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Yep, there are even signs up at the polling places.
But don't American take pride in their vote ? There are always these flags and signs on the streets/houses.
And it's illegal in the polling stations ?
Flags and signs on public streets and displayed on the property of private homes have nothing to do with polling laws and the restrictions of campaigning withing a certain amount of space around a polling site. Typically the rule is you cannot campaign or post campaign materials within 100 feet of a polling site.
Prestor Jon wrote: In a similar vein, here in NC convicted felons can vote if they've completed their sentence and are no longer on parole or probation. All they have to do is re-register and they can vote.
Every state has some process where convicted felons can get voting and even gun rights restored after they've completed their sentence/parole.
It's funny that the representatives are mandated for only 2 years when the senators have a mandate of 6 years.
And I thought a presidential mandate of 5 years (in France) was short^^
Bare in mind that many of our founding fathers were skeptical of the character and intelligence of the average citizen.
The original vision when the constitution was written was that Senators would be the "elder" statesmen and with longer terms and less change over, the Senate would be the more stable chamber and less vulnerable to an electorate that could easily be swayed by demagoguery that could influence the "uneducated" masses. It was one reason why initially Senators were not directly elected but appointed for the first 125 years, or until the 17th amendment. It was also for this reason why the Senate holds the role of advising and consenting on appointees to the Executive and Judicial branches as well as approving treaties.
One of the reasons that members of the House of Representatives are elected every 2 years was to similarly provide a mechanism to replace unqualified individuals while mitigating their overall impact on legislation and their respective districts. To our founding fathers, there was no way the American public was going to vote in 435 unqualified idiots all at once!
"Preach the gospel always, If necessary use words." ~ St. Francis of Assisi
Prestor Jon wrote: In a similar vein, here in NC convicted felons can vote if they've completed their sentence and are no longer on parole or probation. All they have to do is re-register and they can vote.
Every state has some process where convicted felons can get voting and even gun rights restored after they've completed their sentence/parole.
Yes. I wasn't trying to imply that other states didn't only that our state process is very streamlined and isn't the same process as in other states just like we have different ballots and election laws.
It's funny that the representatives are mandated for only 2 years when the senators have a mandate of 6 years.
And I thought a presidential mandate of 5 years (in France) was short^^
Bare in mind that many of our founding fathers were skeptical of the character and intelligence of the average citizen.
The original vision when the constitution was written was that Senators would be the "elder" statesmen and with longer terms and less change over, the Senate would be the more stable chamber and less vulnerable to an electorate that could easily be swayed by demagoguery that could influence the "uneducated" masses. It was one reason why initially Senators were not directly elected but appointed for the first 125 years, or until the 17th amendment. It was also for this reason why the Senate holds the role of advising and consenting on appointees to the Executive and Judicial branches as well as approving treaties.
One of the reasons that members of the House of Representatives are elected every 2 years was to similarly provide a mechanism to replace unqualified individuals while mitigating their overall impact on legislation and their respective districts. To our founding fathers, there was no way the American public was going to vote in 435 unqualified idiots all at once!
The senate was intended to give states a voice in governing in keeping with our system of federalism. The people had representation in the House and the states had representation in the Senate and both had to come to agreement with each other to pass legislation. It minimizes the ability for short term thinking by the public to negatively impact the ability of the state and federal govts to properly function.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2016/11/08 19:24:31
Yep, there are even signs up at the polling places.
Which if you think about it... such laws blatantly violates the 1st Amendment.
Bannin selfies in voting booths isn't clearly unconstitutional as there are plenty of places where phone usage/photography is restricted lawfully.
Publishing your ballot can be interpreted as campaigning for those candidates which is why some States oppose doing it. Other States allow it. I discussed my ballot earlier in this thread but didn't link to a picture because the wording of Washington State law is vague on the issue and I didn't want to potentially cause problems for Yakface.
They use same letters(plus couple owns). From just that can't quickly tell which it is.
Huh, that's indeed correct.
I did not know that.
