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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!

https://ace-usa.org/blog/research/research-votingrights/should-election-day-become-a-federal-holiday-weighing-the-benefits-and-drawbacks/

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[-] Cephalotrocity@biglemmowski.win 136 points 2 months ago

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.

[-] OttoVonNoob@lemmy.ca 43 points 2 months ago

Wait really, why coulsnt they force them to?!? In Canada companies that are open pay huge fines. Companies that are deemed essential do not recieve fines but have to pay 2.5 Mult to employees and if the employee does not work they get a days pay.

[-] billiam0202@lemmy.world 58 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Money is God in America.

Okay, let's give everybody holidays off.

...well, I guess we need essential services like police, fire, medical, etc.

...and if they're going to work, they're gonna need food, so restaurants should be open too.

...and if they all gotta get to work, we gotta have gas stations open as well.

...and with all these other people off, people are gonna vote then want the rest of the day to do things, so we should probably have stores and entertainment venues open also.

And now all the "minimum wage" people are stuck working on a holiday, while the people who can afford to be off actually get off.

Rinse and repeat for every current holiday.

[-] OttoVonNoob@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 months ago

To be honest i can't tell if this is satire, spoof or against day off? I mean emergency social services are essential. Food and the rest are not, you do your shopping the day before and bring a lunch, self serve pumps are everywhere anywyas and entertainment services are not essential.

[-] Bassman1805@lemmy.world 38 points 2 months ago

It's not satire, it's 100% the reasoning that would be used in this argument. That's the train of thought that we took towards covid.

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[-] billiam0202@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

I used to work in a cinema.

Christmas day was our single busiest day of the year, every year. Even with traditional Christmas activities like having family dinners and gift-giving, people still wanted to go see a movie. They couldn't stay home with their families for just one day so we minimum wage saps didn't get to stay home with ours.

Nothing I wrote was satire. This is exactly how it is in the US.

  • If you have a white-collar job, enjoy your day off.

  • If you have a blue-collar job, you might not have to work, depending on what holiday it is.

  • If you have a service job, fuck your holiday because money.

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[-] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

Tell that to all the companies that were starting black Friday on Thursday night.

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[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 months ago

Oh, we are not proud of it. We’re trying to chip away at the absolutely fucked power structure, but the people in charge of the system have a vested interest in preserving it, with all of its fucked up little idiosyncrasies like this.

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 80 points 2 months ago

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.

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 months ago

Over here all employers have to give employees 4h to vote. So if it's open from 8 to 8 and you work from 8 to 4 they don't have to give you time off, but if you work 8 to 6 they have to cut your shift at 4 instead.

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[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 45 points 2 months ago

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

Drawbacks: None

[-] hardaysknight@lemmy.world 38 points 2 months ago

Drawbacks: Stockholders don’t like it when the slaves don’t work

[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago

Pissing off stockholders is a benefit

[-] NineMileTower@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago

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.

[-] _stranger_@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago

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.

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[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 37 points 2 months ago

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."

[-] Asafum@feddit.nl 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I got home last night from work, voted, and ate dinner. Got up to go to work and tossed the ballot in my mailbox this morning. It was amazing. Being able to get an absentee ballot in NY has been absolutely wonderful.

I am a bit worried about my signature though lol I can't remember if I signed with my stupid fresh out of highschool "script" signature on previous ballots that I used on my social security card, or my general signature I've been using for everything for decades now...

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[-] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 33 points 2 months ago

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.

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[-] Bertuccio@lemmy.world 33 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

"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."

___

[-] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

These are the same people that think that more testing will make the number of COVID cases go up.

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[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago

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...

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[-] pyre@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago

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

[-] threeganzi@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 months ago

And the solution is right there in the sentence.

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[-] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.

[-] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago

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.

[-] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 months ago

I don’t really think we need to police the extra day off. If someone was unable to vote that day for some reason, they shouldn’t be penalized.

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[-] ClassifiedPancake@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 2 months ago

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

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[-] Klnsfw@lemmynsfw.com 19 points 2 months ago

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.

[-] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 18 points 2 months ago

Yeah, because in France they're a hair trigger away from setting shit on fire, like all the time.

[-] vonbaronhans@midwest.social 11 points 2 months ago

If that's what it takes, I guess

[-] aubeynarf@lemmynsfw.com 16 points 2 months ago

This is a popular wish from MAGA types who have been told that mail and early voting is fraudulent, which isn’t supported by evidence.

If you can vote early or by mail, there is no need for a holiday on the one voting day.

At the same time, we can’t expect every grocery store worker, police officer, air traffic controller, and truck driver, and everyone else, to be off simultaneously on the same day.

[-] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 2 months ago

I'm pretty far from a maga, and I fully support a federal holiday for it. It accentuates the importance of voting for democracy to thrive, IMO.

But I also think mail-in and early voting options should be a federal requirement as well. Right now states can impose limits on who is eligible for mail in, and that's a huge problem.

To me its not one or the other, I think both should be done.

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[-] vomitaur@slrpnk.net 16 points 2 months ago

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?

[-] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago

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.

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[-] r_deckard@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

In Australia we have pre-poll voting (early voting), mail-in ballots, and every election day is a Saturday - with democracy sausages.

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[-] sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)
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[-] BertramDitore@lemm.ee 12 points 2 months ago

There were some good stats in there, but this wasn't anything groundbreaking. I'm totally in favor of making Election Day a federal holiday, it's arguably the most important day for the continuance of our democracy after all. BUT any action must take into account the fact that so many Americans don't get federal holidays off, and employers can't be forced to give them that time off. So there would have to be a fund or subsidy available to employers to continue paying their workers on this new day off. It should also be a kind of superholiday so even private employers are forced to observe it.

This, and getting rid of the electoral college should be a priority once we've soundly defeated the orange turd and can take a couple breaths.

[-] CaptainPedantic@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

Mail in voting across the board could be better than a federal holiday. In Washington, I get everything I need to vote in the mail: a ballot, a voter's guide, a postage paid envelope. I literally don't have to wear pants to vote. I can take a week to make a decision about something before I wander over to the nearest mailbox to drop off my ballot.

Never having done it, voting in person sounds awful.

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[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

Make voting take a week and limit campaigning to 90 days before the end of that week.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The only reason to not make voting day a holiday is because the very people preferring you not vote are losing profits and power don’t want the people worked the hardest to have a say in changing the system.

[-] antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Easy just change it to Feb 29th and it’s a holiday. Once every 4 years. Nobody will forget it.

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[-] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 11 points 2 months ago

Of course it should be.

[-] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 11 points 2 months ago

The Republican Party benefits from low voter turnout, so they'd block this at every opportunity.

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[-] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

Cons: wealthy people will lose money...

[-] ZombieMantis@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago
[-] Maeve@midwest.social 9 points 2 months ago

It's almost as if people should be paid enough and have enough PTO to live and enjoy it, as well as vote.

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this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2024
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