Doctora Malka Older: Long election campaigns also put the emphasis, over and over again, ON THE ELECTION rather than on governing: like voting is all we as citizens have to do; like winning is the most important quality in a candidate. GOVERNING. The thing is GOVERNING. Elections should be a means of accountability+

Long election campaigns also put the emphasis, over and over again, ON THE ELECTION rather than on governing: like voting is all we as citizens have to do; like winning is the most important quality in a candidate. GOVERNING. The thing is GOVERNING. Elections should be a means of accountability+

Long elections waste immense amounts of money. they harass potential voters into apathy. They play into the horse-race, scandal-fed view of politics that feeds deeply unserious media coverage. They NOT INCIDENTALLY make it difficult/impossible for campaigns to deal with last-minute surprises.

NOT, I repeat NOT, a yardstick for megalomaniacs trying to show off; NOT a fucking real-life reality show for drama-hungry TV "news" producers. Accountability and information, and keep it snappy.

This x 1,000

But how do you stop people campaigning, even informally, when the election date is known ahead of time?

example: commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

Pre-election period of sensitivitycommonslibrary.parliament.uk Government and local authority resources cannot be used for party political campaigning at any time. In the run up to an election, the pre-election period of sensitivity, particular care is taken. Gov...

Spitballing here: Everyone who wants to rebut them gets a free prime time TV special for the first offense. Prohibited from appearing on the ballot on the second offense.

The Constitution would have to be changed root and branch to get away from fixed election dates

the primaries are decided by the state, and the election dates can stay the same as long as campaigning starts later

I mean we're not Parliamentary, that terms are fixed, the election to succeed McConnell is in sight, ppl lining up, fundraising now

Have I mentioned how utterly silly I think three year House of Representatives terms are? With the one year election cycle, members of the US House of Representatives are basically just constantly political campaigning rather than legislating.

I agree but I don't know what the right amount of time is. I do think we need longer elections because the US is so much larger and more populous than most European countries. India does impressive things with their elections. I do think candidates basically have to keep full time campaign offices

The biggest complaint you get door knocking for campaigns is that people only hear from their reps when it's campaign season. Having a ground team always operational helps get the word out about what work the candidate is actually actively engaged with. Media coverage being what it is

People ought to push their newsletters more I guess

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