Today is the day of silence here in Slovenia. For twenty four hours, no one is allowed to talk about or persuade to or canvass for any candidate whatsoever. No. Seriously. Slovenia has a law that enforces a 1 day cooling off before the election tomorrow. The fine is 200EUR per incident, and outright breaches are a high-level misdemeanor and can result in the removal of a candidate from an election. It extends to the press (this afternoon's news broadcast had as its lede the Day of Silence and a couple of public interest stories, one about a hero horse or something like that) and, most disconcertingly, to regular individuals.

OK. On the surface, this sounds like a smashing law worthy of emulation across the world and, especially, in the US. Imagine a single day, once every four years, where no one is allowed to gas on about politics. It sounds great except the hitch is that enforcement of this law here in Slovenia is done by fellow citizens dropping a dime on each other. Beyond the obvious freedom of speech implications, I really don't like this part of it. It would be much better to just let people buttonhole you up to the doors of the local school where you vote. Up to 5PM Central European Time, there were 37 charges against news bureaus, candidates and individuals. Like I said, disconcerting.

Another thing (and one that I approve of) is that the election is held on Sunday. In Slovenian, the word for Sunday is nedelja which means, literally, "no work day." Monday is ponedeljak, or "the day after the no work day." While it is a fairly Roman Catholic country (~50% of people go to Mass weekly), Sunday is a weekly worker's holiday in this former socialist country, to the point of being as sacred as a secular practice can be. This doesn't mean that no work is done, but just try and get someone to do something he or she doesn't want to do on a Sunday. Good Luck.

Anyhow, the idea of having the vote on a Sunday is that Slovenes go home to their home villages or neighborhoods where they are registered to vote anyway, are generally inclined to take an hour out of the day to vote especially for the general election, and are whipped up into a particular lather by the relentless coverage of the vote up to the Day of Silence. Personally, I think that the US should consider either declaring the National Election a holiday or moving it to a "no work day" in order to facilitate better turn out, but also to give a little reason to cast the ballot, head home, have a barbeque ready, pop open a cold one and watch the returns. I don't like the Day of Silence so much, but the idea of an election being a community event is appealing, and quite democratic in my opinion.