pros and cons of making election day a national holiday
Virginia Gov. If that level of participation gnaws at you, then consider: turnout for UKs Brexit vote was a shade over 77%; while 67.9% of the French electorate turned out for 2017s presidential election. In Australia, where voting is mandatory, elections are celebrated with parties and barbecues, resulting in turnout rates around 90 percent. Political campaigns can help winning elections. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson wants to make Election Day a holiday in Michigan. The second Trump vote could reach those levels. If Election Day is a national holiday, would that mean the post office would be closed, she asked. Explain your answer. Here are the proper bibliographic citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): [Editor's Note: The APA citation style requires double spacing within entries. Why or why not? This is a stressful, insecure time for many. [24] Holidays usually mean more work hours for retail workers, because stores run promotions and sales. Reformers will be far more successful adding a few days or options or opportunities than trying to undo Election Day.. [27], Companies including Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Farmers Insurance, Kaiser Permanente, Patagonia, and Walmart have joined Make Time to Vote campaign, which encourages employers to provide paid time off, schedule no meetings on Election Day, and give information on mail-in ballots and early voting. Issues also arise when a persons polling place is far from their workplace or when there are long lines to vote during peak times like in the morning before work or in the evening after work. Lets get early in-person voting in place in Michigan, so that everyone has an opportunity that fits their schedule. Making Election Day a national holiday would turn voting into a celebration of democracy. . While making Election Day a national holiday or moving it to the weekend would by no means be a cure-all, it could be used in conjunction with other strategies like automatic voter registration (nearly 87% of registered voters participated in the 2016 election), restoring voting rights for formerly incarcerated people and removing other barriers such as voter ID requirements and voter roll purges that often disenfranchise people of color. Giving people the day to vote would be the first public holiday in the United States. ProCon.org is the institutional or organization author for all ProCon.org pages. I believe Election Day should be a holiday so we can get our maximum participation, says Jacobs. Here are the proper bibliographic citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): [Editor's Note: The APA citation style requires double spacing within entries. Tina Barton, a Republican Rochester Hills City Clerk has a lot of those questions, and more. Politicians, most recently House Democrats in 2019, have also floated the idea of turning a weekday Election Day into a federal holiday, but to no avail. Although state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) says she still supports the idea, but she says Im all-in on an all-of-the-above approach.. So far this year, hundreds of bills have been introduced that could have the effect of suppressing peoples right to vote. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? Managing Editor Advertisement. 13 . Because of the pandemic, more U.S. voters are exploring alternatives to voting on Election Day, such as early voting and mail-in voting. https://www.britannica.com/story/pro-and-con-election-day-holiday. Arizona, for example, allows employees who do not have three consecutive hours before or after work when the polls are open to take paid time off to vote at the start or end of their work days. If Election Day is a national holiday, would that mean the post office would be closed, she asked. So, since this effort does not receive bipartisan support, it is difficult to enact.. States such as Georgia and Iowa already have passed restrictive measures and many others appear poised to do the same thing. Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox. All rights reserved. ProCon.org is the institutional or organization author for all ProCon.org pages. Carlson calls on Minnesotans to oppose sulfide mining, Local View: The stories of spring, other seasons, play out in the night sky, In Response: Expensive or not, Minnesota a good place to do business, The beginning of the rest of their lives: Powwow recognizes Fond du Lac graduates and more, Lake Superior Medical Equipment relocates to West Duluth after fire, Minnesota DNR, feds sign agreement over logging in wildlife areas, Special Olympics return to Northland after 3 years. At the top of his list: making Election Day a national holiday. Should the Voting Age Be Lowered to 16? The United States currently has 10 national holidays, includingMemorial Day,Independence Day, andChristmas Day. America is walking the knifes edge between maintaining and losing democracy. Privacy Policy. 1. "Should Election Day Be a National Holiday?" However, those numbers may be attributed to a combination of factors not solely because their elections occur on non-work days. