The one "holiday" we can agree on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are the kids voting? If not, they should be in school. It's a Tuesday.

(And we have lived in plentty of places where kids go to school at the same time as people vote at the school. It's not an issue.)

-signed, The Let's Make It As Hard as Possible to Vote person.
Let me guess who your party is?

[Anonymous]

I don't think safety is the primary issue so much as the simple question of accessibility. The three schools in my fcps pyramid are all over enrolled. At any given moment during a school day at our elementary school there might be 0 to 4 spots available in the parking lot. They wouldn't be able to accommodate poll workers, much less voters. Middle and high schools probably have a small number of spots eac h day, but again not enough. It would be a serious barrier to voting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Polls open at like 6am and stay open until like 8pm. Anyone who works can find time to vote during those hours.

Closing schools just make it MORE difficult for people to vote, because now they have the kids to handle.

But hey, since when did FCPS need a legitimate excuse to close schools?

I’ve always taken my children to the voting location. Stop with all the stupid excuses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the kids voting? If not, they should be in school. It's a Tuesday.

(And we have lived in plentty of places where kids go to school at the same time as people vote at the school. It's not an issue.)

-signed, The Let's Make It As Hard as Possible to Vote person.
Let me guess who your party is?

How does having your kids at school make it harder to vote?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the kids voting? If not, they should be in school. It's a Tuesday.

(And we have lived in plentty of places where kids go to school at the same time as people vote at the school. It's not an issue.)

-signed, The Let's Make It As Hard as Possible to Vote person.
Let me guess who your party is?

How does having your kids at school make it harder to vote?

Because schools are used as polling places. Having randos wandering around a school while the kids are in it could be a security issue especially in a conceal carry state. I mean you have to sign in and are not let past the office unless you have taken a sexual harassment /volunteer training when the kids are in school. Why is this hard to understand?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the kids voting? If not, they should be in school. It's a Tuesday.

(And we have lived in plentty of places where kids go to school at the same time as people vote at the school. It's not an issue.)

-signed, The Let's Make It As Hard as Possible to Vote person.
Let me guess who your party is?

How does having your kids at school make it harder to vote?

Finding enough places to vote, for one. Schools are a perfect, central location for most and there are a lot of them, so people don't have to wait hours to vote like the do in some places. .
If the kids are home, you just bring with you. I always did.

OR we could allow easy, early voting. Vote by mail. Without any bit--ing and moaning and then it won't matter about "election day." But the GOP is the one trying to undermine those things even though they've been used successfully in some states and for the military.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the kids voting? If not, they should be in school. It's a Tuesday.

(And we have lived in plentty of places where kids go to school at the same time as people vote at the school. It's not an issue.)

You seem to forget that we now live in a country that is incapable of regulating guns so we have to keep schools locked at all times. Accordingly, keeping the front doors open to any school in VA is against safety protocols.
Remember, kids' safety comes last so this is the system that we live with. I think the guns are well taken care of, though, so no worries there.

Why would the front doors need to be open? Every school has a separate entrance to the gym. Vote there. Or, put the polling place somewhere other than the school. This is the tail wagging the dog.

"Every school has a separate entrance to the gym Vote there." You have little idea of how porous a school buiding is once you're inside. Do you plan on local jurisdictions spendng money to put police or other security in the hallways so no one can wander off (intentionally or unintentionally) into other parts of the building? This is not pollworkers' job, by the way.

Also: You seem not to understand how many cars are constantly coming and going from a school parking lot on election day. If there are teachers' etc. cars there, school buses coming and going, kids arriving (voting starts early, before school begins, and some of the heaviest voting times are early morning when kids would be coming in to school)-- all that is a recipe for a kid to be injured or worse, due to the stream of cars coming and going. Do you not see that?

"Put the polling place somewhere other than the school." Schools get used because virtually every community has one or is close to one. Not every community has, say, a community center or recreation center that could be used. Schools as polling places helps make it easier to vote for more people. It increases accessibility tremendously. Where do you suggest putting polling places so they are as accessible and widespread?

As I wrote, tail wagging the dog. You are looking to find reasons not to have school. The better approach (for kids, parents, erc.) to it look for ways to have school. Once you take that perspective, the solutions are many and easy.

Name one that would actually work for every school in the state? I'll wait.
And sorry, with all the chaos surrounding elections right now, I have zero desire to have my kid be in school while the crazies come out. That's just asking for trouble.

1. Use somewhere else as a polling place.

2. As was noted above, school is open while people vote in primaries, special elections, etc. Whatever they do for security for those elections has clearly been deemed to be sufficient. (This year's primary, of course, was after school ended for the summer; but in prior years the primaries have been held before school ended.)

Where? Don't just say find another place...say where. It has to be in walking distance and easy for the community to access, while also having parking. You can't force a private business to do it and not every area has a community center (I am in Vienna). Schools have been closed on Election day forever in this area. One day a year for heavily attended elections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm so glad that today schools are closed for Election Day. I wish it was a Federal holiday so that more people would have the opportunity to exercise their freedom to vote (and yes I know there are people who still work on Federal holidays. But I think we need more accessibility and focus on participating in what is left of our democracy).

Hard disagree. As a red blooded American parent there are only 3 holidays I need to see implemented: The day after halloween, the day after the super bowl, and the day after the 4th of July.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the kids voting? If not, they should be in school. It's a Tuesday.

(And we have lived in plentty of places where kids go to school at the same time as people vote at the school. It's not an issue.)

