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Comment by cheriot | Hacker News Reader

Meaningful national value in a holiday for election day imo

My big stupid idea for American politics is for a president to promise that each budget they sign will add a new holiday. Make Congress come up with one, agree on it. I think super bowl Monday, election day, and a doubled memorial day are the most obvious, best candidates

The fact that election day is not a mandatory holiday blows my mind.

It underscores that the US is Capitalism first and Democracy.. somewhere much further down the list.

Because it's intentional. Can't have poor people voting in mass.

Election Day holiday wouldn't change that. Poor people work on holidays. Making election day a holiday would change little. Longer voting periods, absentee ballots for everyone like in COVID, these are things that would help.

Hey at least they’d get paid holiday overtime in that case!

I never got 'overtime' when working on holidays during all my time in food service.

A flaw in this theory is that poor people who have jobs often times still have to go to work on federal holidays because of where they work - retail and service jobs for example.

Hell, in Georgia you can't even give poor people water when they are in a long line to vote.

Not kidding: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/26/politics/georgia-voting-law-f...

That was so shitty it's unbelievable.

The law prohibits "gifts" and giving items out for free.

Republicans hate free shit and are all about commerce though. Selling the same items for $0.01 a pop does not appear to be illegal. Set up a "ghost kitchen" out of a car parked around the corner and pretend you're a DoorDasher.

It's a political problem as some parties find it makes themselves more electable when less people vote.

Election workers would have the day off too.

If the point of having Election Day off is to give folks time to vote, poll workers are already, well, at the polls. Naturally, they will be able to vote.

Aren't poll workers entitled to national holidays off?

If this is the biggest reason you can think of why this won’t work, pretty sure we can figure this out. We seem to have figured it out for police and firefighters. Unless you think all the cops take off for Christmas Day or something?

I think he thinks that the election workers work at the polls full time as their career and thus wouldnt work on election day and we would have no election. Kinda funny but not how any of it works.

This can also be seen as incentivizing critical workers (election workers) to find a different job.

We had elections in NZ a few months ago. The in-person voting period ran for at least a week. Some voting booths only opened on the actual election day, but a good number were open for longer. Most malls I went to had them open the entire time, same with a voting booth in the airport departures lounge.

Huh, what mandatory holiday gains. The better thing would be if anyone want to take a day off for election day company can't refuse it.

> It underscores that the US is Capitalism first and Democracy..

In my first hand experience US democracy is working much better that places which have mandatory holiday for election.

I believe this is the case in some countries, Cambodia being one if I recall correctly.

I remember being there during an election, in theory none of the bars/pubs were meant to open because they didn't want people just taking the day off to get drunk. However being in a tourist spot, the bars who served the foreign travellers were open... just everyone was drinking their beer out or mugs.

Apparently this was sufficiently respecting the spirit of the law for business to continue as usual.

It really has nothing to do with Democracy or Capitalism. It has everything to do with suppressing the votes of certain demographics.

Since the US has been voting on the first Tuesday in November without a federal holiday longer than Blacks and Women could legally vote, I do not understand why you would think this

Washington state makes it so easy. My ballot is mailed to me weeks before the election date. I have plenty of time to research and fill it out. I then drop it off at one of the many official dropboxes around the city (or you can drop it in the mail for free, as long as you get it postmarked before the election date). The ballot is tracked from the time it's sent, received, and counted (I have mine set to alert me of its status via email and SMS).

I have a similar experience in CA. It's become a joy to sit down for an afternoon with a glass of wine, researching all the down ballot races as I fill in bubbles.

Farcical first past the post non-democratic election system without IDs is even more mind blowing from the other side of the pond.

Here is your bill. Good luck.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/11/t...

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