Theyare still considerably higher than in the United States, which typically sees about 65% on average turn out to vote for major elections. 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. 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. It would take an act of Congress to make Election Day a national holiday, and there is currently a bill proposing to designate "Democracy Day" as a national election holiday before a special committee. It happens to be on the day the politicians themselves get elected. Today in my country it is a national holiday as we celebrate the day when St. Paul converted our whole country to Catholicism in AD 60. But experts say improving voter turnout is a complicated issue that no single silver bullet strategy can solve. [ 17] Countries such as France, Mexico, and India also observe federal holidays for elections. According to Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus, Australia adopted compulsory voting in 1924 after turnout there dropped to less than 60 percent in 1922. Countries outpacing the U.S. include the U.K, Mexico and Canada. According to the Pew Research Center, of the thirty-six nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the U.S. is one of nine that votes on a week day, and one of seven that doesn't designate election day a national holiday. Election Day in the United States is the annual day for general elections of federal public officials.It is statutorily set by the U.S. government as "the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November", i.e. While the majority of US states have voter leave laws that guarantee certain employees a modicum of time off to vote, no federal law currently mandates that employees get time off to cast their ballots. In previous elections, that percentage was even higher. There's nothing that would stop voters here from treating a Democracy Day like just another day off.". Elections to the Bundestag may be held on another public holiday. Election Day is already a holiday for state employees in more than a dozen states including Kentucky, Michigan, and New York. Virginia joined these states in April this year. More people would vote if they had more time to cast their ballots Furthermore, celebrating our democracy publicly would send the message that we value each others citizenship as much as we value honoring past presidents. [13], Donald Green, PhD, 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. And even a number of the blue countries, such as Australia and Canada, are actually the product of colonialism. Make Election Day a National Holiday | YIP Institute Declaring Election Day a holiday has been proposed various times in Congress; it's a popular idea. 1. Last week his office released a list of voting rights provisions he would support. 0:58. 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. Last Tuesday was election day in the United States, and this year we voted in the midterm elections. ", "National Electoral Code Article 53 and 148", Report of the 2014 National Lawyers Guild Bolivian Election Observation Delegation, Voting hours for elections in EU Member States, "The Parliamentary Electoral System in Denmark", Consultation Report on Review of Electoral Arrangements, "India Elects 2019: The World's Largest Election, Explained", "Six Nations match at the centre of row over election date - Independent.ie", "With full term possible, Netanyahu may outlast Ben-Gurion (and Obama)", Confessionalism and Electoral Reform in Lebanon, "Voters reminded not to reveal voting intention at Sunday's polling", "Malaysia's election on a Wednesday favors PM, opposition says", "Elections in Mexico and the US: Comparisons and contrasts", "Law on Election of Councillors and Members of Parliament", "Election Days General Elections 1853-2011", "The main features of the Norwegian electoral system", "Tribunal Electoral de Panam convoca a elecciones generales de 2024", "Peru Can Give U.S. A cemetery posted a personal ad for a goose whose mate died. This map, inspired by a Reddit thread with a similar map, shows the national days of the world's countries. In some of these countries, voting is compulsory, and in most of them, Election Day is a holiday. [1], Over time, voting rights expanded from only white, male landowners age 21 and older to include women and people of color, as well as citizens age 18 and up, resulting in a dramatic increase in the voting-eligible population and a shift in voter demographics. Have you experienced an election day in another country, or do you know how voting works in a place we haven't mentioned here? Understanding what happened in the Chicago mayoral race. While no state has proposed reinstating the literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses that effectively ended the burst of African-American franchise during Reconstruction, todays efforts to disenfranchise minority voters are similarly unsubtle. Most others are not so recent, but still not so old: Taiwan's, for example, goes back to a 1911 uprising. The case for making Election Day an official holiday Election Day is a state holiday in Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and New York. Sign up to receive a weekly email update on forthcoming public holidays around the world in your inbox every Sunday. Politicians, most recently House Democrats in 2019, have also floated the idea of turning a weekday Election Day into a federal holiday, but to no avail. 