We need to pass a federal law for a minimum number of polling places per population.

[Eric J in MN]

A county with 4 million people shouldn't have only 60 polling places.

That was the situation in Maricopa County, Arizona today. County Recorder Helen Purcell apparently had sole authority in this matter, which let her reduce the number of polling places from 200 in 2012 to 60 today.

[ReallyIAmAnOptimist]

1. Amen!

Or all mail in ballots like WA and OR.

[potone]

2. Yes, we mail them in in Oregon.

It works very well. I think the whole country should adopt this system. It is simple, convenient and not corrupt.

[ebayfool]

3. Damn skippy we should!

Some Latino neighborhoods were said to have zero to one polling places. That matters no matter who you support!

[bettyellen]

4. It's a state thing, for fucks sake.

[Eric J in MN]

5. Yes, it's a state thing under current law.

But the federal government can set minimal standards for federal elections.

[joshcryer]

6. Helen Purcell is a Republican.

This was an epic ratfuck. Here's the thing, the Republicans get away with being incompetent, because it's expected of them, and often the Democrats are blamed for the Republicans' incompetency.

So you have these Republican leaning poll officers and they get a registration in the mail and they see it's someone who's registering democrat, they flip it to independent, because they know that it'll cause that person problems if they go to the polls. Maybe it's only one in ten that they do it to, but it would add up over the days and weeks of going over hundreds of registrations a day.

Then what happens? The Democrats eat their own without pointing the finger at who is responsible.

Anyway, I'm rambling, I am saying I agree with you, elections should be federally handled, with federal procedures, and a verifiable paper ballot system. We need an across the board standard for voting and we need a national voting holiday. Automatic registration. This isn't that big of a deal to implement, it would take a decade, take your time, get it right, get all the good best practices, and just get it done.

[senz]

7. Could use federal guidelines for ease & comfort of voting, accurate & verifiable counts.

Voting is a good thing and should be encouraged.