Election day is the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November. Roland Martin believes that we should make it a Saturday, in order to give more people the opportunity to vote. While I am all for making election day more accessible to Americans, a Saturday in November just won't cut it.
Picking a weekend automatically disenfranchises religious voters. Orthodox Jews most likely would not be able to vote on any Saturday, no matter which month it is. Sundays are problematic for conservative Christians, for many of the same reasons.
Either day of the weekend is typically a day when the week's remaining affairs are taken care of, whether it be getting your haircut, buying a new pair of shoes, or cutting your lawn. Weekends are not made for going out and doing your civic duty; we are Americans after all and we value our leisure.
For that reason, I propose Veterans day as election day. For one, all federal and state employees have the day off, as do all bank employees and many others. It always falls in November (currently the closest weekday to November 11) and it could easily be standardized to a Monday or Tuesday.
Why not combine one of America's forgotten federal holiday's with our democracy. Our veterans fought in many wars to give us the liberty to choose our representatives in government and tying election day with our military tradition would add a lot to both holidays.
1 comment:
This would be a great idea.
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