Haha yeah well I have studied Japanese for close to 6 years so it's bit easier for me For fun here's brief history on Japanese writing. At first there was Japan but they had no writing system(at least unified). Then about 1400 years or so ago somebody went to China and saw writing and thought "Hey cool. This looks like useful!" and brought the idea to Japan. Japan, having culture of "borrowing" ideas from other countries, took the idea to the heart. Alas Japanese and Chinese being "bit" different in grammar etc took some hacking which leads to some of the annoyances of the writing system today. The chinese letterｓ(漢字, kanji, literally chinese letters) were NOT designed for Japanese! And there were some issues like dialects so when Japanese asked "how is this read?" chinese person would say "sho". Another Japanese went to elsewhere in china and got "so" as an answer. Japanese inherited both...And much gnashing of teeth for any modern day Japanese learning foreigner But the funny thing is that as the MEANING of letters was same Japanese and Chinese, while unable to SPEAK with each other, could somewhat accurately WRITE with each other! Indeed when many Japanese went to China in around 8th century or so many could not speak chinese so they communicated via pen&paper(so to speak!). Crude example: 私(I)魚(fish)食(eat). Japanese had spoken this in his language Chinese would have been "huh?" and vice versa but in writing meaning could be understood and they got along at least until students could learn the language(since the students were generally expected to stay in china 20 years if they were state sponsored they probably picked the language eventually)
But there being lots of them(thousands. One of the most comprehensive dictionary I have found has almost 6000 of them and if you go for really rare ones you can get over 60,000!) this was not what everybody could study them. Too time consuming. So women came up with idea that they will SIMPLIFY some kanjis and create phonetic letters(so one symbol to represent sound ka etc). So now women could read and write much more manageably. Later men decided that "wait a second. This could be useful!" so came up with their own set by taking parts of chinese letters. These are much less round and much more sharp so more "masculine".
Alas Japanese having only 52 different sound combinations there's LOTS of synonyms(like 5 different meanings for word kaeru) so these phonetic letters alone don't cut it. You NEED the chinese letters so while there's(especially in beginnin japanese students) often suggestions to get rid of chinese letters it just ain't practical. Results in completely unreadable text) so this didn't replace the writing system. However these were used in COMBINATION to sort out some of the grammar issues. For example in Chinese verbs and adjectives don't conjugate. You instread slap specific letter behind and pronounciation is always same. In Japanese if you conjugate verb to past it's pronounciation depends on the verb it's used...This is tough to indicate with just chinese letters so now they use these phonetic letters after chinese letters to indicate conjugations.
And the masculine phonetic symbols have been adopted for loanwords.
That's why there's now basically 3 different writing system to use. And they all serve different purpose. But this is why merely from seeing few chinese letters isn't enough to see which it is. If you see long tide of chinese letters without those japanese phonetic symbols it's chinese(these days you don't write japanese with just chinese letters) or if you see chinese letters that aren't used in japanese(but that is harder to see). But 4 chinese letters in row isn't that uncommon in japanese. Especially in formal texts, titles and definitely not in names.
Korea also uses these letters though they have come up with their own as well and think there's couple others that use chinese letters as well.
Ahtman wrote: I had to wait about an hour and fifteen minutes but I done did vote and such.
Jesus, why do American elections have such long lines? Here in Australia, we have mandatory voting (>95% turnout), and I've never waited more than 10 minutes. There was a minor scandal when some waiting times were nearly an hour during our last election. Yet over in America, with far lower turnout, you hear countless stories of people waiting several hours to vote, and lines winding around the block. Is it just bad organization, or is it just due to parties trying to suppress turnout by making voting difficult?
Exactly. If I have to spend more than 5 minutes voting on UK election day, I'm mad, because it rarely happens.
And we have laws that allow farmers to turn up with sheep and cattle
I've never had to wait at all in the UK, partly because by good luck I have nearly always managed to live within 5 minutes walk of a polling station that was on my way to work. I'm sure it helps that the polling stations are open from 7 am to 10 pm, don't use complicated machines etc and don't have to check everybody's Voter ID.
