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!
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.
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.
If it’s a federal holiday, a lot of employers offer (or, in some cases are required) to give increased pay on holidays, usually time-and-a-half or double-time depending on overtime laws. The increased rate of pay could make up the difference for the list wages from the unpaid time off for voting.
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?
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.
