It's 11 in the morning on Sunday, and I just got back from voting. I never wrote about what it's like to vote in Europe, but I think it's important that people in my native country, the U.S.A., are aware of how differently (sorry: better) things are done in other places.

I live in a village outside of Barcelona in Spain. Though today's election was for the in the European Parliament, the voting conditions are the same as I will describe, no matter what the election.

1. Elections are held on Sundays, when almost everyone is off work. Obviously this guarantees maximum voter participation. The voting stations are open from 8 am to 8 pm.

When are elections in the U.S. held? For example, the presidential election? November 4th, no matter what day of the week it is. Usually it falls on a work day, and since the U.S. has not designated voting days as holidays, many people need to finagle with their employers to get off work to vote. In addition, since there are no legal protections for workers if they miss work to vote, many people lose pay when they vote. I believe this in itself is a breach of basic citizen rights. Voting is a vital part of the political process. Citizens should not be penalized for participating in the political process. Obviously.

2. There is no such thing as "voter registration" in Spain. (Nor, I believe, in Europe.) If you are a citizen, you are automatically registered. Thanks to digitized databases, this convenience was available long ago, and it should have been in the U.S. as well. But since the U.S. system is set up with numerous hurdles to voter participation, it has not been done.

Another hurdle in U.S. voting is having to having to register with a political party ahead of time and, in some elections, being able to vote only for that party. In Spain, these complications are non-existent. You simply show up and vote for whomever you want, without having to register with any party.

3. In Spain (as well as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland. Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine), prisoners can vote. In every state of the U.S. except D.C., Maine and Vermont, convicted felons cannot vote while in prison. The reinstatement of voting rights for felons who have served their sentence and paid their debt to society is uneven, varying state by state.

4. There were 34 political parties (34!) occupying the entire political spectrum from which to choose to represent Spain in the European Parliament, though there are five so-called "super-parties", or dominant parties in Spain. These super-parties also occupy significantly different parts of the political spectrum, from far left to far right. Contrast that with the U.S. system, in which there are only two super-parties -- one right of center (Democrat) and one far-right of center (Republican) -- which always win the U.S. presidential elections.

5. Since I live in a small village, I walked 10 minutes from my home to the city hall. There was no line of people waiting to vote. I was directed to the voting room, where a man stood by to assist and two women sat at a table with a box for the ballots. Again, the room was empty of other voters. No cops, no armed guards. The women were friendly and welcoming and answered my questions clearly. There was a long table filled with 34 pamphlets, each containing the candidates for the respective political party, and envelopes. There was also a voting booth containing the pamphlets and envelopes if you wanted secrecy. To vote, all I had to do was show the women my ID card, choose the pamphlet of the party of my choice, put it in an envelope, and put it in the voting box. Done. Took less than 3 minutes.

In short: the whole process was friendly, easy, and relaxed, as it should be. Voting in Spain was easier than going to the supermarket. It could be so easy to do things this way in the U.S. (okay, maybe the cops and armed guards would be necessary, due to the violent society of the U.S.), if those in power to make this change had the will to do so.

I believe it is literally a crime how purposely inefficient and corrupt the voting system in the U.S. is. Yes, corrupt: with gerrymandering, the ability for the rich to buy their politicians, and the ability of local governments to make laws restricting voting among certain left-leaning populations, etc. All our lives we have been reading stories of this corruption. Let alone the abovementioned federal policies that systematically restrict voter participation.

There are many things in the U.S. that need to change, and voting is one of them. Hopefully, with Gen Z and millenials proving to be a serious political force in the U.S., they will drive that change.