Should Election Day Become A Federal Holiday? Weighing The Benefits And Drawbacks
Should Election Day Become A Federal Holiday? Weighing The Benefits And Drawbacks
Election Day is always held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November during an election year. Congress codified this tradition in 1845 to account for
Is it time to make Election Day a federal holiday? 🗳️ Some say it would boost voter turnout and align the U.S. with other democracies, while others argue it could create challenges for hourly workers and cost millions. Dive into the debate over whether a federal voting holiday is the best way to strengthen democracy or if there are better solutions. Check out the full breakdown!
Many argue that advocates should redirect their efforts to create early voting options
Additionally, opponents emphasize that private employers are not required to recognize or give paid time off for federal holidays.
Both arguments against it are whataboutist horseshit. Anyone claiming these as reasons not to also make it a holiday would almost certainly also be against "okay, let's do all three", because they are arguing in bad faith.
Make voting take a week and limit campaigning to 90 days before the end of that week.
Shithole country. Honestly, together with the issues like voter roll purging and winner takes it all. How can you take this "pro/con" discussion even seriously?
The real question should be why the US is so undemocratic, what the forces are that drive this minority rule and prevent a more free and open society.
In Canada every Canadian is guaranteed four contiguous hours off work on election day while the polls are open to vote.
this is the pinnacle of stupid writing. Calling this "Research" is nonsense. You should have the day off if you have an "I voted" sticker. Not only should election day be a day off but so should:
- Primaries
- Special Elections
- Voter Registration deadlines.
All of those drawbacks are bullshit.
Early voting and mail in ballots should be more available to everyone. That's not a reason not to make it a holiday.
Private employers can't be forced to observe a holiday. That's not a reason not to make it a holiday. People required to work could still go before or after work, and would see reduced wait times because public employees would be able to go during work hours.
Finding childcare for the day is a problem anyway, as polling places are often schools, and the kids are sent home anyway. If it was a holiday, you could take your kids with you to the polls and then go to the park. That's almost a reason not to make it a holiday, but not really.
If banks, post offices, and schools are all closed, a lot of businesses will also close because work slows down. Other employers, like retailers, food service, and entertainment venues like movie theaters would all see an uptick in business, and would probably offer extra pay for those shifts.
Yes to mail in ballots. Yes to early voting. Yes to a national election holiday. Reduce the barriers to voting. No to ID laws. No to voter roll purges. No to proof of citizenship requirements.
No. All that needs to be done is make universal vote by mail the standard.
My state has been doing it for 24 years now, this will be the 7th Presidential election (2000, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24) and 13th Congressional election. It works, it increases voter participation, there's a built in paper trail, there's nothing to not like about it.
Remember how 2014 had a record low turnout for a mid-term election?
"the lowest it's been in any election cycle since World War II, according to early projections by the United States Election Project.
Just 36.4 percent of the voting-eligible population cast ballots as of last Tuesday, continuing a steady decline in midterm voter participation that has spanned several decades. The results are dismal, but not surprising -- participation has been dropping since the 1964 election, when voter turnout was at nearly 49 percent."
Meanwhile, in my state:
https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2014/11/voter_turnout_of_695_percent_i.html
"Turnout in this fall's election reached 69.5 percent, just half a percent short of turnout in 2010 and 2006 and 1.5 percent better than in 2002, Secretary of State Kate Brown said Wednesday.
More than 1.5 million Oregonians cast ballots, a record high for a non-presidential election, while nearly 700,000 registered voters sat out."
So many things to fix about our broken democratic institutions. Every state should have mail-in voting as well as early voting. Every state should automate the registration of voters as much as possible as well. And sure, election day should be a federal holiday, or moved to Sunday or Saturday, at least.
Other things to work on: ranked choice voting and getting rid of the nasty racist holdover that is the EC. Also, we need to remove the special privileges that rural land has over people. Way too many ways our current system gives remote areas more representation than they should have...
Opponents counter that a holiday may not significantly increase turnout and could even create challenges for some workers.
Ok well can we collectively agree that the opponents to this are full of shit? Like, this is less than a no brainer. This is a negative brainer. In that to oppose a national election day holiday, your aim must be less people voting. There's one party that does well when less working people vote, and surprise surprise, it's the party that keeps denying us a federal election day holiday. GEE, I CAN'T IMAGINE WHY.
