Been thinking this for over a decade

Voter suppression

If people actually voted, they might vote for people the oligarchy doesn't like. Bet you didn't think about that, huh? Checkmate libruls!
- No, I literally can’t even vote for someone the oligarchs don’t control. They don’t make it to the ballot.
100% this

Because they don't want the workers voting.

If you "can't go to the ballot because you need to work" you are a plebeian, and so they have a way of excluding you while technically not excluding you.

A lot of modern oligarchy is powered by these technicalities. Technically everyone has a "right to" participate in the system, but the whole apparatus is rigged in such a way that in material reality only the same nobility caste that has called the shots since the bronze fucking age gets to call the shots.

By law employers are required to allow their workers an opportunity to vote. The problem is other stuff like taking their kids to school and having to go to work right after and by the time you make it to the poll through rush hour traffic, the line is out the door and they shut it down and don’t let you vote even though you waited for an hour.
- My roommate asked for time off to vote; her employer literally laughed at her. Now, there is legal recourse there, and she would have likely won and even gotten awarded a money judgment.
  But she needed that job without interruption. This was in Canada, by the way.
- So the bare minimum that even my little Eastern European hellhole could do was that a polling place closing means that those in line can still vote.
  A poll worker gets in line exactly at closing time, and those in front get to vote however long that takes. It's not hard to organize.
- The law also doesn’t require employers to pay for that time, so many can’t afford to take the time off even if their employer is chill about it.
- The thing is
  "The law says it has to happen" doesn't mean it happens.
  And the weaker labour protections are in your country, the more bosses can walk all over their employees.
  In the US, with their so-called "at-will" employment system, you can be fired at any time for any reason, and if you need the job to like, live, you won't even bring up your legal rights.
  Mind you even on countries where polling happens exclusively on Sunday (like mine!) there are other subtle ways The Poors ^tm are kept from enfranchisement. "Voting happens on a work day" is just one of the ways it happens in one of our world's oligarchies.
- I'm so glad my state has mail-in voting. Sorry buddy.

Cuz America is a backwards ass country

A shit hole country
- A third world country in a Prada belt.

Wait, you guys are getting President's Day off work??

Yeah, making election day a national holiday doesn't help those of us who don't get most holidays off.
- Right. Congress would need to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to mandate that employers give national holidays off to employees for this to apply to everyone.
- Maybe it needs to super-national?
This was my thought as well. Too many years of retail has left me with an instinctual hatred for holidays. Like how Labor Day is a holiday for the rich to "celebrate" the working poor who have to work that day.
Maybe OP works at an elementary school 40 years ago.
Though somehow there’s usually a mattress sale.
- Or a bank. Are banks ever actually open?
- Is there ever not a mattress sale? And they advertise like crazy.
- I've been getting it off for years. I know teachers do too, but I'm not a teacher.
Yes. Quite stupidly

Sure, here you go: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7329

One of many such bills.

Take a look at the sponsors. I'll give you 1 guess at which party would vote it down, because it would hurt them in elections.

It's the same reason Puerto Rico will never be a state.

Because only people who are able to afford a day off are supposed to vote. That's also why republicans agitate against postal voting and why early vote ballot drop-offs are burning.

early vote ballot drop-offs are burning
omfjc... Thanks for the heads up. Link for anyone else who blinked and missed this on Monday.
Authorities, including the FBI, were investigating Monday after early morning fires were set in U.S. ballot drop boxes in Portland, Ore., and in nearby Vancouver, Wash., where hundreds of ballots were destroyed.

At least make it a sunday lol, a tuesday wtf?!!
- It's on Tuesday because that was actually convenient with the flow of business at the time. Most were Christian and wouldn't work or travel on Sunday if possible, it often took a day's travel to get to the nearest town with a polling place, and Wednesday was market day.
  If Sunday and Wednesday are right out and you need a day's travel time (which also can't be Sunday or Wednesday) you're basically left with Tuesday or Friday. And if you're going to be in town for the market anyways then Tuesday makes more sense.
  It is in November because that's after the biggest harvests, but not so far after that the weather is likely to be rough. And it's the Tuesday after the first Monday so that it can't overlap with All Saints Day.
  On the upside it could be changed with a regular old law, it doesn't require an amendment or anything.
how are federal holidays not mandatory time off dude there's a reason they exist. what a backwards country.
edit: apparently the concept is so foreign that people don't understand how these things work. of course there will be exceptions but of you work on a holiday you get a full day's salary as overtime. this usually assures employers only force work when necessary because most would rather not pay extra. and of course further exceptions can be made into the law. no one said life should stop when there's a holiday.
- I work in a hospital. Unfortunately, people don't stop being sick on holidays, so someone has to work. I don't see how it could be different in any other country.
- Black and white rules always end up fucking someone over. For example I work in the entertainment industry and a lot of my income is from working on holidays, specifically because they are holidays. That aspect of my job is not exploitative, and if the option were taken away I would have big problems.
- Yep. Your boss can still say no and just give you a day in lieu
Good point, the real solution is to spread out the election and make voting easier, as in mail-in.

