In Estonia, a national ID card (required for every citizen in the country) can be used to vote remotely. There is a simple and straightforward solution: make Election Day a national holiday so that people have the time and freedom to vote without taking time off from work. For example, in Ecuador, only literate citizens between 18 and 65 are required to vote; those over 65 or who are not literateare not required. As for Denmark, it has a national liberation day and some people celebrate international worker's day, but neither is a public holiday. 5.
Should Election Day Be a Holiday? - Homepage | Morningside Center for A number of bills like the Weekend Voting Act have been proposed in Congress over the years, often by Democrats. Litigation pending before the Supreme Court this term in Brnovich v. DNC, however, threatens to undermine this rule. Sunday: first Sunday of February for the President, Vice-President, and Legislative Assembly; second Sunday of February for municipal elections. In the 2016 presidential election, 60% of the eligible voting population vast a vote; this year, a staggering 47.5%participated in the midterms, compared to 37% in 2014 and 41% in 2010, the years of other midterm elections. Twenty-seven of the 36 member countries, hold their elections on the weekend. The United States is out of step with the rest of the world: elections are held on weekends in 27 of the 36 OECD countries.
Election results only announced for 1 of Nigeria's 36 states More people would vote if they had more time to cast their ballots Furthermore, celebrating our democracy publicly would send the message that we value each others citizenship as much as we value honoring past presidents. [13], Donald Green, PhD, Burgess Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, found that nonpartisan community parties celebrating Election Day in 2005, 2006, and 2016 increased voter participation between 2.6 percentage points and about 4 percentage points. 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. To paraphrase one of the commenters on the Reddit thread, is certainly is ironic that the British empire that is indirectly responsible for so many of the world's independence days has no real national day of its own. Unlike Singapore, South Korea and Israel, Canada has not declared election days as public holidays. As a holiday, that means several millions of people would have the day off from work or school, making it way .
While countries like Belgium, Sweden, and Turkey saw more than 80% of their estimated voting-age population cast votes in recent elections, less than 56% of the estimated voting-age population. Could that ever happen in the U.S.?
Vanita Gupta, CEO of the Leadership Conference on Human and Civil Rights, is working to increase voter participation and decrease voter disenfranchisement. Some say a holiday would increase voter turnout by enabling more people to vote while celebrating democracy. In the US, Election Day is not a national holiday. What we're proposing isn't that every Election Day becomes a national holiday, just the presidential election, which only takes place once every four years. Before that point, states could hold their presidential elections on any day within a certain 34-day window. Office Holidays provides calendars with dates and information on public holidays and bank holidays in key countries around the world. Some countries, about 27 of them,make voting compulsory. Election Day is always the first Tuesday after November 1st. 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). Should the United States Use the Electoral College in Presidential Elections? Proponents say teens are knowledgeable enough to vote. For starters, the United States is rather unique in that it schedules its election day on a weekday, let alone a Tuesday. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Or is it an optimistic idea that would exclude already disadvantaged voters while failing to increase turnout? 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. It happens to be on the day the politicians themselves get elected. Most others are not so recent, but still not so old: Taiwan's, for example, goes back to a 1911 uprising. Its hard to say. ", "An overall look at Vietnam's election law", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Election_day&oldid=1136894393. Because of the pandemic, more U.S. voters are exploring alternatives to voting on Election Day, such as early voting and mail-in voting. November 7, 2023.
COLUMN: Point Counterpoint: There are pros and cons to making Election Rather than make it a national holiday where inevitably people will still have to work, change election day to election week. National and Festival Holiday Act, which is applicable to all establishments in the country, irrespective of under which law it is formed it is mandatory to grant leave on following 3 days, i.e. Election Day is a state holiday in Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and New York. Read More, Election Day is a holiday in Puerto Rico. There are some exceptions; as Wednesday was not covered by the available dates, the Netherlands holds elections on Thursday, while Denmark holds elections on Sunday. Not all of these marked the end of colonialism (for example, Austria's signifies the withdrawal of foreign militaries after World War II and the declaration of neutrality) but the vast majority do. Election Day as a holiday is something that exists in other countries, but not in most places in the U.S. It's an issue that comes up a lot, but never really gets much serious public debate. Here are the four things I found interesting about this once as I mapped it out: 1) Yes, most of the world was shaped by colonialism. A National Day is a date for a country to celebrate its nationhood. Why Election Day is Held on a Tuesday in November in the U.S. A Boatload of Ballots: Midterm Voter Turnout Hit 50-Year High, Estonia's i-voting: more secure, more popular, Macedonia referendum: Low voter turnout puts country's name change at risk, What Voting and Elections Look Like Around the World, X Marks the Choice: Voting Methods around the World, Defense Language and National Security Education Office. "And we actually have more options than ever before.".
