Holidays in America
Another holiday season gone by.
Children are returning to school, and parents are returning to work. Soon enough, all the Christmas trees and lights will have come down, and the cheer which permeated the air for the past month will dissipate.
As most Americans already know, Christmas and New Year’s Eve are two of the oldest holidays in human history. It is perhaps ironic, then, that the holiday immediately following this duo is Martin Luther King Jr. Day - the most recently created federal holiday in the United States.
There are many reasons why we celebrate holidays. Some holidays are to honor prominent figures in American history, such as the aforementioned Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and President’s Day (George Washington’s birthday). Other holidays are to commemorate specific events, with the most obvious of these being Independence Day.
Many federal holidays are important, and they all provide American workers with some extra time to spend with their families and loved ones. It can be argued then, that all holidays provide a measure of wellbeing to the people of the United States.
However, we can do better. There should be a new holiday, one which would potentially be more important than all others combined. It has been nearly forty years since the creation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It's time.
Election Day should be a holiday, at the federal level.
Let’s Get More People Voting
It may come as a surprise to many, but the United States actually ranks quite low in voter turnout among other developed nations.
In the 2016 Presidential Election, turnout among the voting age population in the United States was 55.7%, putting America 26th out of 32 OECD countries in one Pew Study. (The nation with the highest turnout in this study, for those interested, was Belgium at 87.2%).
Let’s do better.
In the 2008 Presidential Election, despite having a relatively higher voter turnout rate of 62.3%, a substantial contingent of the American population did not vote. Of this contingent, there were many who in fact wanted to cast a ballot, but faced multiple obstacles to do so.
For example, in 2008, roughly a quarter of those who did not vote cited issues regarding both transportation to, and the location of polling stations as reasons for not casting a ballot. Another substantial portion of this group cited excessively long lines at the polls as a reason that they refrained from voting.
This was a similar issue in 2012, an election in which about one-fifth of voters said they faced waits of 30 minutes or more at their polling stations. Making Election Day a holiday would go a long way in making it easier for those facing the circumstances described above to cast a ballot.
When it comes to transportation, there are many people who do not have a polling station close by, and therefore must travel long distances in order to vote. Furthermore, if these people also have to travel for work, and/or have families to attend to, this can make voting especially difficult.
Making Election Day a holiday would alleviate these concerns, as by having the day off, workers would have far more time to travel to the ballot box. The same logic holds true for longer lines at polling stations - without having to worry about work, people can go to the polls earlier in the day.
It must be noted that we are currently in a period where polling stations are, tragically, being closed across the United States. A more long-term solution to said issues would thus be to reverse this trend, but we’ll get to that. For now, let’s focus on Election Day itself.
An Improved Democracy
Making Election Day a holiday would not only increase turnout, but it would also ensure that the electorate itself better represents America as a whole. Here’s how.
Going back to the numbers from earlier, the group that cited excessively long lines as a reason for not voting was disproportionately Hispanic and African-American. Similarly, higher percentages of these groups cited transportation issues as barriers to voting than white Americans.
Furthermore, when moving over to age, barely any Americans over the age of 60 cited transportation issues or polling station locations as barriers to casting a ballot. In addition, only about one-in-ten older Americans who did not vote blamed long lines, compared to nearly 40% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 30.
There are many reasons why this discrepancy in age exists.
However, as it relates to our topic here, let’s focus on one reason in particular: time. Older Americans are far more likely to be retired than those in younger groups, and thus, have far more time to wait in line than say, a working parent with two children.
It is also true that retirees could go to the polls earlier in the day, while younger people are either at work or in class, at a point where the polls are less busy.
So, overall the current electorate in the United States tends to be both older and whiter than the country as a whole. This is substantially reinforced by data from the 2016 Presidential election.
During our most recent presidential election, (non-Hispanic) whites made up 74% of the electorate, despite making up only 70% of the voting-age population (and about 60% of the total population).
In that same election, citizens over the age of 65 turned out to vote at a rate of 70.9%, while 18 to 29 year olds voted at a rate of only 46.1%.
By making Election Day a holiday, groups which are more likely to face time-related barriers to voting - ethnic minorities and young people - would be able to vote more easily, and our democracy would be more representative as a whole.
It Has Been Done Before
This isn’t a crazy idea.
In fact, there are many other countries in which Election Day is already a holiday, including France and Mexico - both of these nations have higher turnout rates than the United States.
A similar approach is held in Germany, where Election Day is on a Sunday, and in New Zealand, where it falls on a Saturday. This option would provide an answer to one argument against this idea - that the creation of a new holiday would hamper the economy through eliminating a work day from the year (as was done in regards to Martin Luther King Jr. Day).
Again, both Germany and New Zealand have higher voter participation rates than America.
Furthermore, we do not even have to look outside of the U.S. to see this idea in action. Election Day is already a holiday in Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, and West Virginia.
Outside of this group, it is also true that a majority of American states already have laws which push employers to give their employees extra time to vote. In other words, implementing this idea would not be as radical a shift in policy as it may seem.
So, Will it Happen?
Will Election Day ever become a holiday? While the answer to this question remains to be seen, there have been some encouraging signs.
In May 2016, former President Barack Obama came out in support of such a change. It is worth noting, however, that while in office the former President did not push Congress towards creating the holiday, nor take much action at the executive level to push the idea.
That being said, this past week, the first piece of legislation proposed in the House of Representatives of the 116th Congress is the “For The People Act." This act, among other things, would make Election Day a holiday.
Furthermore, the idea has support among the American people, with a recent poll showing 54% of Americans back the proposal. Unsurprisingly, the idea is even more popular among the young, with 72% of those between the ages of 18-34 in support.
To add a note of realism, none of this means Election Day is likely to become a holiday anytime soon.
Furthermore, while making it so would likely increase turnout, it certainly would not be a silver bullet to bring overall American voter turnout to the level of most other advanced democracies.
To achieve such an end would require an array of policy changes across the United States which would lead to more equal representation, and ultimately, the fostering of an environment which would encourage a higher level of civic engagement, as seen in past times.
Still, making Election Day a holiday would be an excellent, and simple, first step. A first step towards demonstrating we care about inclusive government. A first step towards having an electorate which actually reflects the demographic makeup of the United States.
A first step towards showing that we care as much about democracy as we say we do.