Election Day a Holiday

[Valmy]

If I thought it might actually increase voter turnout I might. But I doubt it would. Maybe one state...say Texas...might give it a spin to test it out for the rest of the country first.

[grumbler]

Hong Kong always hold elections on Sundays.  We don't accept mail votes or online voting though. 

I voted yes, in the sense that I think you should hold elections on Sundays.

That's always been my position, as well.

[Maladict]

I much prefer weekday elections. Nothing easier than voting on the way or returning from work.
Drop off your kid at school? You can vote there.
Take a train to work? Vote at the station.
Going to church, a hospital, the gym or pass any public building? Vote there.

Short of online voting, it cannot be easier.

[grumbler]

I much prefer weekday elections. Nothing easier than voting on the way or returning from work.
Drop off your kid at school? You can vote there.
Take a train to work? Vote at the station.
Going to church, a hospital, the gym or pass any public building? Vote there.

Short of online voting, it cannot be easier.

Except that everyone else is also voting when you are voting, if it is a weekday, so you'll wait in a long line. On a Sunday, voting would be much more spread out, and the waiting times consequently much shorter.  Short of online voting, nothing could be easier than Sunday voting.

[Maladict]

Except that everyone else is also voting when you are voting, if it is a weekday, so you'll wait in a long line. On a Sunday, voting would be much more spread out, and the waiting times consequently much shorter.  Short of online voting, nothing could be easier than Sunday voting.

Maybe you need more/bigger polling stations. I've never had to wait more than a few minutes, and that was in rush hour.
But the reason elections are never on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays here actually has to do with religious considerations.

[garbon]

Except that everyone else is also voting when you are voting, if it is a weekday, so you'll wait in a long line. On a Sunday, voting would be much more spread out, and the waiting times consequently much shorter.  Short of online voting, nothing could be easier than Sunday voting.

Maybe you need more/bigger polling stations. I've never had to wait more than a few minutes, and that was in rush hour.
But the reason elections are never on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays here actually has to do with religious considerations.

Thanks, mini-country, for your thoughts on logistics.

[lustindarkness]

Why are they worried about voter turnout anyway? Oh yeah, because the candidates all suck and no one wants to vote for them. I see now.

[Razgovory]

No.  Every decent employer gives you time to vote.

Man, you sound like Mono.  "A good master should give me time to vote.  Bathroom breaks too"

[Josquius]

I much prefer weekday elections. Nothing easier than voting on the way or returning from work.
Drop off your kid at school? You can vote there.
Take a train to work? Vote at the station.
Going to church, a hospital, the gym or pass any public building? Vote there.

Short of online voting, it cannot be easier.

If you live in a rural area it can be an hour or two out of your day.
Which is an hour or two some people can't or won't give up

[Maladict]

If you live in a rural area it can be an hour or two out of your day.
Which is an hour or two some people can't or won't give up

What are these rural areas you speak of? 

I get that sometimes the polling places will be far away.
But I've never heard of people waiting in line for hours to vote in any other western country. That should not be so hard to fix.

[Josquius]

Around my area for instance.
At the moment my dad is working at a castle in a really out of the way place with bad roads. Factor in parking and everything and easily over 30 minutes drive to the next town.  And he has to make sure the site is secure before he leaves.
He is registered for postal voting luckily but no way would he actually bother to vote under those conditions.

[crazy canuck]

Question:  Is regulating working days within Federal or State jurisdiction?  Or does it depend on whether the election in question is State or Federal.


The way we do it here is employers are required to provide workers with a number of clear hours to vote during the work day.  In practice workers either come it late or leave early to vote.  Seems a good compromise.

[Monoriu]

Question:  Is regulating working days within Federal or State jurisdiction?  Or does it depend on whether the election in question is State or Federal.


The way we do it here is employers are required to provide workers with a number of clear hours to vote during the work day.  In practice workers either come it late or leave early to vote.  Seems a good compromise.

That doesn't really work in many places.  The only person who votes in a small company will come in late to feel that his boss and co-workers are all silently mad at him. 

[Eddie Teach]

Mono, it doesn't work like that in the West. Because the result of the aggregate vote matters, people convince themselves their individual vote matters.

[dps]

Question:  Is regulating working days within Federal or State jurisdiction?  Or does it depend on whether the election in question is State or Federal.

While a lot of labor law is a matter of state law, the Federal government can regulate working days under its power to regulate interstate commerce.  In practice, Federal law doesn't provide much regulation of working days, it just mandates that employers pay overtime to employees (other than "exempt" workers, but let's not get into that in this thread) who work more than 40 hours in a week;  the Feds don't care if you get your 40 hours by working 2 20-hour days, or 6 6-hour days and 1 4-hour day, as long a you get time-and-a-half for anything over that 40 hours.  None of that has anything to do with having election day off, of course.  In practice, most people on hourly wages work 8 hours a day or less, and most polling places are open about 12 hours, so I don't really see any major issue, particularly now that early voting is so widespread.

And just making Election Day a holiday (either Federal or state) wouldn't make any difference to most people, anyway.  Most of us don't work for the government, and for the most part, the only people who get Federal holidays off are Federal employees, and the only people who get state holidays off are state employees.  There are some exceptions, of course--for example, Federally chartered banks are closed by law on Federal holidays, so most people who work at them are off on Federal holidays (though there's nothing that keeps the banks from having employees come in to do cleaning or maintenance on holidays AFAIK), and of course government employees that provide essential services, such as the police or military aren't going to be getting all the holidays off.


The way we do it here is employers are required to provide workers with a number of clear hours to vote during the work day.  In practice workers either come it late or leave early to vote.  Seems a good compromise.
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