In most civilized countries, voting takes place on weekends and your employer is legally obligated to let you leave work to go vote

Some places give you a whole week to vote, and the polls are open 12 hours a day. So if you something happens and your plans are ruined, you have ample time to still make it to the polls.

We should just have elections on presidents day.

And that way presidents day finally has an actual purpose.
- I'd feel weird voting for other stuff on a day called presidents Day now. Maybe we should add more days. Like governors day and mayors day. Oh and county comptroller day!!! We should have cookouts on that day also, obviously.
- It has a purpose...that's when we have big sales at the car dealerships. Just as George Washington always wanted.
  How would people have time to get more car-poor if they had to stop shopping to do something silly like vote for the leader of the free world?

The poor and desperate will vote less under the current conditions. It is all baked into the US cake. Wait until you realize that the US never passed the Equal Rights Amendment. Still waiting on those bastard laggard states to ratify it for nearly 50 years.

Like 95% of the US get neither off

Yeah, my current position is this way, and I'm a $programmingLanguage Developer.

It gives employers the ability to suppress votes.

"We"? Who are "we"? Star fleet?

People have to remember that this is the Internet, this thing is global.

Dudes working at most hourly lower end type jobs still wouldn't get election day off, unless you mandated like octuple pay for anyone working that day (They should)

Meanwhile all the schools in my area are polling places so kids don't have school.

Forcing many parents to take the day off anyway, but unpaid (or using PTO time, if they have it).
Working as intended. Make voting as difficult and distasteful as possible so we can welcome fascism with big warm hugs. Finally, no more of that voting nonsense.

I'll give you 3 guesses

pancakes
adamantium
squirrels
(I'm bad at guessing)
I just need one.
Money

Bus doesn't even run on Sundays where I live in large areas (one of the top 10 largest cities in the US)

Why is it election day anyway, why not election month. California and Oregon have vote by mail; every state should

Washington State too. You're right, the election isn't just a day anymore - I voted more than a week ago.
The west coast, Vermont, and DC have all been mail voting for a long time. Hell, even Utah is via mail.
https://ballotpedia.org/All-mail_voting

Because President's Day is for buying stuff. Clearly what we need is to allow stores to set up in polling places to get it to be a holiday. /s

You are getting President's Day off?

Because Republicans don’t want you to vote if you have the kind of job that you can’t just take whatever time you want off.

"People voting for their leaders? That's socialism!"

The ruling class wants you to celebrate them more than it wants you to have any influence in their decisions. It's frighteningly close to HR pizza party logic.

Service workers work on both of those days, so the working class lose either way.

You kind of do but not a bank holiday. I believe us federal law mandates that your employer give you time to vote, but not the whole day off.

I agree it is dumb and backwards.

Nope. Unfortunately, like so many other things related to US elections, it's a patchwork that varies by state.

Because the oligarchy supports the leadership they helped to create .... not in the process of how that leadership was created.

Because corporations own you and this means they can pressure how you vote in key states.

I do, try living in a blue state.

I live in a red state and have the day off, champ.
- Nice, here is an actual relevant map:
  https://www.lgbtmap.org/democracy-maps/election_day_holiday_paid_time_off_to_vote
  It's really about split whether or not states will let you leave work to vote

Isn’t voting open for much longer than 1 day? Polls are already open…and so is early voting and mail-in ballots, etc. Election Day is just like the last day when (allegedly) the winner is decided. Not really a point for a full-on, everything closed type holiday, or even a “bank holiday” like President’s Day.