-signed, The Let's Make It As Hard as Possible to Vote person.
Let me guess who your party is?

How does having your kids at school make it harder to vote?

Because schools are used as polling places. Having randos wandering around a school while the kids are in it could be a security issue especially in a conceal carry state. I mean you have to sign in and are not let past the office unless you have taken a sexual harassment /volunteer training when the kids are in school. Why is this hard to understand?

That has nothing to do with it being harder to vote. Voting has been done before at FCPS schools while school was in session. No one was required to sign in at the office. That's not how it works when you have voting at a school and you know it.

(Also, I have never had sexual harassment or volunteer training but have been "let past the office" many times during the school day at our kids' elementary school.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the kids voting? If not, they should be in school. It's a Tuesday.

(And we have lived in plentty of places where kids go to school at the same time as people vote at the school. It's not an issue.)

You seem to forget that we now live in a country that is incapable of regulating guns so we have to keep schools locked at all times. Accordingly, keeping the front doors open to any school in VA is against safety protocols.
Remember, kids' safety comes last so this is the system that we live with. I think the guns are well taken care of, though, so no worries there.

Why would the front doors need to be open? Every school has a separate entrance to the gym. Vote there. Or, put the polling place somewhere other than the school. This is the tail wagging the dog.

"Every school has a separate entrance to the gym Vote there." You have little idea of how porous a school buiding is once you're inside. Do you plan on local jurisdictions spendng money to put police or other security in the hallways so no one can wander off (intentionally or unintentionally) into other parts of the building? This is not pollworkers' job, by the way.

Also: You seem not to understand how many cars are constantly coming and going from a school parking lot on election day. If there are teachers' etc. cars there, school buses coming and going, kids arriving (voting starts early, before school begins, and some of the heaviest voting times are early morning when kids would be coming in to school)-- all that is a recipe for a kid to be injured or worse, due to the stream of cars coming and going. Do you not see that?

"Put the polling place somewhere other than the school." Schools get used because virtually every community has one or is close to one. Not every community has, say, a community center or recreation center that could be used. Schools as polling places helps make it easier to vote for more people. It increases accessibility tremendously. Where do you suggest putting polling places so they are as accessible and widespread?

As I wrote, tail wagging the dog. You are looking to find reasons not to have school. The better approach (for kids, parents, erc.) to it look for ways to have school. Once you take that perspective, the solutions are many and easy.

Name one that would actually work for every school in the state? I'll wait.
And sorry, with all the chaos surrounding elections right now, I have zero desire to have my kid be in school while the crazies come out. That's just asking for trouble.

1. Use somewhere else as a polling place.

2. As was noted above, school is open while people vote in primaries, special elections, etc. Whatever they do for security for those elections has clearly been deemed to be sufficient. (This year's primary, of course, was after school ended for the summer; but in prior years the primaries have been held before school ended.)

Where? Don't just say find another place...say where. It has to be in walking distance and easy for the community to access, while also having parking. You can't force a private business to do it and not every area has a community center (I am in Vienna). Schools have been closed on Election day forever in this area. One day a year for heavily attended elections.

This is not hard. Cities and towns across the country use non-school locations as polliing places. Some obvious examples: Fire stations, malls, office building lobbies, libraries, churches. You are correct that you cannot force a private business to allow voting, but this literally isn't a problem anywhere. Businesses generally don't say no to the opportunity to get hundreds of people in the door on a Tuesday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the kids voting? If not, they should be in school. It's a Tuesday.

(And we have lived in plentty of places where kids go to school at the same time as people vote at the school. It's not an issue.)

-signed, The Let's Make It As Hard as Possible to Vote person.
Let me guess who your party is?

How does having your kids at school make it harder to vote?

Finding enough places to vote, for one. Schools are a perfect, central location for most and there are a lot of them, so people don't have to wait hours to vote like the do in some places. .
If the kids are home, you just bring with you. I always did.

OR we could allow easy, early voting. Vote by mail. Without any bit--ing and moaning and then it won't matter about "election day." But the GOP is the one trying to undermine those things even though they've been used successfully in some states and for the military.

You are going in circles. You can have kids at school AND let people vote at the school. In the (major northeastern) city we lived in until moving here, our polling place was in a school and the school was always in session.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You realize a lot of don’t have the day off. Neither of us do. I took off today and my husband took off Friday. Those are regular work days for non government employees.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/news/early-voting-begins-sept-23-nov-8-congressional-midterm-elections

From the link:

Early voting starts Friday, Sept. 23 with three locations open on weekdays.
An additional 13 early voting sites will open on Oct. 27.
Weekend voting hours will be offered on three Saturdays and one Sunday.

+1 Virginia starts voting earlier than almost anywhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think safety is the primary issue so much as the simple question of accessibility. The three schools in my fcps pyramid are all over enrolled. At any given moment during a school day at our elementary school there might be 0 to 4 spots available in the parking lot. They wouldn't be able to accommodate poll workers, much less voters. Middle and high schools probably have a small number of spots eac h day, but again not enough. It would be a serious barrier to voting.

+1 My kid’s elementary schools has barely enough parking for teachers and staff.

[Anonymous]

Election day needs to be on a Sunday.
I don’t want my kids in school while people are walking in and out, but I think it’s ridiculous that schools have to close because we can’t move voting to another day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or we could vote on a Saturday and no need for a bogus holiday.

Best of luck with that constitutional amendment. In the meantime, closing schools is better for students and for voters.