There’s a more wily reason to target the changing seasons, too. Climate seems to have measurable, if much-debated, effects on voter behaviour.
In the UK, all but one of the 11 general elections since 1979 have also happened in April, May or June, when politicians appear to believe the spring sunshine will imbue people with a feeling of optimism that will benefit incumbents. By the same token, waiting in line in furnace-like temperatures might not be the best way to convince wavering voters the government has its priorities straight.
MAKING VOTING EASIER FOR A BILLION VOTERS
There are plenty of fixes that could be made here. India has nearly a billion registered voters, but few provisions to make the ballot process easier.
Postal and absentee voting is only available to people with disabilities, those over 85 (raised this time around, from 80 in 2019), and certain essential services workers. Everyone else needs to turn up on the day or miss the opportunity.
Roughly half a billion people who’ve migrated from other areas of the country face barriers to voting in their home towns, an issue the country’s Election Commission is only starting to address.
In-person pre-poll voting may be a challenge given the sheer scale of the vote. There simply aren’t enough poll workers to run it in a country with a million voting booths. Still, postal ballots ought to be far more widely used.
