{"id":8653,"date":"2015-03-20T00:55:43","date_gmt":"2015-03-20T00:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=8653"},"modified":"2015-03-20T00:55:43","modified_gmt":"2015-03-20T00:55:43","slug":"obama-not-calling-for-mandatory-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=8653","title":{"rendered":"Obama not calling for mandatory voting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>White House press flack Josh Earnest today sought to explain that President Obama isn&#8217;t calling for a specific law to <em>require<\/em> Americans to vote.<\/p>\n<p>Hey, I get what the president said. He was making some kind of suggestion that it might be a good idea. I disagree with the notion of mandatory voting, as it seems vaguely un-American to tell us we must do something.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"xNc228EWco\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/blog-briefing-room\/news\/236312-obama-doesnt-want-to-mandate-voting\/\">Obama doesn&#8217;t want to mandate voting<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Obama doesn&#8217;t want to mandate voting&#8221; &#8212; The Hill\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/blog-briefing-room\/news\/236312-obama-doesnt-want-to-mandate-voting\/embed\/#?secret=puM511NqoQ#?secret=xNc228EWco\" data-secret=\"xNc228EWco\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Actually, this is a healthy discussion to have.<\/p>\n<p>Two states, Oregon and Washington, allow voters to mail in their ballots. Voter turnout in those two states is far greater than it is in, oh, Texas. It&#8217;s great that voters can cast their ballots in the comfort of their living rooms.<\/p>\n<p>My preference? I still like the old-fashioned way of voting. Wait until Election Day, go to the polling place and stand in line with other voters, pass the time away waiting for a voting booth to become available. I dislike early voting and I do so only when I&#8217;m going to be away on Election Day.<\/p>\n<p>I am of an old-school mentality that prefers &#8212; for lack of a better term &#8212; the <em>pageantry<\/em> of voting.<\/p>\n<p>Early voting hasn&#8217;t boosted turnout; it&#8217;s just allowed more people to vote early. It reduces the crush at the polling places on Election Day.<\/p>\n<p>One idea worth considering is making presidential &#8212; and midterm &#8212; Election Day a national holiday. Don&#8217;t go to work or school. Don&#8217;t do anything that would divert attention from the task of voting. Perhaps have the event occur on a Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>I heard the president clearly in Cleveland and understood the context of his remarks.<\/p>\n<p>Voter turnout stinks. Big money is too pervasive. However, let&#8217;s not require Americans to vote.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>White House press flack Josh Earnest today sought to explain that President Obama isn&#8217;t calling for a specific law to require Americans to vote. Hey, I get what the president said. He was making some kind of suggestion that it might be a good idea. I disagree with the notion of mandatory voting, as it &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=8653\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Obama not calling for mandatory voting<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[540,1547,2586,2856,2877,5137,5249],"class_list":["post-8653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-political-news","tag-barack-obama","tag-election-day","tag-josh-earnest","tag-mail-in-voting","tag-mandatory-voting","tag-voter-turnout","tag-white-house-press-office"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}