Should Election Day by a National Holiday?

Jay - in most - if not all States - there are two weeks of early voting available. Here in Florida the Governor just extended those hours to 12 hour days including weekends. If you make election day a national holiday then voting numbers will fall. People will take the Monday (and maybe the friday) as vacation days and have themselves a nice five days off. If you cannot be bothered to vote in a two week period or take advantage of voting by mail

Jay - in most - if not all States - there are two weeks of early voting available. Here in Florida the Governor just extended those hours to 12 hour days including weekends. If you make election day a national holiday then voting numbers will fall. People will take the Monday (and maybe the friday) as vacation days and have themselves a nice five days off. If you cannot be bothered to vote in a two week period or take advantage of voting by mail then simply

Jay - in most - if not all States - there are two weeks of early voting available. Here in Florida the Governor just extended those hours to 12 hour days including weekends. If you make election day a national holiday then voting numbers will fall. People will take the Monday (and maybe the friday) as vacation days and have themselves a nice five days off. If you cannot be bothered to vote in a two week period or take advantage of voting by mail then simply you are not interested

Jay - in most - if not all States - there are two weeks of early voting available. Here in Florida the Governor just extended those hours to 12 hour days including weekends. If you make election day a national holiday then voting numbers will fall. People will take the Monday (and maybe the friday) as vacation days and have themselves a nice five days off. If you cannot be bothered to vote in a two week period or take advantage of voting by mail then simply you are not interested in

Jay - in most - if not all States - there are two weeks of early voting available. Here in Florida the Governor just extended those hours to 12 hour days including weekends. If you make election day a national holiday then voting numbers will fall. People will take the Monday (and maybe the friday) as vacation days and have themselves a nice five days off. If you cannot be bothered to vote in a two week period or take advantage of voting by

Jay - short answer, no. Also, there is no lower class citizen and upper class citizen in the U.S. There are lower economic groups and upper economic groups, as well as middle economic groups. India has classes, Europe still has classes. The U.S. does not.

However, if a standard 24 hour voting period were used in the U.S., the same 24 hours for all time zones, that might help.

The most influential socio-economic factor affecting voter turnout is education, the higher the education the higher the voter turnout.

Another factor is age, the lower the age, the lower the turnout. Is it also coincidental that those in the lower age and education groups also tend to have lower incomes?

Simon - you really like your response it seems;^)

Jay - Obama is encouraging us all to take the day off - who cares about economic impact!

Simon - you're killin' me...

That really makes wonderful sense.  Simon - how about a half day? 

Absolutely a full day - the first half for the person and their family to vote, and the 2nd half to go back and bring those that need help to get to the voting booth! :-)

I see Simon is adamant about making his point(s) ;-)

Really Mike?  I'm surprised you would say that..........Lets see now........ I'd say the Indian model of 'class' and the British model of 'class' and are only two examples......I don't think that we here in America have redefined that term to any great extent.....The term "Middle Class" is the first one to comes to mind.......then there is the rich class, the poor class.....I'd say that the hierarchy of social class is pretty blatant......Over and over again people are defined by their income level, or level of education.........not to mention race...........Say it isn't so?

Liz, yep, but our classes are ignoble and ineligible for being annointed to higher office by virtue of being born into aristocracy and, of course, with God's blessing becaue of it... Oh...wait, maybe that too is changing:-)

Liz - I do say it isn't so, of course there are those who feel it is necessary to create that division and incite anger over something that does not exist. We use the terms, in the U.S. to define economic status. In both India and Europe it also implies social status. Granted, it is much more subtle in Europe. I will give you that there are some here who would impose social status as a class.

Inna- you need to study your U.S. history a bit better than that. Unless you are meaning the Kennedy's, the Gore's, the Kerry's, etc.

Mike, never mind, this really was for Liz and obviously meant in jest.

On a serious note, there is not such thing as economic classess only - can't be done. Economical disparities inevitably become social disparites, whether you see it or not. We may not call them by the same names, but the end result is more or less the same.:-)

Hi Jay. Actually there are quite a few states that do not allow early voting, but you can do absentee voting, but how many people are aware of that? There are also A LOT of people that work two or more jobs and yes, in those states so they do need to extend the voting hours in states (at the very least) that don't allow early voting. Heres a nice list

http://www.demconwatchblog.com/2008/09/how-to-vote-early-state-by-state-guide.html

Inna - I am not disagreeing with you but they are artificial and what I was referring to in the comment about imposing social status as a class. Those disparities are often chosen rather than imposed, and, while it may take effort, the crossing of those borders is accomplished very often, just look at Bubba, Clinton that is.

jay, our Unions in Michigan have ALWAYS had a paid day off to vote. Hump

Jay - No, I don't think there should be a day off to vote.  There are plenty of people who choose not to vote even if their schedule allows.  To those that it is important to vote, they will make arrangements whether via early ballots, absentee ballots, etc.  Even when I had no control over my hours, I made arrangements to vote.  Also, what about Primary elections and local elections where we vote on tax initiatives that impact our lives, etc.?  The turnout for those is even lower.  Would we then need to allow time off for those as well?

Hmmm sorry I missed the continuation of the threat.........Inna and Mike......I was busy commenting on my own political blog.......(grin)..........

All I can say is........What's in a name? that which we call a rose
      By any other name would smell as sweet ; or a thorn by any other name ...would dig as deep...........