as part of a party platform. Making election days mandatory holidays... EVERYTHING closes down except essential personnel (fire, police, healthcare). OR make it EASY to vote, online, by mail...something! We must fix this issue of access...

Oh, and EVERYONE becomes registered FOR LIFE at 18.

My hometown is an older demographic of voters that consistently get to the polls. They know exactly where, when and how to vote since they've lived in the town for donkey's years. Young people have work and children commitments and move more frequently than older people. That involves re-registering, new polling places and other complications which diminish turnout. I think we need a national holiday for voting and automatic voter registration at the polls. (Election monitoring is in order as well, sadly.) It's unfair that older voters have outsized influence in our elections.

a good question--whether federal law mandates that workers can take off from work, to vote in Presidential elections.

I'm a retired career federal employee, and I'm not familiar with a federal law that would mandate that workers must be allowed time off from work, to vote. But, that is not to say that there is not one.

Most states that we've live in (and we've also voted absentee when living outside of the country), had polls that were open from about 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. So, it wasn't difficult for us to cast our votes after work hours. (Which is not true for many folks, I recognize.)

Great to see you so politically engaged--look forward to hearing about your caucus night.

You know, it's hard to believe that 'sick leave' is not a right in this nation. We earned approximately 13 days per year in federal service. Of course, some of our benefits were negotiated in lieu of higher pay. Still, that was one worry that I rarely had--getting time off for illness, or necessary personal business.

My best to you and your Hubby--hope you both feel much better soon.

We're happy to have you as part of this Community!

Mollie at C99P & Daily Kos
elinkarlsson@WordPress

. . . Integrity and courage are powerful weapons. We have to learn how to use them."--Chris Hedges, Journalist, Author & Activist

Well, there are several dynamics at work here. As a counterpoint, Colorado had enormous turnout for the March caucuses, much of which consisted of young people and first-timers. At my Colorado precinct caucus, 80% of the attendees were first-timers (including myself): some young, some gray like me, but all newly engaged. My precinct broke 2:1 for Sanders, but due to delegate math and rounding we were only allocated two delegates- one for HRC, and one for Sanders. I was selected as the Sanders delegate to the county convention- which happened today. An initial show of hands indicated that even at the county convention, close to 50% were first time attendees- and turnout was huge, as one might expect from the huge turnout two weeks ago. Sounds wonderful, no?

I was there for 6 hours. Essentially nothing happened for 4.5 of them, and when things did happen it wasn't at all clear why they did. A lot of time was spent with people on the stage and at the podium talking to each other with their backs to the crowd. There was controversy when it was announced that the delegate allocation had been done prior to our arrival, and HRC had 110 delegates to 97 for Sanders, and that we were there simply to vote for the delegates to fill that predetermined allocation. "That's how caucuses work" was the explanation.

Okay- I was led to believe that Sanders had gotten more votes in the initial caucuses, but that due to delegate allocation rounding some adjustments needed to be made. I was a bit disquieted to hear that the adjustments led to HRC getting more delegates than Sanders, but after all, "that's how caucuses work". I was proud to serve, but ultimately I am forced to conclude that my presence there was meaningless. After 6 hours, I left. We had only finally gotten around to voting for the delegates for the next levels of convention (district, and then state), which was what I'd committed to do. I don't know what they did after that. For all I know, they are still there. The parking lot had emptied out noticeably when I gave up. This was the opposite of the energizing experience I had at the precinct caucus.

I did my bit: I voted for the Sanders representatives to move on to the next levels, turned in my ballot, and left. I don't know how many of the newly engaged and energized first timers will be back. There were a lot of very pissed-off people who couldn't understand why the business of the convention couldn't be accomplished in the 8:30am-1:30pm time specified, and like me, who didn't have the time to sit and wait for some gravid announcement of some next activity after yet more hours of delay. It was, in short, a flat out incandescent clusterfuck.

I will be changing my registration to "unaffiliated" on Monday. The only reason to be a registered Democrat is to participate in that process- and that is something that I am unwilling to do again, as it certainly appeared to be an unalloyed waste of time. Perhaps the fraction of people remaining after I bailed out voted to scrap the caucus system and spend the money on a proper primary. I would have voted that way, if only they'd have gotten around to it....

If I were emperor, all elections would be vote-by-mail, tabulated by non-partisan personnel and not party hacks, and there would be no more caucuses. But what the fuck do I know? I am reminded of the Will Rogers quote: "I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat." Maybe I'll be one again sometime, when there's an actual value to associate with such a declaration. But for the nonce, all I can offer is "Hey, at least I _tried_"....

Voting in the evening, I suppose, is supposed to compensate for that, but how many people have 9 to 5 jobs any more? Good on you and your husband for persisting.