Trump said this week of Democratic voting proposals. “They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”
From a 2020 Vanity Fair Article, discussing how Democrats wanted to make it easier/safer for people to vote during the pandemic.
Easier solution than trying to have a single day off for everyone:
Since early voting is a thing, all employers should be required to give workers 1 paid flex day during voting season so they can vote.
They can even tie the flex day to evidence that they actually voted, so it truly encourages voting instead of just being an extra day off.
In Germany we always have elections on Sundays so it's basically a public holiday (unlike in the US where stores are still open). There are enough places to vote (though you're assigned to the one in your district for statistical reasons) so you rarely have to stand in line. I've seen pictures of voting lines in the US and was shocked...
Mail-in votes are available to everyone and it's being used a lot but for many people going to the voting place in person has more meaning to it. Some even put on a suit, but that could also be because they are on the way to church.
Electronic voting was discussed but the consensus is that it's not safe enough.
The question if it should be a public holiday in the US is weird to me as it is a very clear YES and also YES people should definitely always get a day off on public holidays wtf
Yes, and I also want a hotdog after voting (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_sausage).
The only reason to not make voting day a holiday is because the very people preferring you not vote are losing profits and power don’t want the people worked the hardest to have a say in changing the system.
There were some good stats in there, but this wasn't anything groundbreaking. I'm totally in favor of making Election Day a federal holiday, it's arguably the most important day for the continuance of our democracy after all. BUT any action must take into account the fact that so many Americans don't get federal holidays off, and employers can't be forced to give them that time off. So there would have to be a fund or subsidy available to employers to continue paying their workers on this new day off. It should also be a kind of superholiday so even private employers are forced to observe it.
This, and getting rid of the electoral college should be a priority once we've soundly defeated the orange turd and can take a couple breaths.
Of course it should be.
Cons: wealthy people will lose money...
It's almost as if people should be paid enough and have enough PTO to live and enjoy it, as well as vote.
Presidential elections occur on leap years where we just plain add an additional day to the year on our calendar. This isn't as complex an issue as the article wants it to seem.
Yes.
It should be
Unless they're going to do something like require octuple pay for anyone working on an election day, which in turn would fuck up the financial math of any business thinking about opening that day, making it a holiday won't fix anything.
Mandate vote by mail federally. While your at it, copy Mexicos voter ID system and give everyone free voter ID's.
IMHO, yes, but you have to bring proof of having voted the next work day for it to count. And the State should respond to mail-in ballots with "I Voted" stickers - mail in ballots have deadlines, so maybe It'd be enough time for a round trip. Or if you drop off the ballot at a post office, postal workers can hand you a sticker. More money for the USPS; it's a win-win. Change the I voted sticker each year; counterfeiting would be more work than it's worth.
There'd be forgeries, lax enforcement, whatever; the point isn't to have a hard enforcement, like money, but just to encourage people to vote.
We'll never be a country that mandates voting, like some do, but anything that encourages people to vote is a good thing.
P.S. if we can't convert to a 4-day work week country, I think we should slowly create more federal holidays that fall on specific week days, until we have 52 of them.
There is zero reason not to have more holidays.
Christmas doesn't create challenges for hourly workers, and noone that matters cares if it costs companies millions.
Why? Just make voting more accessible. In my country, the Netherlands, there are just many voting locations that open early in the morning and close at 9PM. Like during an election day there are 3 voting stations within a 5 minute walk from my home and there are voting stations at every major train station. You can vote almost everywhere. No excuse to not vote even if you have to work that day.
There is no point in making Election Day a holiday when you don’t fix voting accessibility first. Why create a holiday and then waste it for standing in line?
Doesn't matter either way as the only people guaranteed off on federal holidays are government employees.
Yes it should be a holiday! Why are we even talking about this?
Here in Canada All employees who are Canadian citizens and 18 years of age or older are entitled to have three consecutive hours off on Election Day to vote. Voting hours in the Eastern time zone are from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. If an employee’s hours of work do not allow for three consecutive hours off within this period, the employer must give them sufficient time off to meet the requirement of three consecutive hours.
Just make it a Saturday and make it quick and easy to vote?
Then people can go to work before or after voting if they need.Yes. There are no drawbacks.
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OK, so make all voting days a holiday?
It you could vote on Sundays? At least two other countries do that
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