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In last week’s presidential election, about a third of eligible voters nationwide didn’t cast a ballot. There are likely many reasons for this, including a choice not to vote for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.
However, voter participation in the U.S. has long lagged many other countries. Maine is a welcome exception. Nearly 73 percent of eligible Mainers cast a ballot in last week’s election, among the highest in the country.
Making voting easier will very likely increase voter turnout. One way to do that would be to make election day a national holiday.
It’s an idea that’s been around for years, but has failed to gain much support.
This year, the idea gained some traction for a very unfortunate reason. On Election Day, hoax threats, known as “swatting” calls, were made to numerous communities in Maine. The calls reported an armed shooter at local schools. Many schools were briefly put in lockdown on Tuesday as the calls were investigated. None of the calls were deemed credible.
It is unclear if the calls were meant to interfere with the Nov. 5 election, but schools are often used as polling places, so these calls temporarily disrupted voting in some places. In South Portland, a polling station near the city’s high school was locked down for a time last Tuesday morning.
The threats have added to support for making Election Day a national holiday, a change recommended in 2001 by The National Commission on Federal Election Reform, a bipartisan group of former lawmakers, including presidents.
David Trahan, the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, said his organization would back a bill to make Election Day a holiday to alleviate security concerns at schools that children are attending, the Bangor Daily News reported.
Such a bill was introduced in the Maine Legislature in 2019, but it was rejected by lawmakers.
Nationally, a bill that would have made Election Day a federal holiday, backed only by Democrats, passed the U.S. House in 2019. It stalled in the Senate after Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called the legislation, which also included provisions to compel states to adopt independent redistricting commissions, prohibit purging of voter rolls and require more disclosure of political donations, a “power grab” by Democrats.
Several years ago, U.S. senators, including Angus King, sponsored a bill to move federal elections to weekends in hopes of increasing turnout.
Without work obligations, voting on weekends can be easier. Mark Franklin, a professor at Trinity College in Connecticut reported that weekend voting could increase participation by up to 7 percent.
Our longstanding practice of holding federal and many statewide elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of the month dates to the mid-1800s. Back then, when it could take a day by horse and carriage to get to the county seat to vote, the concern was making sure elections didn’t interfere with farming. Tuesday was chosen because that day didn’t interfere with the sabbath or market days, says Why Tuesday?, a group working to draw attention to America’s low voter turnout and ways to improve it.
Voting on the weekend or making the November election a national holiday would most likely increase voter turnout. So, perhaps it’s time for a change.
