How to Increase Voter Turnout?

There are several groups out there, including Greens, who want to see a change in our election process, and I don't mean just getting rid of the Electoral College. These people want to see easier access to the voting booth.

How can we achieve this? Do we change the day, and make it on a weekend? Do we give the American public the whole weekend to vote? Or do we just make the Tuesday in November, Election Day, a National Holiday? What about 24 hour voting, or voting through the Internet? I also want to ask, is this how we need to go about increasing voter turnout, or is there another way?

I expected to cover this subject in just one article, but it became much larger than planned. This article will cover one just one side of this issue, changing the voting day. I will discuss other aspects in the following essays.

Election Day as a Holiday:

I have heard several groups say they think we need to change the November Election Day to a National Holiday. There are some countries that do this, but will this work here in the United States? I'm not sure it will. How many other national holidays are there where the corporations don't let employees have the day off? Martin Luther King Jr. day, Presidents day, Veterans day, just to name a few. And it isn't just the corporations that are holiday stingy. The small businessman claims he can't give his employees all these days off. Making Election Day a holiday will not necessarily mean that these businesses will give the day off to the employees, and if so the purpose is defeated. Another option is to mandate employers to give the day off as a holiday to all employees. I fear there will be too many businesses fighting this and the legislation would never pass. Let's face it, the politicians in office are being paid by Business.

Changing the Election Day:

So what about having Election Day on the weekend? My personal opinion is that this is a better idea, and I'd like to see it put into place. It's true that there are people, especially in the service sector, who work on Saturday or Sunday, but the majority of the population work Monday through Friday. Having the Election Day on Saturday would be an encouragement to vote. People generally have more free time and can do a little more then they do during the week.

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