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. But if you must, then I insist we move the election to April 15, Tax Day, to remind everyone how much these elections cost. Voter suppression policies need to be reversed, starting with restoring the pre-clearance provisions of the Civil Rights Act. If Election Day were a national holiday, how would you ensure hourly and low-income workers would get a chance to vote? While some states have made Election Day a civic holiday (though it primarily applies to public workers) and most have laws that require companies to give employees some time off to vote, none of the legislative efforts to enact these changes on a national level have been successful. Proponents say the Electoral College ensures everyone selects the president. a list of voting rights provisions he would support, Congress in 2019: The need for bipartisan action on voting rights and election integrity, Voting rights, the next Attorney General, and a less divided America, Republicans in 48 states have introduced 389 bills, Generational change divides GOP, unites Democrats. In fact, these voters may be more likely to have to work as a result of a federal election holiday, where they may have had time off previously on a random Tuesday in November. Colorado College recently decided to give students the day off on Nov. 3. WebElection Day National Holiday; Electoral College; Lowering the Voting Age to 16; Voting Machines; Ronald Reagan; Bill Clinton; Election Day National Holiday: Top 3 Pros and Cons. When turnout is high, it becomes increasingly fruitless for politicians to play to their base in ways that allow a vocal minority to rule, which is how many American leaders currently operate. Michael Graham is political editor at InsideSources.com. procon@eb.com, 2023 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Election Day could be made a federal holiday if a bill were passed by the House and Senate then signed into law by the president. Speaking on MichMash, she explainsthat one of her biggest concerns has to do with the post office. [6] Election Day could be made a holiday if a bill were passed by the House and Senate then signed into law by the president. It was a modern record for the Peach State. Yes, its true Americas voting age is lower than some other developed countries. He concluded that having an election holiday, by itself, is not an effective strategy to increase voter turnout. [34], Automatic voter registration, by contrast, could register an additional 22 million people and create 7.9 million new voters nationwide within a year. (And in case youre curious, November was chosen as the month for similar reasons: It was after fall harvest was over but before the cold winter weather set in.). The answer dates back to 1845, when Congress passed a law declaring that federal elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. That year, just over 36% of eligible voters showed up. WebPros: A day will be marked on your calendar for voting. The bill had zero co-sponsors and went By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. https://www.hoover.org/profiles/bill-whalen, federal holiday. Proper citation depends on your preferred or required style manual. Its a move that could de-politicize some of the election reform discussion, as some of the ideas could receivebipartisan support. [20][21][22] A part-time hourly worker is more likely to have multiple jobs, none of which are likely to offer time off for a national holiday. As part of the weekly series MichMash, hosts Jake Neher Cheyna Roth talk about the cases for and against making Election Day a state holiday. So what are the odds of Election Day 2020 becoming a federal holiday (an idea Vermont Bernie Sanders was peddling back in 2015)? It shouldnt all come down to just one day. Rochester Hills City Clerk Tina Barton. Many other democracies make election day a holiday and they all have higher voter turnout than we do. In addition, those who wish to cast their ballots have ample opportunity to do so. It needs better voters, people who have some vague notion of what theyre voting for or against, not just people practicing identity politics or voting with their political tribe. ", ProCon.org. Additionally, many of these individuals rely on school days as childcare for their children. ], [Editors Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries. If 118 million people did it in 2018 without a holiday, why do we need to shut down the post office and close the banks to get them to do it again? Count me out. Other countries take heroic efforts to ensure that people can vote if they desire. Georgia had the 12th-highest turnout in the country in 2018, with 57% participation. First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. We get about 20-25% of our absentee ballots come in on Election Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson wants to make Election Day a state holiday, but some worry about unintended consequences. National Election Day would make a 13th and it would only be observed once every four years and would help ensure voters could avoid the stresses of time constraints and other factors that hinder their ability to