To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Declare Election Day a National Holiday...finally!
This ought to be a no-brainer, my fellow Americans. If there is ONE day in the life of a democracy which deserves to be a national holiday, it is the day that DEFINES democracy: Election Day. An effective representative democracy should have the least possible impediments to choosing those representatives. Give us, the citizens of The United States of America, the voters, the employers of all those in Washington, OUR holiday, when we can freely and without restriction have our voices heard and votes counted.
Why is this important?
Our national voter turnout is rather dismal compared to many other western industrialized countries. In part this can be traced to our Election Day being a regular, midweek, work day, and NOT a holiday. In recent years we have seen increasing efforts to suppress voter turnout. Many state legislatures have placed an increasing number of obstacles, in time and procedure, in the path of the voter. If we can create national holidays in memory of great American citizens, why can we not agree on a national holiday honoring the greatest American of all, The Voter?