Damian Velez

Should voting be mandatory in the United States?

I use a wheelchair and I have voted in every election since 2008, and I can tell you the system is built for people who can drive, stand in line, and take time off. Mandatory voting would flip that overnight. The moment the government is legally on the hook for every eligible voter instead of just the motivated ones, accessible polling places, mail ballots, and real curbside voting stop being favors and start being requirements. The [EAC](https://www.eac.gov/) already sets accessibility guidelines that plenty of jurisdictions treat as suggestions. Nobody builds infrastructure for optional voters. Everybody builds it for a legal mandate.

Should the standard full-time workweek be cut to four days with no pay cut?

The five-day week is not a law of nature. It is a 1938 compromise, set when the Fair Labor Standards Act drew the line at 40 hours. [DOL](https://www.dol.gov) Meanwhile the people doing the hardest jobs in the country, nurses, firefighters, cops, have worked compressed schedules for decades: three twelves, four tens, then real days off. Nobody tells an ER nurse the unit will collapse if she is not there Friday. Hospitals run fine. The office workers clinging to five days are defending a Depression-era habit, not a productivity finding. If shift workers can cover lives around the clock on compressed weeks, your marketing team can survive a Friday off.

That is the core tension. Deterrence works if companies believe the audit is real, and belief requires public findings. Publish the results and the checkbox problem shrinks.

Politics · Sep 23, 2026 · Should location privacy violations trigger automatic independent audits?