I got this email today:
Dear <redacted> member,
Do you ever wish you could quit your day job and work to take back Congress? Well, on Election Day, you can come close: Take the day off work on Tuesday, November 7th and be part of something big.Skip your annoying commute. Skip those endless meetings. This election is the best chance we've had in years to change the direction of our country. And we have a plan to put dozens of races over the top by making hundreds of thousands of get-out-the-vote phone calls on Election Day—but we can't do it without your help.
Can you take the day off work on Tuesday, November 7th to help win this historic election?
It made me think again why making an election day a holiday is a good idea. It's fair to assume that being able to take a solitary day off for the election is not something everyone can do. It's probably easier if you are a professional worker not serving other people. Hard to say how that affects Democrats and Republicans. Teachers can't take a day off, and they tend to vote Democratic. Soldiers probably can't take the day off, and they tend to vote Republican. Now, it's clearly not the case that election day being a work day is the reason that turnout in American elections is low, since many other countries have their elections on a weekday and manage significantly higher turnout than in the United States. Moreover, the wide variation between the different American states in turnout, none of which have holidays for election day, must indicate that other factors are at work.
All those caveats aside making election day a public holiday is still the right thing to do. Everyone is legally entitled to take time off to vote, but to help turnout the vote and participate in other aspects of an election requires you to take your holidays off. In a country that celebrates and proclaims its democratic traditions, wouldn't one day off in the year to take part in democracy be small but symblic. America does its nationalistic public holidays very well (Memorial Day, July 4th and Thanksgiving specifically) but what could be more American than to participate in the nation's democratic events?
If you look at the history of American election days it's quite clear that election days used to be opportunities for boisterous public displays, and not a lot of working. Making election day a non-work day again would return to a grand American tradition. In the 19th century Minnesota made election day a public holiday by legislation. It's been done before.
The other good reason for making election day a public holiday (or a weekend) is that then you can have an election night party. The election night party is, I think, a small but important part of Australasian culture that derives from the convenience of having elections on Saturdays, and being able to sleep in the next morning with nothing to do (for most people).
Having elections on a Tuesday when you have to work makes voting like running to the store after work. You do it. You go home. You make sure you have everything ready for Wednesday at work. There is a better way. Make election day a holiday.
Posted by eroberts at October 19, 2006 01:08 PM | TrackBackA holiday for whom? One possible unintended consequence of this could be making it harder for people in the service industry to get out to vote. I can speak from experience as a barista that on many holidays, such as Labor or Memorial Day, everyone else having the day off means that work is twice as busy at the restaurant, coffee shop, etc.
Except for deeply rooted holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, lots of holidays are anything but for people in the service sector. In the US I think it would be difficult to get an election day holiday respected enough that pretty much everyone gets the day off.
Not a conclusive point against your idea, but one to consider.
Posted by: Jacob Grier at October 19, 2006 05:08 PMI completely agree. Election day should be a holiday.
Jacob, perhaps you are right, but Americans are legally allowed to take a certain amount of time off to vote (I believe it has to be in the morning, but I might be wrong.)
Posted by: Pat at October 19, 2006 06:34 PMOne of the ploys of the ruling elite of pseudodemocarcies is to make it difficult for the majority underlcasses to cast their vote and to have all kinds of technical hurdles for disallowing or disenfranchising (Eg: criminal conviction).
Imagine if democracies like New Zealand, France, Germany, Sweden, etc were to attempt the introduce the election day practices of the USA - there would be rioting in the streets!
While on that subject: It constantly amazes me how tolerant the American people are of their ruling politicians. The behaviour exhibited with boring consistency would never be tolerated elsewhere - look at Poland right now for example. They riot without the looting btw.
American people - stop being so meek with your politicians go riot! But no looting please.
Posted by: Gary at November 2, 2006 10:08 PM