Trump now wants to sue because a polling station was kept open late last week in Nevada. BUT.... technically they haven't done anything wrong from the look of things.
Donald Trump has sued the registrar of voters in Clark County, Nevada over a Las Vegas polling station that was reportedly allowed to remain open late last week.
Nevada state law says voters who are in line at 8pm, when the polls close, must be allowed to cast their ballots.
The lawsuit said election officials violated state law because they allowed people to join the line after 8pm at a polling location at a Latino market.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/11/08 19:39:13
angelofvengeance wrote: Trump now wants to sue because a polling station was kept open late last week in Nevada. BUT.... technically they haven't done anything wrong from the look of things.
Donald Trump has sued the registrar of voters in Clark County, Nevada over a Las Vegas polling station that was reportedly allowed to remain open late last week.
Nevada state law says voters who are in line at 8pm, when the polls close, must be allowed to cast their ballots.
The lawsuit said election officials violated state law because they allowed people to join the line after 8pm at a polling location at a Latino market.
I think the question is whether the officials continued to allow people to get in line AFTER the closing time.
godardc wrote: I think it's a good idea to vote for all these representatives at once, and not in several elections, it's saves time and money.
Are the ballots written in different laguages because there is no official language in the USA, or because there are big minorities in your country ?
Bit of both. American culture is also very big on promoting participation across all colors and creeds*. It's part of the melting pot ethos.
*Ideally. We've seen some erosion in some classic American values.
Doesn't it bother you that people not even speaking english can decide who lead your country ?
Only the xenophobes. Everyone else is cool with representation for taxation, or whatever other pithy statement you can use to say, "not treating fellow citizens like nonpersons."
They use same letters(plus couple owns). From just that can't quickly tell which it is.
Huh, that's indeed correct.
I did not know that.
Haha yeah well I have studied Japanese for close to 6 years so it's bit easier for me For fun here's brief history on Japanese writing.
Spoiler:
At first there was Japan but they had no writing system(at least unified). Then about 1400 years or so ago somebody went to China and saw writing and thought "Hey cool. This looks like useful!" and brought the idea to Japan. Japan, having culture of "borrowing" ideas from other countries, took the idea to the heart. Alas Japanese and Chinese being "bit" different in grammar etc took some hacking which leads to some of the annoyances of the writing system today. The chinese letterｓ(漢字, kanji, literally chinese letters) were NOT designed for Japanese! And there were some issues like dialects so when Japanese asked "how is this read?" chinese person would say "sho". Another Japanese went to elsewhere in china and got "so" as an answer. Japanese inherited both...And much gnashing of teeth for any modern day Japanese learning foreigner But the funny thing is that as the MEANING of letters was same Japanese and Chinese, while unable to SPEAK with each other, could somewhat accurately WRITE with each other! Indeed when many Japanese went to China in around 8th century or so many could not speak chinese so they communicated via pen&paper(so to speak!). Crude example: 私(I)魚(fish)食(eat). Japanese had spoken this in his language Chinese would have been "huh?" and vice versa but in writing meaning could be understood and they got along at least until students could learn the language(since the students were generally expected to stay in china 20 years if they were state sponsored they probably picked the language eventually)
But there being lots of them(thousands. One of the most comprehensive dictionary I have found has almost 6000 of them and if you go for really rare ones you can get over 60,000!) this was not what everybody could study them. Too time consuming. So women came up with idea that they will SIMPLIFY some kanjis and create phonetic letters(so one symbol to represent sound ka etc). So now women could read and write much more manageably. Later men decided that "wait a second. This could be useful!" so came up with their own set by taking parts of chinese letters. These are much less round and much more sharp so more "masculine".
