Make Election Day a federal holiday, require in-person voting
By Ethan Watson
Real Clear Wire
Our calendars are full of useless holidays. Just last week, we saw Credit Union Day, Mashed Potato Day and Raw Milk Cheese Appreciation Day. While observances like these are otherwise irrelevant at the national level, there is one day of the year that has long lacked federal “holiday” status: Election Day.
Unlike offhanded observances such as Earth Day, on which life goes on as usual, Election Day ought to be an official federal holiday like Presidents’ Day or Thanksgiving, with all non-essential workers receiving a paid day off to carry out their civic duty. Establishing this yearly event as a federal holiday would increase voter turnout, restore faith in our elections, and, most importantly, boost morale through a shared civic display.
Designating Election Day as a national holiday and giving workers the day off would largely mitigate the need for accommodations like mail-in voting and early voting, allowing policymakers to require in-person voting except in special circumstances. This would also make possible a mass return to paper ballots, eliminating the need for voting machines which have been swamped in scandal since 2020.
Some say mail-in voting is ripe for manipulation; others contend voting machines are prone to hacks and glitches. While it’s difficult to quantify how much voting machines or absentee ballots have increased the risk of election-rigging, if at all, it’s clear that a significant number of Americans have lost faith in our elections – just as they’ve lost faith in our media, our government, and their friends and neighbors.
In a world where most Americans have the day off work and vote in person, on a paper ballot, many common doubts about our election system become moot. Of course, exceptions will apply for essential workers or citizens temporarily living in a different state, but the vast majority of Americans would have to physically go to a polling place on Election Day and vote. Volunteers would then count the paper ballots onsite, significantly reducing doubts about voting machine integrity or ballots lost in the mail.
Prominent right-wingers like Vivek Ramaswamy have actually promoted this plan over the course of the 2024 election, citing election integrity concerns. Yet, making Election Day a federal holiday would go far beyond healing the election-denial wound – it would generate patriotism with a new shared tradition.
Civic virtue is a good thing, and public reminders of it are even better. To appreciate our democracy and commit ourselves to maintaining it, we need a public reminder that tyranny, not democracy, has been the norm throughout human history. The United States is exceptional because we establish power not through strength, but by consensus.
As humans, we need physical reminders to keep us mindful of such abstract truths. That’s why we build churches, write great works of literature, and even get tattoos. If the principles we hold dear aren’t manifested in anything, we lose them.
A mass migration of Americans to the polls every year would become a powerful symbol of our democracy’s resilience, a shining example to the world that our grand experiment worked. Moreover, a whole day for voting could inspire people to participate in state and local elections – affairs that have an even greater impact on their daily lives than national elections.
People would look forward to voting. It would become a celebrated ritual in a public life otherwise devoid of shared traditions. One could imagine pre-voting brunches and post-voting barbecues. Families could go to the polls in the morning and spend the rest of the day enjoying their freedom and leisure together. Children would grow up looking forward to participating in their citizenship, just like we look forward to Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the first day of summer vacation.
These days, Americans can’t even agree on whether the Fourth of July is a day worth celebrating (spoiler alert, it is). But without a shared culture, we cannot have a nation. It’s time to start rebuilding that shared culture with a national day that puts our exceptional founding ideals to work.
Ethan Watson is a Young Voices contributor working towards a Master of Accounting degree at the University of Kansas. He holds dual undergraduate degrees in Accounting and Political Science with an eye toward law school in the near future. Follow him on X: @erwatson13.
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Comment
Huh? 5 days until a monumental election.
Five days before the most important election in our lifetimes. And the 3-5 usually progressive commentators on the HCP have been all but silent. That means things are good for the good guys. In the lean years for us conservatives, we consistently speak, fight, and debate on this awesome forum Rory and his staff has provided. The silence from the Left reeks of desperation, Trump Derangement Syndrome, etc.
I heard someone explain this phenomenon recently, and I've tried to explain it myself.
The progressive Left is dependent on the government, handouts, and who is in power that is sympathetic to the plights of those who might not be in true need. So the current President and the various left-leaning department heads are golden. They use taxpayers' money to satisfy their support base and voters. And if Constitutional conservatives argue against the largess of the federal government, the sycophant legacy media will bury them.
A Patriot and a Conservative who believes in God's Grace and wisdom, and in the ratified Constitution and Bill of Rights, will weather any storm and will be faithful to God, family, friends, neighbors, the needy and most enemies. While the Left seeks power and greed.
Mandating In Person Voting Without Special Circumstances?
That sounds like tryanny to me. You must vote this day only. No exceptions for you. Paper ballots? Ever hear of hanging chads? Integrity of machines has been challenged by both parties. If there were an issue, I think it would have surfaced by now. We can expect each side has the lawsuits already drafted if they lose. Maybe the machine issue will surface again. My concern is some states have additional time after midnight for a few days to accept ballots. I usually vote in person on the day of. Calling certain days as holidays is incorrect. These are appreciation or recognition days. My incentive to vote exists since my first election in Ohio at 18 in March. 1974. 1st year 18 year olds could vote. Still in high school. The law changed because at 18 you could not vote, but be drafted. Yes, I had my draft card and carried it at all times. Every encounter with law enforcement required showing it. At least in Highland County. If not, a night in jail was possible and see ya in court. This did not happen in more urban areas. Traffic citations or warnings. Never a fine. Tresspassing case dismissed. Officer suspended from HPD. Some know the rest of the story. Matthew, sorry for the delayed response for whatever label you place on my viewpoints expressed today.
Selective Service Apprecuation Day
David, Thank you for carrying your draft card. I cant believe the government told men what to do with their own bodies back then.
18 year olds voting? Haha! Amateurs!
I voted when I was 17. To paraphrase your hero Joe Biden, "No Joke! I'm serious." That election cycle was 1994. The year the Republicans recovered the House and Senate in Washington. Much to your chagrin, along with Hillary and Bill, Al and Tipper, Sen. Robert "KKK" Byrd, and the other old timey democrats... And I never had a "draft card." But I had a ship-out date in January '95: Parris Island, South Carolina. Millions of Americans felt relieved during that time with a Republican majority in Congress. No joke!
Funny Comment Matthew
It was probably not legal and if it was, only enforced in rural America. If your parents had money local draft boards excluded you. I have my number. Required if they bring back draft boards and if I want to serve. No one will buy their way out.
17
It was perfectly legal when I voted as a 17 year-old. A wise student of Civics and someone who truly understands American politics knows the scenario when a 17 year old can vote.
yes, or an election 5 day weekend
First, I can't believe what Joe Biden said last night. Biden should not have called the 100+ million fascists in this Country "garbage." That's just deplorable.... He actually called Trump's supporters "garbage." The funny part is that it took all the steam out of Kamala's teleprompter speech on the same night in Washington D.C..
Second, The polls at your precinct should be open the Friday, Saturday, Monday, leading up to Election Day on Tuesday. No early voting, requested absentee ballots only. After Biden's garbage insult, there might be thousands of people around the Country who voted early who want to vote differently now., for the presidential ticket and down ballot.