Because we dont have a feb 29 EVERY four years…
If the Olympics and presidential elections only happen once every 4 years, why the hell are we not doing them on February 29th????
Submitted 1 month ago by Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Comments
DaCrazyJamez@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
BlueMagma@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
In 2000, there was a February 29, because it was a multiple of 4, and despite being a multiple of 100 it was also a multiple of 400. It was the exception of the exception of the exception. My parents signed their divorce on that day. Which makes it extra memorable for me. What a day 😀 !!
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The olympics don’t take only one day, the paralympics are also a thing, as are the winter olympics. The olympics that happen on leap years are the summer olympics and February isn’t in summer.
Early voting takes longer than a day.
And February 29 doesn’t happen on years ending in 00 unless the year ends in 000.
TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 1 month ago
To add to this, weather conditions on November 5 are likely to be more temperate than February 29. November 5 can definitely still have bad weather, but you would be making in-person voting overall objectively statistically more difficult by pushing it into the end of February thanks to snow, where November doesn’t even crack the top 5 months for the most snowfall (and we’re talking early November here).
Fester@lemm.ee 1 month ago
We should add February 29-53 and remove 3 days from the other months.
ripcord@lemmy.world 1 month ago
One day for the Olympics would be a pretty mad rush at the moment
kameecoding@lemmy.world 1 month ago
To me the most baffling thing is that it’s not on the weekend in the USA AFAIK, like why the fuck would you have it on say a Tuesday when people need to work, pick up their kids from school etc, you might argue that still some people work on the weekends but that’s a much lesser percentage and makes voting easier for a lot of people and who does have to work, they can mail it in.
cybersandwich@lemmy.world 1 month ago
School is usually cancelled because the schools are often polling locations.
It makes it all the more dumb to not have it as a national holiday.
IamAnonymous@lemmy.world 1 month ago
You have answered your own question.
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Pretty sure my polling place is open for more than 12 hours. Maybe it varies by state, but that should be a reasonable amount of time for over 99% of the population to get there. Obviously, some places are massively overrun and understaffed, especially in the “unfavorable” districts, but I’ve had no issues making it out in less than 10 minutes by leaving for work 20 minutes early.
ammonium@lemmy.world 1 month ago
At the time most Americans were farmers. Can’t be Sunday because it’s a Christian rest day, Wednesday neither because that’s market day. They might have to travel a whole day to get there, so it can’t be on Monday or Thursday either. Which leaves only Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.
LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 1 month ago
The USA was designed for minority rule since forever.
roofuskit@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Is literally every business closed all weekend where you live? Or is this just another case of people not realizing that lots of people work holidays and weekends?
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 month ago
What are the voting times in America?
homesnatch@lemm.ee 1 month ago
It differs by state, mine is 7am to 8pm in addition to the preceding 2 weeks for early voting.
foggy@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Feb 29th should be election day, agree.
But the Olympics take weeks, homie.
dumbass@leminal.space 1 month ago
Nope, we doing everything in one day.
MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I agree that Tuesdays are stupid. Make it a Monday, Federal Holiday. In addition, Nationalize mail-in ballots.
thermal_shock@lemmy.world 1 month ago
would allow too many minorities to vote, upset white people.
MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Yeah, we crackers enjoy our select charcuterie boards.
philluminati@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
A leap year is every 4 years, but not every 400 years. If you could only vote on Feb 29 you’d have gone 8 years without a vote between 1996 and 2004.
AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Not quite—it’s every four years, excluding years divisible by 100, but not excluding years divisible by 400. So 2000 was a leap year, but it was the first century in 400 years for which that was the case (using the Gregorian calendar).
TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 1 month ago
you’d have gone 8 years without a vote between 1996 and 2004
On second thought, OP is absolutely correct and we need to invent a time machine to fix this mistake.
jeffw@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The Olympics happen every 2 years.
Elections happen every 6 months.
Deceptichum@quokk.au 1 month ago
Elections happen all over the world at different times for different lengths.
Why would we all sync the Olympics to America?
supertonik@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
US defaultism
inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world 1 month ago
There are other people pointing out all the pratical reasons why this isn’t the case.
But I like the spirit and vibe of this idea, good shower thought.