The pervasiveness of ordinary tasks and responsibility calls for the creation of a national election holiday.
With just under two weeks until this exhausting presidential election comes to a close, many are getting their affairs in order to cast their vote. Whether it is an absentee ballot sent through the mail or dredging through a COVID-19 wasteland for in-person voting, one common theme perpetuates through this election cycle — it’s hard.
ASUI has spent a good part of this early academic year pushing for a school-wide holiday on Nov. 3 to encourage students, faculty and staff to vote, however they decide to do it. The motion was deemed undoable by University of Idaho administrators.
Now, students must find time in between class and work schedules to spend at their polling site to vote. Or, plan enough in advance to request a mail-in ballot and submit with ample time before the deadline. I’m not saying this is an insanely hard task to do—it’s been done for centuries. But why?
Election Day in the U.S., which is always the first Tuesday of November (permitted it’s not Nov. 1), is not a federal holiday. Considerably, this is one of—if not the—most important day in the American way of life. The election of our representatives determines the domestic and foreign success of our nation. Though voting is a citizen’s civic duty, why not make it easier?
Several states, including Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, michigan, Montana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey and New York, have implemented an “Election Day holiday.” It is only 11 states out of 50. Barely 20% of the country have the time actually set aside to do their civic duty.
A federal Election Day holiday has been proposed many times throughout the years, most recently in early 2019. House Democrats introduced the bill to create a federal holiday for Election Day in January 2019 and it was met with Republican disapproval, as reported by CNBC.
Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader, had this to say, “Just what America needs, another paid holiday and a bunch of government workers being paid to go out and work, I assume [for] our colleagues on the other side — on their campaigns,” stated in a CNBC article.
Despite two-thirds of citizens in support of the idea, per a Pew Research Survey, the issue remains partially contentious among party lines. As someone who is firm in opinion and clearly on one side politically, I’ll be the first to say that not everything has to be a party issue.
This doesn’t help any party more than the other. All an Election Day holiday would do is give equal opportunity for citizens to be heard and listened to. Isn’t that what America is all about? Equal opportunity?
We all deserve to have a fair chance to cast our votes—now more than ever. It’s too late for this election cycle, but this is an easy measure to take in order to encourage more citizens to vote.
May I not mention other federal holidays? Do you know what Labor Day celebrates without having to Google it? Or is it your three-day party getaway weekend every September? There’s no hate for the latter, but let us all recognize the severity of Election Day in comparison.
Keep it in your consideration. And, most importantly, don’t forget to vote.
Carter Kolpitcke can be reached at [email protected].