Alas Japanese having only 52 different sound combinations there's LOTS of synonyms(like 5 different meanings for word kaeru) so these phonetic letters alone don't cut it. You NEED the chinese letters so while there's(especially in beginnin japanese students) often suggestions to get rid of chinese letters it just ain't practical. Results in completely unreadable text) so this didn't replace the writing system. However these were used in COMBINATION to sort out some of the grammar issues. For example in Chinese verbs and adjectives don't conjugate. You instread slap specific letter behind and pronounciation is always same. In Japanese if you conjugate verb to past it's pronounciation depends on the verb it's used...This is tough to indicate with just chinese letters so now they use these phonetic letters after chinese letters to indicate conjugations.
And the masculine phonetic symbols have been adopted for loanwords.
That's why there's now basically 3 different writing system to use. And they all serve different purpose. But this is why merely from seeing few chinese letters isn't enough to see which it is. If you see long tide of chinese letters without those japanese phonetic symbols it's chinese(these days you don't write japanese with just chinese letters) or if you see chinese letters that aren't used in japanese(but that is harder to see). But 4 chinese letters in row isn't that uncommon in japanese. Especially in formal texts, titles and definitely not in names.
Korea also uses these letters though they have come up with their own as well and think there's couple others that use chinese letters as well.
Interesting.
Must say I didn't expect a breakdown of the evolution of Chinese/Japanese kanji when I decided to check out the US politics thread, but knowledge can strike when least expected And this is the off-topic forum after all
Huh. Interesting ballot has chinese letters. Chinese or japanese large enough minority in NY?
Why would a large Japanese minority in NY cause there to be Chinese writing on the ballots?
They use same letters(plus couple owns). From just that can't quickly tell which it is.
Huh, that's indeed correct.
I did not know that.
Sort of. Modern Chinese from the mainland has been simplified, and some Kanji characters have drifted pretty far from classic Chinese meanings. Hiragana and Katakana are usually pretty easy to spot, though, being much simpler 'phonetic' letters. Simple rule of thumb: if you see characters that look like Star Wars' Aurebesh mixed in with the Chinese, it's Japanese. If there are circles, it's Korean.
angelofvengeance wrote: Trump now wants to sue because a polling station was kept open late last week in Nevada. BUT.... technically they haven't done anything wrong from the look of things.
Donald Trump has sued the registrar of voters in Clark County, Nevada over a Las Vegas polling station that was reportedly allowed to remain open late last week.
Nevada state law says voters who are in line at 8pm, when the polls close, must be allowed to cast their ballots.
The lawsuit said election officials violated state law because they allowed people to join the line after 8pm at a polling location at a Latino market.
Feth Donald fething Trump and his little whiny fething bitch campaign. America, I pray you do the right thing. That's it, I'm out until tomorrow morning. Peace! Two fingers of Kentucky's best export, neat please.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/11/08 19:53:15
I found this interesting item about politics on Twitter.
Eventually we realized that about 15 percent of the accounts on the Twitter feed discussing elections in the U.S. are bots,” Research assistant professor Emilio Ferrara told KCBS.
So the sentate represents the states at the federal level? That's interesting. I'm an advocate of a federal uk, and I'd like to see the House of Lords replaced with a senate that represents the nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). If it works for you chaps maybe it could work for us.
My local election is only for elected positions this time around. What are some of the interesting ballots measures out there and any thoughts on them? There are several states voting to legalize recreational marijuana and California seems to have several more humdingers (<---- totally legit political term ) including;
1. Require the use of condoms in pornographic films (Prop 60)
2. Prescription drug price regulations (Prop 61)
3. Repeal the death penalty (Prop 62) and death penalty procedures (Prop 66)
4. Background checks for ammunition purchases (Prop 63)
5. Dedication of revenue from state mandated sale of grocery and retail carry-out bags (Prop 65) and Prohibition on plastic single-use carryout bags (Prop 67) which appear to conflict with each other.
