Should US Presidential & Midterm Election Days be Federal Holidays and/or held during the Weekend?

Well, and there's evidence from at least two posters in this very thread, a lot of people believe some people are more deserving of the vote than others. The "lazy" word that pops up has several layers of meaning for those opposed, whether they'd like to admit that or not.

Nevermind if the "lazy" person is working two full-time minimum wage jobs and picking their kids up at various houses of friends and relatives to cook them dinner at the end of a Tuesday in November. Nevermind if the "lazy" person is a teacher on her feet all day and then needing to grade papers all night instead of standing in line at a polling booth.

For people against a voting holiday, that's all good b/c that "lazy" person might just vote against further tax cuts, etc. These same people would like to also, by all evidence, make sure the lines are good and long in certain neighborhoods. Humans gonna human.

EDIT: One poster actually just said lazy government employees. In that case, I assume his worries are covered if we simply moved an existing holiday to become our national voting day. Then I assume he would support the policy, since the holiday already exists.

 

Yeah I think so too. However Church is not the whole day right.

But saterday I also good for me.

 

Who would want to mess up a perfectly good holiday or weekend with going to vote?

 

I'm sure that won't get hacked. Seems like we have that problem all buttoned up now.

1. I think it makes it 0% easier to vote. You already have early voting and a law requiring employers to give employees time to vote. That's probably much more effective than a federal holiday. The people who are most vulnerable in the existing system also don't have federal holidays off. And, I wonder if a holiday would actually decrease turnout. As people learn to optimize the day off in their annual calendar, they may end up being too busy with barbecues or whatever to worry about voting. Or, if teachers have the day off too, then you have to stay home with the kids. At least in the current arrangement, you get an excuse the leave work for a bit.

2. No, the cost-benefit analysis is definitely worth doing. Why would you undertake a massive cost in reduced productivity if the benefit is only to make voting "slightly easier." You need some material benefit (which I don't see) to justify the trouble. I thought this weekend's vote for HISD Prop 1 was flat ridiculous. There was 1 question on the ballot, and it was a revote of something we already voted on 6 months ago. They had all the regular polling places open, wheeled the voting machines out, had all the volunteers and everything, for 1 freaking question? Stupid.

 

Why would a voting holiday be better than, for example, a 14 to 21 day period of early voting that lasted until the Friday before election day?

The only argument I can think of is it would affect all 50 states.

Last year, over a 1/3 of voters did so early despite many states not offering the option.

 

I appreciate @B-Bob post above, however, I don't think a holiday would help that many people. We have a huge number of Americans that don't vote and I honestly don't believe that for the majority of them it's an access issue. They are just apathetic about the political process. We have to be one of the most apathetic countries in history about our government despite a historic amount of opportunity to choose it.

 

This is what is wrong with America.

 

Online voting with links to candidates websites. Would be helpful for all the positions people vote on without actually knowing what they do.

 

Make it a week long process. Last names A-D vote on Monday, E-H vote on Tuesday, I-m vote on Wednesday, N-R vote Thursday, S-z vote Friday (or what ever an equal breakdown is by last name). Make license/ID renewal part of the process every 2 years so when you vote your license/ID gets renewed in the process. Track 1 vote to 1 ID.

 

It is the GOP mindset, roughly 30% of your fellow citizens have this mindset, because the party of preserving the pie for white folks (though actually it is just for rich white folks, most of them don't or refuse to see this part of it) has figured this works best for them.

 

Even if Election Days do become federal holidays or held during weekends...I think that most people with at least some sense and awareness would still vote early, assuming they live in a state that has early voting. (And they probably wouldn't vote on the first day of early voting either...they'd vote sometime during the middle of the EV period.)

 

No to either, but especially weekends. Take away a holiday or two if you want to add election day, but people just need to plan and get it done one way or another if they really care about it.

 

There is laziness of some kind in every salaried office job in the country that doesn't require some kind of licensed skill and billable hours.

 

No. Absolutely not. We are a republic not a democracy. Voting on weekends or having a holiday to vote like in many countries just leads to more poor and lower middle class, as well as students, voting and this will disrupt the oligarchy. We must not permit this.

 

I guess republicans don't want more Americans voting for some reason?

 

Electronic voting from home. If it’s good enough for the NBA All-Star game, it’s good enough for me

 

Sounds like a good idea but ultimately a totally disappointing waste of time?

 

How many Americans work 2 full-time jobs? I know the answer, but I'd like to see if you're too lazy to look it up...