From: "Glenn Meadows" 

OK, I've thought about this for some time, looking at how things are done
in other countries, and adding that to our election process....here are my
ideas, open for thoughts here (and why would I think that nobody would have
any thoughts on this...).

Our constitution states that election day will be the first Tuesday after
the first Monday.  Keeping that as the base framework, I'd like to see
something like this enacted for national elections:

1).  The polls open at Midnight on Tuesday, election day, in every state,
as the time moves across the timezones.

2).  The polls close at Midnight on Wednesday (polls open for 24 hours in
every state/location).  This will provide everyone the opportunity to fit
into their schedule a time to vote.  Many times, even with employer
agreement to let people have time off to vote, and with kids and such, it's
hard to get it in within that 24 hours, especially for those people who
have odd working hours.  This would afford them a much easier time to get
to the polls.

3).  Election day would be a National Holiday, banks closed, post office
closed, businesses closed, like many do for Christmas, Easter, etc.  Again,
this would allow even further participation for everyone.

4).  When the polls close, all election results are transmitted to a
central site, and NO results for any race are made public or available
until noon on Wednesday after the polls close.  There should be NO
announcement of the results in any state/precinct or anywhere else while
ANY election poling site is still open.  Announce the results like the old
Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, a large Tote Board, where they push a button,
the digits spin, and the results are tallied and publicly available all at
once.

I firmly believe that announcing how a national candidate is doing on the
east coast does influence people in states further west go or don't go to
the poll.

I also think that not enough consideration to the early announcement of
Florida going to Gore in 2000 negatively influenced voters in the pan
handle of Florida to not even go to the polls.

Also, announcing "exit poll predictions" as soon as polls close,
can adversely influence voters still standing in line waiting to vote.  I
believe that there were people in Ohio that didn't vote until 3 AM this
morning.  Not right, not fair, totally wrong.

OK, add to it, let's discuss it.

--
Glenn M.

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5