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. February 26, 2023, 5:06 AM. All federal elections take place the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. But none of those states have considerably high turnout compared to those where it isn't a holiday. However, those numbers may be attributed to a combination of factors not solely because their elections occur on non-work days. 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. Georgia grassroots groups helped Biden win. In the US, Election Day is not a national holiday. The U.S. is one of only nine member nations that have weekday voting. For more on the debate about making election day a national holiday, visit ProCon.org. 3. Puerto Rico's voter turnout has gone as high as 80 . In the 2016 presidential election, 14% of registered voters cited being too busy or having a conflicting schedule as the main reason they didnt cast their ballots, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data. These numbers also may be indicative of higher turnout for major elections, but may not reflect engagement in local or regional elections. Rose Marcario, CEO, stated, demonstrating your companys commitment to voting will reinforce how essential it is that every eligible voter shows up. Democracy on the ballot will the remaining election deniers succeed? [2] Sundays were for rest and worship, and on Wednesdays farmers typically sold their crops at the market, making Tuesdays the best day of the week. According to Pew Research data, US voter turnout trails most developed countries. [27], Companies including Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Farmers Insurance, Kaiser Permanente, Patagonia, and Walmart have joined Make Time to Vote campaign, which encourages employers to provide paid time off, schedule no meetings on Election Day, and give information on mail-in ballots and early voting. Incidentally, Australia routinely reaches more than 90. Why isn't Election Day a national holiday yet? - CNN 2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This is why election day is not a holiday in Canada - blogTO Voters in more than one-third of the country enjoy some form of an Election Day holiday, according to RepresentUs. For example, Australia typically has a turnout in the 90 percent or more range, and other nations such as Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Mexico achieve very high turnout via universal voting and time off for voting. Incidentally, Australia routinely reaches more than 90 percent voter turnout, compared to the United States, where average voter turnout in presidential elections since 1965 has been only 54%. Opponents say kids arent mature enough to vote. ", "An overall look at Vietnam's election law", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Election_day&oldid=1136894393. Other countries take heroic efforts to ensure that people can vote if they desire. But in many other countries, the government automatically registers voters and holds elections on days that are weekend days or national holidays. Some countries, about 27 of them, make voting compulsory. Lists national days around the world by country or date. And the empire has been pretty consistently breaking apart over the last half century Scotland is maybe next so it's not like there is a national unification to celebrate. Saturday, but can be any day of the week, such as when a Saturday conflicts with a holiday. Even among the nine weekday voting countries, South Korea's and Israel's voters take a day off work on the day of the election to ensure higher electoral participation. 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. [26] Caravanas are joyful, noisy parades of cars festooned with flags and other decorations that stream through Puerto Ricos streets ahead of an election and are credited with the islands over 80% voter turnout. In Sweden, for example, 83% of registered voters participated in the 2014 national . "I'm not a fan," said Eddie Perez, an election administration and election technology expert at the Open Source Election Technology (OSET) Institute. An independence day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or more rarely after the end of a military occupation.Many countries commemorate their independence from a colonial empire.. Not all countries mark independence as a national holiday. 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 Where Is Election Day a Holiday? - Ms. Magazine Update: Some readers think that Ireland should also be considered an outlier, as St. Patrick's Day is often considered its primary "national day" and is not really an independence or revolution day. Sometimes, specific ballot measures can influence voter turnout: in the UK, the Brexit vote resulted in a 72% turnout, slightly higher than the average of 69%. One major reason: It comes down to tradition, Troy said. "Election Day should be a national holiday so that everyone has the time and opportunity to vote," Sanders' website reads. Would Making Election Day a Federal Holiday Boost U.S. Voter Turnout But they never go far and die in committee without a vote. - Vincent Hutchings, a University of Michigan political science professor, - Gil Troy, American presidential historian, Whether accurate or not, elected officials likely think that making it easier to vote would advantage one party traditionally it is believed to help the Democrats at the, Joaquin Corbalan / EyeEm via Getty Images, as travel and communication improved in the 19th century, being too busy or having a conflicting schedule, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, substantially increase the cost of running elections, move that would make it easier for Americans to vote, The types of workers least likely to reap the benefits.
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