Depends on your state and county/parish. Voter suppression and lack of funding means that many "red" states have fewer voting locations and even fewer early voting locations. My family who live in a Republican county in a Republican state have only two vote early locations that are picked to be least efficient (both close to each other on an extreme end and less populated portion of a huge county). They would have to drive 45 minutes to get there in good traffic. It makes it difficult for folks who may be poor and working class to get out.
I’ve been mailing in my ballot for years. Sitting at home and researching each candidate and proposition at my convenience is a game changer. (This year, my ballot had 15 propositions to unravel!) I don’t need to worry about getting to the polls - or dealing with the armed, lingering asshats.
EVERYONE should be mailing in ballots.
- You don't need to mail in to research candidates.
  At least in my state, you can just see who is on the ballot weeks and weeks ahead of time.
- EVERYONE should be mailing in ballots.
  Not everyone gets that option from their state.
- Put $500 cash in an envelope and mail it to yourself. If you don't trust that, drop your ballot in person. I voted yesterday and got to scan my ballot into the machine.

You can't tell me you don't understand why this is

And why is presidents day called Washington's birthday?

Fred Astaire would explain it to you, but he can't tell a lie.

I used to agree that election day should be a bank holiday, but many many still have to work on bank holidays. Now I'm in a populous red state and in-person early voting has been available for years.

I voted early in 22 and in 20. Not sure how old the law is. I think I can vote early all the way up to Saturday, maybe Sunday. too lazy to check.

I think this is a better solution, mail voting notwithstanding. Voting doesn't have to go on for a whole month, but a week or two early makes sense.

Anyways I'll be voting sometime between now and Tuesday.

Because more votes in elections would mean more taxing the rich and more workers rights.

We shouldn't specifically have Election Day off work. Everyone should get one paid day off in the period of early voting or election day. It'll prevent the hours-long wait times at the polls on election day and allow businesses to stay in operation by spreading out the time when workers are off to vote.

I'd prefer it even more if the money for the vacation time were paid by the government, but only of the person actually votes. Otherwise, you'll just find a bunch of cruise specials around election season meant to capitalize on the extra vacation time, and voter turnout won't be significantly impacted.

this scheme has no incentive to actually vote. It would likely help many people in voting, but a lot would just go fishing or stay home to play games. I'm not saying make it a crime to not vote.
tax incentives to vote sounds like a giveaway to tax-prep companies and tax-software companies, none of whom should exist at all.
and all of this when the whole voting structure is fucked -- first-past-the-post is when one candidate gets more than another, even if they get a small minority of votes.
- Did you not read the part where I said the incentive requires them to vote?

I'm in Texas and we've had damn near 2 weeks of early voting. I'm going in on Friday. If you don't vote, you don't have a ton of good excuses, especially with mail in voting.

Not that I ultimately disagree, I think election day should be a national holiday, including midterms.

Also in Texas and I was surprised at the line for early voting when I went. Usually I just walk in and walk out because there's no one there before election day.
Some states (I want to say Mississippi?) have no early voting and only absentee ballots with a good excuse. So yeah, a federal holiday or some provision for time off to vote would be awesome.

We don't get either of them off. Or weekends.

Or simply vote on the Sundays...

This Sunday is the last day for early voting in Ohio. There's no voting this Monday but lots more polling places open open on election day Tuesday. I voted yesterday though.

'cause apparently you guys elect a king every 4 years, with the power to completely change the course of your country, so it's only right you honour him accordingly

Early voting is a better solution to the problem than making it a day off, though.

Bcs the few are important & worshipped, the many are expendable and barely deserving of human-level acknowledgment.

/s
\ (or at least I wish it was sarcasm)

I agree, giving people the day off to encourage voting makes more sense than honoring unnamed presidents (Washington and Lincoln if you're too young to remember). Repubs overall won't go for this because they know more voting is bad for them. Wacky, huh?

Fun fact! The official name for that holiday is Washington's Birthday.

I don't know the story behind its label of President's Day but on the federal reserve's website it shows:
"Washington's Birthday (President's Day)"

We have it in Malaysia if the polling date is in weekdays, and we usually have general election on Saturday so most people have no reason not to vote. And even then, we have law that said employer cannot stop employees from going to vote and this is heavily enforced. Though our election is only one day, and once the polling station close, anything or anyone that arrive afterward is not counted

I mean in my state I now have like 8 election days off.