 7:00:00pm all bets are off.  While folks in California have not even gotten off work yet to vote, we know that the Delaware U.S. Senator race has been called for Candidate X, throwing the Senate in the hands of the Whigs no matter what else happens.  The poor guy in California might as well stay home.  Worse, when states are called in a close presidential year while others are still voting, it's really troubling.

This is forever debated for the issue it truly is.  We are a nation that spans many time zones; it is patently wrong that political results should be publicized while others are still at the polls or haven't even gotten to vote yet.  I'm not sure that there is a left-right debate on this; there is a reasonable vs. status quo debate -- and that is so easy to fix it is pathetic.

I propose a Federal law under which the period of Election Day shall be a fixed 24-hour time from 7pm Eastern time the second Monday in November to 7pm Eastern time the next day.  That equates to 4pm-to-4pm Pacific, and whatever-to-whatever Hawaiian and Alaskan time, but it is the same 24 hours such that all polls close at exactly the same moment.  No results may be released until the polls close, even if every voter in Dixville Notch, NH, has cast his vote in the first five minutes.

How is this not perfect?  Since the polling schedule everywhere is 24 hours, no one's work schedule is affected; there is always a period where you can go vote.  Local precincts with limited volunteers can optionally choose to have blocks of time (say, 1am to 5am) closed with the doors locked and armed guards, if they choose, but the polling places are manned and active up until the universal closing time.  The mechanics are workable.

The best part of this is simply that -- all polls close simultaneously, so the only difference in when the news media call their winners is how fast the returns are counted.  Since the announcements can't influence anyone, because the voting is done by then, all prejudice and disincentives go away.

I really do like this approach, and I have no doubt that it can be successfully implemented in some fashion; whatever the logistics, as long as all stations start and end simultaneously and there's a 24-hour window, this will accomplish its purpose.

Now if the media can maintain their silence regarding exit polls, perhaps ...


Copyright 2014 by Robert Sutton