National Days around the world | Office Holidays 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. South Korea and Israel hold theirs during the week, but have made the day a federal holiday. The U.S. lags scores of other countries in election participation, ranking 26th out of 32 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), according to the Pew Research Center. (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.). Why or why not? [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. Whether accurate or not, elected officials likely think that making it easier to vote would advantage one party traditionally it is believed to help the Democrats at the expense of the other party, the GOP, said Vincent Hutchings, a University of Michigan political science professor. In an interview published Thursday, President Obama endorsed the idea of holding U.S. federal elections on weekends or national holidays. This is partially due to the influence of Protestantism, which historically set restrictions on activities other than church-going during the Sabbath (usually considered as falling on a Sunday). ", Others, however, are skeptical that creating a national holiday would increase voter turnout. Read more: You can take time off from work to vote in 30 states here's the full list. It commemorates the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a reverend and civil . Until 2009, elections were held over several consecutive Sundays. It would give people time to vote. Consider the pandemic, which has not given essential workers more time off. Consider, for example, the national days of France and Germany: the former marks the French revolution, in 1789, and the latter marks the German reunification in 1990. The correct answer is B. Advertisement Advertisement marberman marberman Presidential elections are held every four years, in years divisible by four, while the elections to the . Should Election Day be a national holiday? And she thinks corporate America has been leading the way, pointing out several businesses, including Walmart and Coca-Cola, that have announced paid time off and other accommodations to make voting easier for employees on November 3. Vote.org CEO Andrea Hailey agrees. 3. Election Day is already a holiday for state employees in more than a dozen states including Kentucky, Michigan, and New York. Tuesday is Election Day, but only in some parts of the country will voters get the day off to cast their ballots. October 26, 2020 / 10:57 AM Image 2. Congress would shore up the peoples right to vote while guaranteeing the time to engage in this fundamental right. A lot of people go to work, or they're in school during the weekday. He says it's more important to spread voting out over a period of days and methods. Of the nonvoters surveyed by the US Census Bureau about the 2008 presidential election, the 2012 presidential election, and numerous other elections, the most commonly cited reason for not voting was being too busy or having conflicting work schedules. The bill has no cosponsors, but the concept was supported by every 2020 Democratic candidate for president, excluding Mike Bloomberg and now-nominee Joe Biden. Countries which permit absentee ballots, early ballots or postal votes to be cast by mail before the election avoid the problem altogether by enabling voters to vote on a day that is more convenient to them. Should election day be made a national holiday? Pew also found that certain issues motivate voters more than others: "health care, poverty and education are the top motivators for political engagement." Georgias voter suppression bill is an assault on our democracy, Republicans in 48 states have introduced 389 bills, Tracking regulatory changes in the Biden era. This year, Election . A simple but effective change, however, could be made in election timing. Ralph Northam signed into law a measure that, among other things, makes Election Day a state holiday in the commonwealth.
Should Election Day Be a Holiday? - The Atlantic Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.
Why Election Day is on a Tuesday in November in the U.S. | Pew Research And even a number of the blue countries, such as Australia and Canada, are actually the product of colonialism. South Africa's is from the first democratic elections, in 1994. OK, so why Tuesday?
5 Reasons Election Day Should Be a National Holiday - Global Citizen Why Election Day Isn't a National Holiday in the US - Business Insider Consider this: Even if Election Day were moved to a weekend or turned into a national holiday, retail and service industry employees would still need to work. Compared to other developed countries, America's voter turnout rate is pretty sad. A large Democratic voting rights bill that would have made Election Day a national holiday collapsed in the Senate this year when two senators refused to join their own party in changing. As of mid-May Republicans in 48 states have introduced 389 bills that would reduce the hours polls are open; forbid people from eating or drinking while waiting in line to vote; close voter registration on Sundays, when Black churches traditionally have organized their members to register and vote; repeal no excuse absentee voting; and create a long list of other barriers to voting. 2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. An ordinary act of Congress could move Election Day to a Saturday or make it a holiday, thereby giving more people more . Elections to the Bundestag may be held on another public holiday. Nine states classify general elections as holidays: Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia. The number of early votes cast before Election Day 2020, as of Nov. 1, neared the 100 million mark according to data aggregated by the U.S. [1], An election day usually culminates in an election night when the results of the election are tallied and winners are announced.[2]. 2. 11 July (Tuesday): Celebration of the Golden Spurs (Day of the Flemish Community) - celebrates the victory of the count of Flanders and the borough militia against the king of France outside Courtrai. "[Early and at-home voting] helps prevent bottlenecks for election administrators because it 'flattens the curve' for when ballots are cast by large numbers of voters," Perez said. Fourth Sunday of October immediately before the end of the current mandates.
