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!
Of course it should be.
OK, so make all voting days a holiday?
Yes. There are no drawbacks.
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?
American businesses are not required to give employees paid time off to vote, and the required amount of time that they have to allow is just a couple hours. So if someone works far away from where they live and/or has 12 hour shifts or something, it becomes a choice of getting paid or getting to vote. And the Republicans have done a fabulous job of making sure that voting is as time-consuming as possible in poor and non-white districts by limiting the number of polling sites. Some people have to wait 8+ hours to vote, and the Republicans have made it illegal to give people who are waiting in line food or water.
Also, you have to vote in the precinct you live in/are registered in. You can’t go to just any polling site on election day.
American businesses are not required to give employees paid time off to vote, and the required amount of time that they have to allow is just a couple hours.
Which is it?
Try reading it again, maybe a little slower, and I think you’ll get it.
I understand it as “time allowed for voting is not paid”.
Some states require businesses to give workers a minimum of a certain number of hours to vote, but there are no requirements for that time off to be paid. This means that, even if the workers are allowed to leave to go vote, it is unlikely that they will be paid for those hours, and for some people, missing a couple hours off of a paycheck can be a very big problem.
Improving voting accessibility will solve that. It takes 10 minutes for people to vote if there is a line in my country. They can also only vote in their own municipality and don’t get paid time off to vote. Making it a holiday still doesn’t solve the 8+ hours waiting time. People still won’t vote if they have to wait that long, they would rather enjoy their day off.
Let’s just swap from Thanksgiving (a holiday about racism and genocide) to Election Day. So there’s no net cost. Just swapping from one day to another.
I was thinking either Memorial Day or Veteran’s Day, since they seemed kinda redundant. Alternatively, President’s Day being moved to the election day seems like it would make sense.
Thanksgiving is practically a religious holiday at this point. Can’t deprive Americans of their celebration of gluttony and genocide. There’s a parade and everything.
Cons: wealthy people will lose money…
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.
Trump 2024!
Honey, please go sit back at the children’s table. The adults are trying to converse.
It doesn’t even matter anyway. Democrats threw in the towel when Biden dropped out. Like it or not, it’ll be Trump for 4 years. Don’t be scared, he won’t end democracy.
Did he stutter? He said sit back down.
Lol. I am sitting comfortably. I just find the echo chambers of social media funny. Actually, it’s not funny, mostly sad, I guess.
Im sorry you’re upset.
So you’re an independent thinker and not part of your own echo chamber?
Correct
Yup, confirmed MAGA. Dillusional and unhinged.
Yes it should be a holiday! Why are we even talking about this?
Easy just change it to Feb 29th and it’s a holiday. Once every 4 years. Nobody will forget it.
What will you do in 2100?
Actually brilliant
It’s really not.
Except that elections happen every year…
Right? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by how little Americans seem to understand about their own government… But boy is it depressing to see. Especially when its younger people.
… That sounds like it would be great.
In Australia we have pre-poll voting (early voting), mail-in ballots, and every election day is a Saturday - with democracy sausages.
And, importantly, preferential voting.
glancing at the current crop of Australian politicians
Seems like the system is still fucked.
Well, yes. Preferential voting is one key component, the other being a decent media so the public have an idea of what’s going on. Unfortunately Murdoch owns just about everything, and it’s a problem we’re still battling against.
a decent media so the public have an idea of what’s going on
You can’t have a decent media if it has been privatized, monopolized, and staffed with reactionaries.
it’s a problem we’re still battling against.
The problem is - as it has always been - a problem of moral hazard with regards to private interests generating income from public expenditures. The Murdochs aren’t simply ideological. Their control of the press affords an enormous windfall of state money via state contracts and grants, tax abatements, and revenue from privatized land and industry.
as a retail worker, i don’t ever get any other holidays off, why would my employer (or the insame amount of entitled shoppers) respect some new holiday?
Do you get any extra pay for working on a holiday?
Hah!
Good one!
Having worked retail in my younger days it’s maybe the worst role I’ve ever had (tied with the sales aspect of a job I had later on in my career).
Shit pay, shit hours, ever changing schedules, horrible management, toxic work environment, frequent abuses of employees (shit like working long hours with no breaks, surprise shift extensions because someone else called off, etc.), ridiculously petty rules and policies, etc.
The idea of any sort of pay for anything other than working the equivalent hours (or more…retail is notorious for trying to get free labor off the clock) is a fairy tale.
If only we had some type of… I don’t know what the word for it would be… Well, some sort of system that the people in a society agree to be governed by that could force these businesses to respect this holiday…
Oh well.
They probably won’t, but don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. This improves the situation. Just because it doesn’t help everyone isn’t a good enough reason not to do it at all.
Would rather just have voting being more than 1 day. Make it a week plus mail in voting.
Have enough states screwing around with voting locations to limit it to just a day
I was surprised to learn that there are still states where you can only vote one day. California and Texas have allowed early voting for over 40 years and it’s so easy to vote. Texas even passed a law requiring polls to be open at least 9 hours the first week of voting and at least 12 hours the second week and final day of voting. I’ve only waited in line twice and the longest I’ve waited was 10 minutes.
Yeah I don’t get lines in Ohio either. Maybe 2-3 mins if I go at a busy time.
When you see the reports/photos/videos of lines, take note of the location of the polling place and what the class and racial makeup of the jurisdiction is. Maybe even take note of the racial makeup of the people in the lines.
Then look at how many polling places per capita they have compared to other areas in the state.
Trying to not have to spell it out…
Benefits: People get to exercise their constitutional right to participate in democracy without sacrificing their livelihood
Drawbacks: None
Drawbacks: Stockholders don’t like it when the slaves don’t work
Pissing off stockholders is a benefit
I’m all for it as long as bars, restaurants, grocery stores, and shops close down too. Fast food workers and the like shouldn’t have to show up to work when everyone else gets the day off to vote.
This could be easily solved if we simply allowed voting to go on for a week, and mandated that every business must give every employee a day off during that week to go vote. Hell, it could be a month if we wanted. The only reasons to limit voting to a single day are malicious ones.
In Canada every Canadian is guaranteed four contiguous hours off work on election day while the polls are open to vote.