If I was voting, I would vote in favor of prop 60 as it would improve worker protections, I would vote yes on prop 61, even though I am skeptical it would help that much. Yes on Prop 62 and No on Prop 66. Not sure on Prop 63 as I am a 2nd amendment supporter and this seems a back door attempt at creating an undue burden on a citizen's 2nd amendment rights, though other parts of it I am fine with, such as permitting sellers assuming that a seller is someone who engages in the regular sale and distribution of a significant amount of ammunition. I think Prop 65 and 67 are not well thought out and are likely to cause more problems then it solves so I would vote No to both.
"Preach the gospel always, If necessary use words." ~ St. Francis of Assisi
Japanese contains about 2,000 official kanji (ideographs derived from Chinese) plus two sets of syllabic characters -- hiragana and katakana -- which look very distinctive.
Higher level newspapers and literary works in Japanese can use about 6,000 kanji.
Some of the Japanese kanji have been modified from the Chinese originals.
An everyday piece of Japanese text looks different to Chinese because the kana used for verb endings and so on break up the pattern. However a religious text or similar can often be written in kanji, and looks like Chinese.
To be fair, most people don't know what Chinese looks like. Chinese itself is not a single language any more than "European" spelt out with Latin alphabet. In fact there are minorities in China that have trouble filling in forms and so on because their names do not conform with the central government format of Chinese input.
Future War Cultist wrote: So the sentate represents the states at the federal level? That's interesting. I'm an advocate of a federal uk, and I'd like to see the House of Lords replaced with a senate that represents the nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). If it works for you chaps maybe it could work for us.
Oh, and get out there and vote!
They have certain powers/authority that the house doesn't have, and vice versa.
ate has several advice and consent powers not granted to the House, including electing the U.S. Vice President in case there is no majority in the Electoral College,[2] consenting to treaties as a precondition to their ratification and consenting to or confirming appointments of Cabinet secretaries, federal judges, other federal executive officials, military officers, regulatory officials, ambassadors, and other federal uniformed officers,[3][4] as well as trial of federal officials impeached by the House. The Senate is widely considered both a more deliberative[5] and more prestigious[6][7][8] body than the House of Representatives, due to its longer terms, smaller size, and statewide constituencies, which historically led to a more collegial and less partisan atmosphere.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/11/08 19:59:05
To be fair, most people don't know what Chinese looks like. Chinese itself is not a single language any more than "European" spelt out with Latin alphabet. In fact there are minorities in China that have trouble filling in forms and so on because their names do not conform with the central government format of Chinese input.
Future War Cultist wrote: So the sentate represents the states at the federal level? That's interesting. I'm an advocate of a federal uk, and I'd like to see the House of Lords replaced with a senate that represents the nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). If it works for you chaps maybe it could work for us.
Oh, and get out there and vote!
CORRECT! In theory...
Since the 17th amendment the Senators are chosen by direct vote. Prior to that, the state's legislatures "picks" their 2 U.S. Senator.
I'm a fan of rescinding the 17th amendment... as we need greater "input" at the Federal level as to what bills/laws/regulations impact the states.
Lord of Deeds wrote: My local election is only for elected positions this time around. What are some of the interesting ballots measures out there and any thoughts on them? There are several states voting to legalize recreational marijuana and California seems to have several more humdingers (<---- totally legit political term ) including;
1. Require the use of condoms in pornographic films (Prop 60)
2. Prescription drug price regulations (Prop 61)
3. Repeal the death penalty (Prop 62) and death penalty procedures (Prop 66)
4. Background checks for ammunition purchases (Prop 63)
5. Dedication of revenue from state mandated sale of grocery and retail carry-out bags (Prop 65) and Prohibition on plastic single-use carryout bags (Prop 67) which appear to conflict with each other.
If I was voting, I would vote in favor of prop 60 as it would improve worker protections, I would vote yes on prop 61, even though I am skeptical it would help that much. Yes on Prop 62 and No on Prop 66. Not sure on Prop 63 as I am a 2nd amendment supporter and this seems a back door attempt at creating an undue burden on a citizen's 2nd amendment rights, though other parts of it I am fine with, such as permitting sellers assuming that a seller is someone who engages in the regular sale and distribution of a significant amount of ammunition. I think Prop 65 and 67 are not well thought out and are likely to cause more problems then it solves so I would vote No to both.