vote. 2020, Virginia. And it will, in turn, help strengthen the idea that businesses can and will come together for a worthy common purpose: protecting our democracy by empowering all American workers to be good citizens. [30], Solutions such as automatic voter registration, same-day registration, early voting, no-excuse absentee voting, restoring voting rights to former felons, improved civics education, and voter outreach would all improve voter participation more reliably than a national holiday. The turnout numbers prove voting isnt that hard. Last modified on October 1, 2020. [15] Israel and South Korea make national elections a holiday to avoid economic hardship for voters. Bensons proposal would make Election Day a state holiday, not a national holiday. This article was published on October 1, 2020, at Britannicas ProCon.org, a nonpartisan issue-information source. Approximately two million people who work Should the United States Use the Electoral College in Presidential Elections? [8], In the 2016 presidential election, 55.7% of the American voting-age population cast a ballot. Governments are required to A number of bills like the Weekend Voting Act have been proposed in Congress over the years, often by Democrats. [12], The idea that voting should be a celebration, not a chore is one argument for turning Election Day into a national holiday, according to Archon Fung, PhD, and Jane Mansbridge, PhD, professors at the Harvard Kennedy School. [1], Over time, voting rights expanded from only white, male landowners age 21 and older to include women and people of color, as well as citizens age 18 and up, resulting in a dramatic increase in the voting-eligible population and a shift in voter demographics. Poland, for example, holds elections on weekends. WebPro: making election day a national holiday will increase voter turnout by enabling more people to vote. The three presidential elections held in the 1960s ranged from a high of 63.8% (JFK) to a low of 62.5% (Nixon). It is the duty of the state to make exercising this right as accesible as possible by making the election day a holiday. Chicago, Illinois 60654 USA, Natalie Leppard Making Election Day a holiday would not necessarily involve adding a new holiday, which employers might resistparticularly following the addition of Juneteenth as a national holiday last week. Establishing Election Day as a holiday, taken together with the pending federal voting rights reforms, would go a long way towards stabilizing democracy and ensuring basic democratic rights. Cookie Notice The U.S. ranks 26th out of 32 for voter among Elections Held on Tuesdays?, britannica.com (accessed Sep. 30, 2019), Evan Andrews, "Election 1010: Why Do We Vote on a Tuesday in November?, history.com, Aug. 31, 2018, Grace Panetta and Olivia Reaney, "Today Is National Voter Registration Day. Democratic rights are much easier to end than they are to restore, so the federal government must respond to the wave of voter suppression overtaking the states with decisive, expansive action. Allow people to register to vote AND vote on the same day. Virginia Gov. Think of things such as voter ID laws, lowering the voting age, and abolishing the Electoral College. These changes would send a strong rebuke to those who are attempting to scale back voting rights and make it more difficult for African-Americans and Latinos to vote. Keep in mind that in the mid-1800s, the U.S. was largely an agricultural society. Instead, lawmakers could simply move nearby Veterans Day to Election Day, emphasizing that voting is both a service to the country and a celebration of the rights and freedoms for which our servicemembers fight. National Election Day rolls around every four years and falls on the first Tuesday in November. ], ProCon.org, "Election Day National Holiday Top 3 Pros and Cons,", ProCon.org, "Election Day National Holiday Top 3 Pros and Cons. 12 . In 1845, when Congress established a national election day, it had to be a Tuesday because farmers went to church on Sunday, went to market on Wednesday, and may have needed a day, Monday, to get to their polling place, Gil Troy an American presidential historian and McGill University professor told HuffPost. Tuesday was chosen because it was most convenient for farmers traveling by horse and buggy at the time. And that the reason why the Dems don't win more often is because of low voter turn-out because they can't afford to leave their jobs. If youre rushing to the polls to cast your vote to stop the forces of QAnon or because you seriously believe the same Republican Party that ended slavery wants to bring it back, please stay home. Overall, White adults are less likely to favor making Election Day a national holiday and automatically registering all eligible citizens to vote than are Black, Hispanic 11 . CON. Is that really an improvement? According to the AFL-CIO, 30 states require employers to allow employees time off for voting. ProCon.org. Some businesses may close, but their hourly paid employees will either have to use a PTO day or not get paid.. You know what else they have? If you want to make Election Day a national holiday because you believe American workers should have more