Is Election Day a national holiday? Why you don't get the day off - Zkon o podmienkach vkonu volebnh", "The Effectiveness of Early Voting A Case Study of the Republic of Korea", "Ley Orgnica 5/1985, de 19 de junio, del Rgimen Electoral General", "Elections in Venezuela and Pennsylvania: Lessons in Democracy? WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - Election Day should be a holiday for workers in the United States, President Joe Biden said on Thursday. [8], Among registered voters in the 2016 US presidential election, being too busy or having a conflicting schedule was the third-highest reason cited for not voting, accounting for 14% of registered voters who did not cast a vote (about 2.7 million people). In Sweden, for example, 83% of registered voters participated in the 2014 national . [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. So far this year, hundreds of bills have been introduced that could have the effect of suppressing peoples right to vote. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 25, 2016, Chris Talgo, "Make Election Day a National Holiday? Hailey said the country needs a "cultural shift" to prioritize voting. This page was last edited on 1 February 2023, at 18:43. Exact date set by the. A large Democratic voting rights bill that would have made Election Day a national holiday collapsed in the Senate this year when two senators refused to join their own party in changing. Russia's national holiday only goes back to 1992, when the Russian Federation was founded. Portugal celebrates the 1580 death of celebrated national poet Luis de Camoes, Spain celebrates Columbus Day (yes, the holiday is a little controversial there as well, although not as much as in the U.S.), the Netherlands celebrates the queen's birthday but it still use her mother's birthday for the date and, in Greenland, the celebrate the longest day of the year. [18][19], Federal law doesnt require private employers to give employees paid federal holidays. Incidentally, Australia routinely reaches more than 90. 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. So, since this effort does not receive bipartisan support, it is difficult to enact.. The Evolution of American Voting Rights in 242 Years Shows How Far Weve Come -- and How Far We Still Have to Go, businessinsider.com, Sep. 24, 2019, University of Houston Digital History, "Agriculture, digitalhistory.uh.edu (accessed Sep. 24, 2019), USDA, "Ag and Food Sectors and the Economy, ers.usda.gov, Sep. 20, 2019, Legal Information Institute, "5 U.S. Code 6103. If Election Day were a national holiday, how would you ensure hourly and low-income workers would get a chance to vote? Corrections? List two to three ways. Election day is a national holiday. Experts told CBS News that it's no coincidence this is occurring in a year when Americans have more time and more ways to vote than ever before. In the 2016 presidential election, 14% of registered voters cited being too busy or having a conflicting schedule as the main reason they didnt cast their ballots, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data. [7] A handful of states have made election day a state holiday, including New York, Hawaii, Kentucky, and, in Apr. Common reasons for a certain day are the date on which a state or country achieved its independence, or the date of the country's patron saint day. A surprising map of the worlds national holidays (only two countries have no national day), Belarus sentences Nobel Peace laureate Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in jail, This is Bidens chance to press Scholz on Germanys rearmament, Why Russia and Ukraine are fighting over Bakhmut. In many countries, general elections are always held on a Saturday or Sunday, to enable as many voters as possible to participate; while in other countries elections are always held on a weekday. Turning Election Day into a national holiday would instill a sense of pride in all citizens, knowing they have the ability to cast a ballot regardless of work. For federal offices (president, vice president, and United States Congress) and most gubernatorial offices (all except for . 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. This . Executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation & Research David Becker argues that increasing turnout is a nuanced problem that can't be fixed by declaring a holiday. For more information on how to vote, head over to our TurboVote module. One major reason: It comes down to tradition, Troy said. Whether accurate or not, elected officials likely think that making it easier to vote would advantage one party at the expense of the other party.. In a number of states, polling places have been closed in minority neighborhoods, which has created long lines and tremendous inconvenience for affected votersinconvenience with a cost, especially for those paid hourly wages. 20, 2018, Annie McDonald, "Ensuring Access to Election Day for All, bppj.berkely.edu, Nov. 6, 2018, Suzanne Lucas, "No, Election Day Should Not Be a Federal Holiday, inc.com, Oct. 24, 2016, Kenneth Quinnell, "Know Your Rights: State Laws on Employee Time off to Vote, aflicio.org, Nov. 5, 2016, Osita Nwanevu, "Maybe Making Election Day a National Holiday Wouldnt Really Work, slate.com, Nov. 3, 2016, Abigail Hess, "A Record 44% of US Employers Will Give Their Workers Paid Time off to Vote This Year, cnbc.com, Oct. 31, 2018, Make Time to Vote, homepage, maketimetovote.org (accessed Sep. 24, 2019), Rose Marcario, "Time to Vote, patagonia.com, Sep. 24, 2018, Danielle Root and Liz Kennedy, "Increasing Voter Participation in America, americanprogress.org, July 11, 2018, Kelly Born, "Increasing Voter Turnout: What, If Anything, Can Be Done?, ssir.org, Apr. CBS News reporter covering climate change and energy. Interestingly, 27 of the 36 countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (made up largely of advanced democracies) conduct their national elections on the weekend. 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. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. According to the country's website detailing their "digital society," online voting has soared from 1.9% in 2005 to 30.5% in 2015. Approximately two million people who work for the federal government would be given a paid day off, and private companies might follow suit. 1. These include national, state, and local government representatives at all levels up to the president. It is very, very hard to change core American traditions.. But some think it should be. Other countries take heroic efforts to ensure that people can vote if they desire. Most of these 19 states' policies only cover general elections, though. By law, polling day is a public holiday if it falls on a weekday.