I've heard arguments that 60 opens the door to third parties filing lawsuits, in essence giving concerned busybodies the power to shut down porn production in CA. 63 is pretty outrageous. From my reading it sounds unconstitutional.
Future War Cultist wrote: So the sentate represents the states at the federal level? That's interesting. I'm an advocate of a federal uk, and I'd like to see the House of Lords replaced with a senate that represents the nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). If it works for you chaps maybe it could work for us.
Funny there is a lot of credible evidence that the framers modeled the US Senate on the House of Lords. Whether is was for the altruistic vision of giving each State an equal voice, or for limiting the influence of the general public that was in those days seen as barely more than a illiterate mob, It's is defunct now since Senators are directly elected, however they are supposed to be somewhat insulated from short term swings because of the 6 year term (at least in theory), but given their vested interest in helping their party colleagues in the House seem to be just as volatile as the House and possibly more corrupt given the much higher likelihood of sustained incumbency.
I also would be in favor of see the 17th amendment repealed/revised to have each state's Governor appoint and their respective legislature approve their states two senators every two to four years with no more than the current 1/3 of the Senate up for reappointment every two years.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/11/08 20:11:08
"Preach the gospel always, If necessary use words." ~ St. Francis of Assisi
Lord of Deeds wrote: My local election is only for elected positions this time around. What are some of the interesting ballots measures out there and any thoughts on them? There are several states voting to legalize recreational marijuana and California seems to have several more humdingers (<---- totally legit political term ) including;
1. Require the use of condoms in pornographic films (Prop 60)
2. Prescription drug price regulations (Prop 61)
3. Repeal the death penalty (Prop 62) and death penalty procedures (Prop 66)
4. Background checks for ammunition purchases (Prop 63)
5. Dedication of revenue from state mandated sale of grocery and retail carry-out bags (Prop 65) and Prohibition on plastic single-use carryout bags (Prop 67) which appear to conflict with each other.
If I was voting, I would vote in favor of prop 60 as it would improve worker protections, I would vote yes on prop 61, even though I am skeptical it would help that much. Yes on Prop 62 and No on Prop 66. Not sure on Prop 63 as I am a 2nd amendment supporter and this seems a back door attempt at creating an undue burden on a citizen's 2nd amendment rights, though other parts of it I am fine with, such as permitting sellers assuming that a seller is someone who engages in the regular sale and distribution of a significant amount of ammunition. I think Prop 65 and 67 are not well thought out and are likely to cause more problems then it solves so I would vote No to both.
We had one about amending our Constitution so that Legislators could not vote to raise their own wages/salaries.
That VoteCastr thing I linked to before makes it look like Gary Johnson maybe the Ralph Nader of this race. I look forward to seeing how the R party and their apparatchiks respond to that
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Lord of Deeds wrote: My local election is only for elected positions this time around. What are some of the interesting ballots measures out there and any thoughts on them? There are several states voting to legalize recreational marijuana and California seems to have several more humdingers (<---- totally legit political term ) including;
1. Require the use of condoms in pornographic films (Prop 60)
If I was voting, I would vote in favor of prop 60 as it would improve worker protections.
For fun here's brief history on Japanese writing. At first there was Japan but they had no writing system(at least unified). Then about 1400 years or so ago somebody went to China and saw writing and thought "Hey cool. This looks like useful!" and brought the idea to Japan. Japan, having culture of "borrowing" ideas from other countries, took the idea to the heart. Alas Japanese and Chinese being "bit" different in grammar etc took some hacking which leads to some of the annoyances of the writing system today. The chinese letterｓ(漢字, kanji, literally chinese letters) were NOT designed for Japanese! And there were some issues like dialects so when Japanese asked "how is this read?" chinese person would say "sho". Another Japanese went to elsewhere in china and got "so" as an answer. Japanese inherited both...And much gnashing of teeth for any modern day Japanese learning foreigner 
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