days off to hang out with their families or pound Over time, voting rights expanded from only white, male landowners age 21 and older to includewomenandpeople of color, as well as citizensage 18 and up, resulting in a dramatic increase in the voting-eligible population and a shift in voter demographics. Lets assume there wont be an election holiday anytime soon not until Democrats control both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. Also, would a holiday mean limited public transit schedules, which might make it harder for some people to get to the polls? Copyright 2022 by WDET and Wayne State University. Low 38F. This would actually make it even easier and validate businesses to give their employees the day off so that they can work the elections and serve as election workers. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. Opponents say kids arent mature enough to vote. WebAt the opening of Congress this past January, House Democrats introduced a proposal to make Election Day a national holiday. Cons: Private employers are not required to give their employees federal holidays anyways. Election Day in the United States is the Tuesday following the first Monday in November of an election year. You have permission to edit this article. A handful of states have made election day a state holiday, including New York, Hawaii, Kentucky, and, in Apr. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). Veterans Day typically is about one week after Election Day so this would involve little disruption in terms of job schedules and monthly routines. But they never go far and die in committee without a vote. Not everyone is jumping at the idea of making Election Day a state holiday, however. Many Americans are not If you can draw a line between Donald Trump and President, your vote counts. And that enabled us to essentially fill our needs of staffing the elections. Trying one of these alternatives would avoid the negative economic impact of closing businesses for Election Day. Funding by lobbyists is a big problem. But thats not guarantor of a higher turnout. One major reason: It comes down to tradition, Troy said. Changing state laws and individual companies policies would be more effective ways to help people vote. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. It does not force voters to elect any one candidate and therefore, we believe, it survives constitutional muster. Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). Okun's son is mentioned in this [18][19], Federal law doesnt require private employers to give employees paid federal holidays. How to Become the US President. Its time to make voting harder. One example: if its a holiday, kids are home from schoolmaking it much harder for parents to have time to get to the polls. All this despite the fact that these types of restrictions have typically been considered illegal under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires that elections be equally open to all people. To Feed His Ravenous Flock, Ron DeSantis Ignores the Real Problem With the Fed, The Flat Tax Revolution In State Capitals Is Thriving, Amazon Tax Subsidies Are Inefficient Job Creators, New Immigration Initiatives Promise Improvements In U.S. Migration From Southern Countries, Latest Biden Regulation Will Cause Massive Trouble For New Homebuyers, retired matadors and mathematical savants. Benson also emphasized the preeminence that she says Election Day should have in our culture, that it should be a day of celebration of our civic duty to elect our leaders a celebration of democracy at a time when democracy is under real threat. In Texas, for instance, the deadline to register to vote for the Incidentally, Australia routinely reaches more than 90 percent voter turnout, compared to the United States, where average voter turnout in presidential elections since 1965 has been only 54%. Here are five reasons why Election Day should be a national holiday. Ralph Northam signed a bill on Sunday making Election Day a state holiday with the intention of making it easier for voters to cast their ballots in elections. Many states have already declared National Election Day a civic holiday, which is an occasion to commemorate America's history, celebrate our rights and responsibilities as citizens, and learn about our constitutional ideals. And some countries, like Australia, require people to vote by subjecting those who dont to a minor fine equivalent to a traffic ticket. I also take umbrage with the idea that people who dont vote are doing something wrong. By registering through a routine and necessary transaction such as those at the DMV, voters wont have to worry about registration deadlines or application submissions. ], [Editors Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries. Useful for voters who are still indecisive. WebProCon.org - Pros and Cons of Controversial Issues Kneeling during National Anthem US Presidents on Money PROS AND CONS OF CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES PROCON.ORG HEADLINES - Our Issues in the News Are DACA and the DREAM Act Good for America? 3. And who would get squeezed by the holiday? That, to me,is the real answer, she says.
