Agenda Packets - 2024/06/10 - Laserfiche WebLink

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ballots... Furthermore, celebrating our democracy publicly would send the message that we value each other's citizenship as much as we value honoring past presidents." [13] Donald Green, Burgess Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, found that nonpartisan community parties celebrating Election Day in 2005, 2006, and 2016 increased voter participation between 2.6 percentage points and about 4 percentage points. [14] Pro 3 Making weekday elections a national holiday is a popular idea that would align the US with other countries. Pew Research Center found that 71% of Democrats and 59% of Republicans support making Election Day a federal holiday. Another survey showed that U.S. adults would rather have a federal holiday on Election Day than on Christmas Eve, the Friday after Thanksgiving, or St. Patrick's Day. [15] [16] The United States is out of step with the rest of the world. A 2018 survey found elections are held on weekends in 27 of the then 36 OECD countries. [15] A holiday for elections sidesteps the issue of a weekend election, which could conflict with religious obligations. Israel and South Korea make national elections a holiday to avoid economic hardship for voters. The result is voter turnout rates of 72.3% and 77.2% respectively, which is 26-32% higher than the United States. [8][15] 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. Countries such as France, Mexico, and India also observe federal holidays for elections. [17] [18] [19] Con 1 Making Election Day a national holiday will disadvantage low-income and blue collar workers. Federal law doesn't require private employers to give employees paid federal holidays. A part-time hourly worker is more likely to have multiple jobs, none of which are likely to offer time off for a federal holiday. [20] [21] [22] [23] Annie McDonald, Editor of the Berkeley Public Policy Journal, noted that the workers who are least likely to get paid holidays are those who already have less of a voice in the political process: "Americans working in retail, hospitality, and service jobs, for example, would most likely not receive the benefit of a paid holiday to vote. In fact, these voters may be more likely to have to work as a result of a federal election holiday, where they may have had time off previously on a random Tuesday in November. Additionally, many of these individuals rely on school days as childcare for their children. An additional day off school would prove to be problematic for individuals who may not have other readily accessible forms of childcare." [24] People who have already suffered significant disenfranchisement, such as women and people of color, are more likely to be working those low-income jobs that wouldn't get the time off to vote even on a national holiday. In fact, holidays usually mean more work hours for retail workers, because stores run promotions and sales. [24] [25]