Furthermore, making this small shift would celebrate the purpose and sacrifice of our fighting forces. Presidential and semipresidential systems, Constituencies: districting and apportionment. To make Election Day a national holiday, it would take an act of Congress, and so far, no bills proposing such action have passed. Elections are federal holidays in Singapore, which, when combined with mandatory voting, resulted in a voter turnout of 93.6% for the 2015 election of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. "Election Day really definitely does need to be a holiday," she said, adding, "We need to be able to have everybody feel like they have a great stake in it.". This article was published more than10 years ago. Stay up to date with what you want to know. Lessons in How to Hold Elections", "GE2015: First time Polling Day falls on a Friday, but not first time polls held on a weekday", "180/2014 Z.z. It is very, very hard to change core American traditions.. Indigenous Peoples Day is a local and state holiday in some parts of the country usually held on Columbus Day that celebrates the cultures of Native Americans. Most of these 19 states' policies only cover general elections, though. These numbers also may be indicative of higher turnout for major elections, but may not reflect engagement in local or regional elections. Countries that hold the ballot before Sunday are not permitted to announce results until all other countries have finished voting. The Evolution of American Voting Rights in 242 Years Shows How Far Weve Come -- and How Far We Still Have to Go, businessinsider.com, Sep. 24, 2019, University of Houston Digital History, "Agriculture, digitalhistory.uh.edu (accessed Sep. 24, 2019), USDA, "Ag and Food Sectors and the Economy, ers.usda.gov, Sep. 20, 2019, Legal Information Institute, "5 U.S. Code 6103. Hailey said the country needs a "cultural shift" to prioritize voting. The earliest possible date that Election Day can fall on is November 2nd, and the latest possible date is November 8th. Not only would making Election Day a federal holiday increase voter turnout among Americans, which is something that politicians and citizens in general complain about often, but it . Some countries, including Belgium and Turkey, see such high voter turnout mainly because of their compulsory voting laws. We are the only advanced democracy that makes it deliberately difficult for people to vote. Updates? Younger generations are also more likely to participate in political discussions online, which shows that a move towards digitizing the political and voting processes may not be too far off. Could that ever happen in the U.S.? There is a "need to make voting more accessible, to make it more of a civic duty, to make sure that people don't have to choose between their job and their ability to cast the ballot are issues that are more prominent today than ever before," she told CBS News. In Estonia, a national ID card (required for every citizen in the country) can be used to vote remotely. Why Election Day is Held on a Tuesday in November in the U.S. A Boatload of Ballots: Midterm Voter Turnout Hit 50-Year High, Estonia's i-voting: more secure, more popular, Macedonia referendum: Low voter turnout puts country's name change at risk, What Voting and Elections Look Like Around the World, X Marks the Choice: Voting Methods around the World, Defense Language and National Security Education Office. Should the United States Use the Electoral College in Presidential Elections? Australia sees around 91%, and 94% in Singapore. For federal offices (president, vice president, and United States Congress) and most gubernatorial offices (all except for . 3. Sunday: first Sunday of February for the President, Vice-President, and Legislative Assembly; second Sunday of February for municipal elections. We are very proud that we are mentioned in the Bible. In Thailand, one of the very few countries outside of Europe that was never formally colonized, the king's birthday is celebrated (don't insult him or you might go to jail, per the lese majeste laws). Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Should People Who Have Completed Felony Sentences Be Allowed to Vote? First Sunday of July until 2018. [8], Among registered voters in the 2016 US presidential election, being too busy or having a conflicting schedule was the third-highest reason cited for not voting, accounting for 14% of registered voters who did not cast a vote (about 2.7 million people). [15] A survey showed that US adults would rather have a federal holiday on Election Day than on Christmas Eve, the Friday after Thanksgiving, or St. Patricks day. 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. [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. Russia's national holiday only goes back to 1992, when the Russian Federation was founded. The U.S. is one of only nine member nations that have weekday voting. Consider the pandemic, which has not given essential workers more time off. "With the variety of challenges that election officials face, [making Election Day a holiday] is well down on the list of those things that need to be addressed," Becker said. Election Day is the day for general elections of public officials in the U.S. Making Election Day a holiday would not necessarily involve adding a new holiday, which employers might resistparticularly following the addition of Juneteenth as a national holiday last week. "We should be making it easier for people to vote, not harder. To look through the stats for voter turnout for other countries, you can visit the website for the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) and explore the data. By comparison,. Skip Navigation Lists national days around the world by country or date. ", Others, however, are skeptical that creating a national holiday would increase voter turnout. Democracy on the ballot will the remaining election deniers succeed? For more information on how to vote, head over to our TurboVote module. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. The answer dates back to 1845, when Congress passed a law declaring that federal elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. By Monday morning, nearly 60 million had already voted early across the country, closing in on half of 2016's total voter turnout. "We already know how to make voting convenient to voters that's by offering them options, like making an election season rather than election day," he said. By law, polling day is a public holiday if it falls on a weekday. as well as other partner offers and accept our. Read more: The evolution of American voting rights in 242 years shows how far we've come and how far we still have to go. Four more states only provide time off for biennial, even-year elections: Delaware, Louisiana, Michigan and New Hampshire. of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents and 59% of Republicans and GOP leaners said they would support making Election Day a national holiday. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a group that includes 36 countries. And that election saw the second highest voter turnout in 20 years. South Korea and Israel hold theirs during the week, but have made the day a federal holiday. The U.S. ranks 26th out of 32 for voter among Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. Part of HuffPost Home & Living. Opponents say kids arent mature enough to vote. 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. Approximately two million people who work for the federal government would be given a paid day off, and private companies might follow suit. Sign up to receive a weekly email update on forthcoming public holidays around the world in your inbox every Sunday. What we're proposing isn't that every Election Day becomes a national holiday, just the presidential election, which only takes place once every four years. 0:00. Keep in mind that in the mid-1800s, the U.S. was largely an agricultural society. [ 17] Countries such as France, Mexico, and India also observe federal holidays for elections. 20, 2018, Annie McDonald, "Ensuring Access to Election Day for All, bppj.berkely.edu, Nov. 6, 2018, Suzanne Lucas, "No, Election Day Should Not Be a Federal Holiday, inc.com, Oct. 24, 2016, Kenneth Quinnell, "Know Your Rights: State Laws on Employee Time off to Vote, aflicio.org, Nov. 5, 2016, Osita Nwanevu, "Maybe Making Election Day a National Holiday Wouldnt Really Work, slate.com, Nov. 3, 2016, Abigail Hess, "A Record 44% of US Employers Will Give Their Workers Paid Time off to Vote This Year, cnbc.com, Oct. 31, 2018, Make Time to Vote, homepage, maketimetovote.org (accessed Sep. 24, 2019), Rose Marcario, "Time to Vote, patagonia.com, Sep. 24, 2018, Danielle Root and Liz Kennedy, "Increasing Voter Participation in America, americanprogress.org, July 11, 2018, Kelly Born, "Increasing Voter Turnout: What, If Anything, Can Be Done?, ssir.org, Apr. 25, 2016, Chris Talgo, "Make Election Day a National Holiday? 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. [4][5], The United States currently has 10 national holidays, including Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Christmas Day. In some states where they don't have mail-in ballots, voting can take a lot of time out of the day. It worked. 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. Last modified on October 1, 2020. Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives. Countries outpacing the U.S. include the U.K, Mexico and Canada. 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. But some think it should be. ProCon.org. Consider, for example, the national days of France and Germany: the former marks the French revolution, in 1789, and the latter marks the German reunification in 1990. This page was last edited on 1 February 2023, at 18:43. 2. It commemorates the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a reverend and civil . 0:58. 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. Should People Who Have Completed Felony Sentences Be Allowed to Vote? Read more: You can take time off from work to vote in 30 states here's the full list. For more on the debate about making election day a national holiday, visit ProCon.org. 