Yet, few of us, especially those who have worked on Capitol Hill, harbor . ], [Editors Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries. "Voting is a fundamental right,. It's Time to Make Election Day a National Holiday (Once - HuffPost People literally cannot get to the polling booth because it may close at 7 o'clock and they're working later. Some countries, about 27 of them,make voting compulsory. Senator Bernie Sanders has certainly tried heintroducedthe "Democracy Day Act" in 2018, which proposed making Election Day a federal holiday. Countries like France, Germany, and India all recognize Election Day as a national holiday or hold elections on the weekend in order to increase voter turnout. [10][11]] Of these countries, 27 hold their national elections on a weekend. 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. Many other democracies make election day a holiday and they all have higher voter turnout than we do. Presented by:Defense Language and National Security Education Office, 60% of the eligible voting population vast a vote, looked at a few different methods of voting. National Holiday Act in India - Laws for Festival, Public Holidays Some say a holiday would increase voter turnout by enabling more people to vote while celebrating democracy. To combat these efforts, lawmakers nationally have introduced HR1 (the John Lewis Act) and S1, which would enact a number of important provisions: improve ballot access, create nonpartisan redistricting commissions to reduce gerrymandering, provide automatic voter registration when people turn 18, allow at least 15 days of early voting,mandate that presidential candidates disclosure their federal tax returns, and require greater disclosure of so-called dark money campaign contributions. [20][21][22] A part-time hourly worker is more likely to have multiple jobs, none of which are likely to offer time off for a national holiday. Given this, an Election Day holiday would remove a significant barrier to participation for relatively well-to-do potential voters while doing little to make voting easier for a significant. Japan formally celebrates the anniversary of an ancient mythical emperor, although the holiday is mostly ignored today, due in part to its connections with Japan's ugly imperial history. 3 Countries Where It's Easier To Vote Than the United States Roughly 138 million Americans voted in the 2016 presidential election, just 61.4% of the 214,109,360 million who were registered to vote, according to The U.S. Election Assistance Commission. In Sweden, for example, 83% of registered voters participated in the 2014 national . Presidential elections are held every four years, in years divisible by four, while the elections to the . The types of workers least likely to reap the benefits of a federal holiday are those who already struggle to vote, Shineman noted. 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. It would give people time to vote. Passing voting rights reform will be a crucial component of this response, as would making Election Day a national holiday. Here are five reasons why Election Day should be a national holiday. Would Making Election Day a Federal Holiday Boost U.S. Voter Turnout Election Day isn't a national holiday in the US, but some people think it should be. And. Incidentally, Australia routinely reaches more than 90 percent voter turnout, compared to the United States, where average voter turnout in presidential elections since 1965 has been only 54%. Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives. Veterans Day typically is about one week after Election Day so this would involve little disruption in terms of job schedules and monthly routines. Its hard to say. 3. Again, it is not clear that this is demonstrably true but it is a widespread perception. ProCon/Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Election Day National Holiday - Top 3 Pros and Cons - ProCon.org 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. It would also blunt the impact of many of these baldly anti-democratic movesopening the doors to the house as Republicans attempt to shut the windows. Georgia grassroots groups helped Biden win. The correct answer is B. Advertisement Advertisement marberman marberman [9], Former Editor-in-Chief of the Northwestern University Law Review, Beau C. Tremitiere, JD, stated, The demands of school and work schedules keep millions of Americans, especially those with children or long commutes, from ever getting to their polling stations The ideal solution is simple: Congress should make Election Day a national holiday, or move Election Day to the weekend. [10] A holiday would allow more citizens volunteer at polling places or drive the elderly to vote, and make a difference in states where long lines at the polls keep voters waiting for hours. Mr. CHRISTENSEN: One of the biggest countries that uses compulsory voting is Australia. This page was last edited on 1 February 2023, at 18:43. Voting Around the World - Home | CultureReady South Africa's is from the first democratic elections, in 1994. The U.S. ranks 26th out of 32 for voter among Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. 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. NOW WATCH: Arianna Huffingtons advice to Hillary Clinton, the majority of US states have voter leave laws, You can take time off from work to vote in 30 states here's the full list, voted during the 2016 presidential election, experts say such a scheme is unlikely to fly in the US, The evolution of American voting rights in 242 years shows how far we've come and how far we still have to go, In an interview with President Barack Obama in 2016. 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. Most National Days are fixed, exceptions to this are shown below. 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). He concluded that having an election holiday, by itself, is not an effective strategy to increase voter turnout. [34], Automatic voter registration, by contrast, could register an additional 22 million people and create 7.9 million new voters nationwide within a year. 2) Most other countries are shaped by relatively recent revolutions. Election Day is already a holiday for state employees in more than a dozen states including Kentucky, Michigan, and New York. the Tuesday that occurs within November 2 to November 8. In fact, in Estonia, the option tovoteonlineis becoming increasingly popular. Other countries take heroic efforts to ensure that people can vote if they desire. 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 in the US voted during the 2016 presidential election. 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.However, some countries, or regions within a country, which hold elections on a weekday declare election day a public holiday. 4. As for Denmark, it has a national liberation day and some people celebrate international worker's day, but neither is a public holiday. However, those numbers may be attributed to a combination of factors not solely because their elections occur on non-work days. So when faced with choices like having to take unpaid time off work to vote, waking at the wee hours of the morning to vote so that they're not late to work, standing in hours-long lines with everyone else who waited until after the workday to cast their ballot, or simply not voting at all, many choose the latter. Election Day in the United States is the annual day for general elections of federal public officials.It is statutorily set by the U.S. government as "the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November", i.e. Should Election Day Be a Holiday? - Homepage | Morningside Center for Chicago, Illinois 60654 USA, Natalie Leppard Take, for example, Bhutan, which every celebrates the anniversary of Ugyen Wangchuck's 1907 election as the nation's first hereditary king (yes, you read that correctly), but not its 1949 independence. However, the issues vary among different demographic groups. "Election Day National Holiday Top 3 Pros and Cons." 1. Voter turnout in the U.S. is generally quite low, trailing behind that of other developed democracies around the world, according to another Pew study. Estonia is the only country to fully adopt online voting, but other countries, such as Australia, Canada, and Norway, have looked into pursuing it as an option in the future.
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