politics

In Canada every Canadian is guaranteed four contiguous hours off work on election day while the polls are open to vote.

Yes.

Moving on.

Although the federal government cannot require private companies to observe holidays

JFC what a dystopian hellhole. It kills me they are so proud of their shitty living conditions.

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.

Benefits: People get to exercise their constitutional right to participate in democracy without sacrificing their livelihood

Drawbacks: None

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?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2014/11/10/voter-turnout-in-2014-was-the-lowest-since-wwii/

"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."

"Those against making Election Day a federal holiday argue that such a large focus on one day is misguided, since almost 70% of ballots in the 2020 presidential election were cast before Election Day."

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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.

Additionally, opponents emphasize that private employers are not required to recognize or give paid time off for federal holidays.

lol "we shouldn't fix this fucked up thing because this other thing is also fucked up"

that's a you problem, dog

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

In France, voting day is always a Sunday. And if you work on a Sunday (most people don't), your boss has to schedule your working day so that you can go and vote.