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. But this arrangement began to raise concerns as travel and communication improved in the 19th century: Results from states that voted earlier could sway the outcome in states that voted later. [6] Election Day could be made a holiday if a bill were passed by the House and Senate then signed into law by the president. Thats not to say no one has tried. Again, it is not clear that this is demonstrably true but it is a widespread perception. Of these countries, 27 hold their national elections on a weekend. Tuesday was selected because it was the most convenient. Georgias voter suppression bill is an assault on our democracy, Republicans in 48 states have introduced 389 bills, Tracking regulatory changes in the Biden era. Elections Held on Tuesdays?, britannica.com (accessed Sep. 30, 2019), Evan Andrews, "Election 1010: Why Do We Vote on a Tuesday in November?, history.com, Aug. 31, 2018, Grace Panetta and Olivia Reaney, "Today Is National Voter Registration Day. In 1845, when Congress established a national election day, it had to be a Tuesday because farmers went to church on Sunday, went to market on Wednesday, and may have needed a day, Monday, to get to their polling place, Gil Troy an American presidential historian and McGill University professor told HuffPost. "If I had my way, and I think it is really important, every . Passing voting rights reform will be a crucial component of this response, as would making Election Day a national holiday. "Election Day National Holiday Top 3 Pros and Cons." So the question of how you label Ireland goes back to which holiday you consider its national day. Right now, federal elections are always held on Tuesdays, because farmers in the 1840s needed multiple days to get to the . Think about it. 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. A surprising map of the worlds national holidays (only two countries have no national day), Belarus sentences Nobel Peace laureate Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in jail, This is Bidens chance to press Scholz on Germanys rearmament, Why Russia and Ukraine are fighting over Bakhmut. Concentrating voters into a single day risks congesting polling places, even more so than some already are. Instead, lawmakers could simply move nearby Veterans Day to Election Day, emphasizing that voting is both a service to the country and a celebration of the rights and freedoms for which our servicemembers fight. If you make election day a federal holiday, youll have all the people who work in these types of jobs still having to work, being inundated with customers who have the day off and they wont have child care because the schools will be closed, Suzanne Lucas, who previously worked in human resources, wrote in a piece for Inc.com. / CBS News. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. First published on October 26, 2020 / 10:57 AM. No: Too Inconvenient, Early-Voting Options Ample, orlandosentinel.com, Nov. 5, 2018, Henry Farber, "Increasing Voter Turnout: Is Democracy Day the Answer?, princeton.edu, Feb. 2009, Sarah Issenberg, "The Mystery of the Puerto Rico Voter, slate.com, Jan. 27, 2012, Paul LeBlanc, "Virginia Governor Makes Election Day a Holiday and Expands Early Voting,". It would give people time to vote. He says it's more important to spread voting out over a period of days and methods. In Sweden, for example, 83% of registered voters participated in the 2014 national . Additionally, many of these individuals rely on school days as childcare for their children. Senator Bernie Sanders has certainly tried heintroducedthe "Democracy Day Act" in 2018, which proposed making Election Day a federal holiday. 27 September (Wednesday): Day of the French-speaking Community - commemorates the victory of the patriots against the Dutch army in Brussels in 1830. Portugal celebrates the 1580 death of celebrated national poet Luis de Camoes, Spain celebrates Columbus Day (yes, the holiday is a little controversial there as well, although not as much as in the U.S.), the Netherlands celebrates the queen's birthday but it still use her mother's birthday for the date and, in Greenland, the celebrate the longest day of the year. Democratic rights are much easier to end than they are to restore, so the federal government must respond to the wave of voter suppression overtaking the states with decisive, expansive action. So, focusing voting efforts to one day doesn't do enough to accommodate everyone, Becker argues. High turnout means that people are successfully exercising their rights-a good in itselfbut it also ensures the continuing health of majority rule. The founding fathers at first only granted white, male property owners the right to vote, so the expansion of voting rights has taken some time. It's amazing how much of the map is green, indicating countries that celebrate a national independence day every year. 26K views, 1.2K likes, 65 loves, 454 comments, 23 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Citizen TV Kenya: #FridayNight And she thinks corporate America has been leading the way, pointing out several businesses, including Walmart and Coca-Cola, that have announced paid time off and other accommodations to make voting easier for employees on November 3. Sign up for notifications from Insider! By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider American election laws have been reformed before with minimal impact on voter turnout which remains low compared to other democracies around the world. Election Day isn't a national holiday in the US, but some people think it should be. ], [Editors Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries. Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island and New York have also made Election Day into a state holiday. It's a reminder of turmoil of the last century a very short span in historical terms and how deeply its events influence the world today. Think about that: In most of the world, the sense of national identity is shaped by the act of cutting, or in some cases violently throwing off, the chains of colonialism. As Congress continues to grapple with voting rights legislation this week, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has used his considerable influence as the Senates key swing vote to set the terms of the debate. These changes would send a strong rebuke to those who are attempting to scale back voting rights and make it more difficult for African-Americans and Latinos to vote. Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters. The bill would also effectively revive Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which requires states with a history of voter discrimination have all changes to their election laws approved by the federal government, updating the law in response to the Supreme Courts 2013 holding in Shelby County v. Holder. But experts say improving voter turnout is a complicated issue that no single silver bullet strategy can solve. Israel and South Korea hold their elections on weekdays, but they're national holidays. Change often comes slowly, subtly. [28][29], Patagonia, an outdoor clothing retailer, paused operation on Nov. 6, 2018 so that all employees could vote. With just about six in 10 voters turning out to vote in the U.S., some civil rights advocates are arguing that it's about time to give Americans the day off to vote. Because Saturday and Sunday are Sabbath days for devout Jews and Christians, elections would probably have to be held over the two-day period creating a need for more poll workers and a process for securing ballots overnight, Victoria Shineman, a University of Pittsburgh political science professor, wrote in The Washington Post. Most National Days are fixed, exceptions to this are shown below. Election day or polling day is the day on which general elections are held. 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. Some businesses may close, but their hourly paid employees will either have to use a PTO day or not get paid.. Last Tuesday was election day in the United States, and this year we voted in the midterm elections. 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. Not all of these marked the end of colonialism (for example, Austria's signifies the withdrawal of foreign militaries after World War II and the declaration of neutrality) but the vast majority do. Rose Marcario, CEO, stated, demonstrating your companys commitment to voting will reinforce how essential it is that every eligible voter shows up. While these provisions represent major steps in the right direction, they are not enough. The pros and cons of the felon voting debate include arguments about the social contract, voting while in prison, and paying debts. Some say a holiday would increase voter turnout by enabling more people to vote while celebrating democracy. According to the country's website detailing their "digital society," online voting has soared from 1.9% in 2005 to 30.5% in 2015. [12], The idea that voting should be a celebration, not a chore is one argument for turning Election Day into a national holiday, according to Archon Fung, PhD, and Jane Mansbridge, PhD, professors at the Harvard Kennedy School. 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. All this despite the fact that these types of restrictions have typically been considered illegal under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires that elections be equally open to all people. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. In an interview with President Barack Obama in 2016, Dan Corey, editor-in-chief of Rutgers University's official student newspaper, The Daily Targum, asked Obama about what could be done to reverse the US's low voter turnout: The Daily Targum: "You have pointed out many times that voter turnout in the United States is very low, especially compared to other developed nations. Fourth Sunday of October immediately before the end of the current mandates. Reformers will be far more successful adding a few days or options or opportunities than trying to undo Election Day.. "Election Day should be a national holiday so that everyone has the time and opportunity to vote," Sanders' website reads. Last week his office released a list of voting rights provisions he would support. The U.S. House of Representatives just passed H.R. [31][32] Trying one of these alternatives would avoid the negative economic impact of closing businesses for Election Day. And there is no better way to secure democracy than to ensure that everyone has not only the right to vote, but also the meaningful opportunity to cast their ballots. As for Denmark, it has a national liberation day and some people celebrate international worker's day, but neither is a public holiday. Essential reporting and analysis from correspondents around the world. The Freedom to Vote Act would make Election Day a national holiday. There are some exceptions; as Wednesday was not covered by the available dates, the Netherlands holds elections on Thursday, while Denmark holds elections on Sunday. Early voting for the midterms varies by state. [1] The decision was made taking into account farmers, a large portion of the voting constituency at the time, who would not have been able to travel to polling places in winter months or during planting or harvest times. The outliers are a tiny minority, and only two countries have no formal national day at all. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners.
countries where election day is a national holiday