Should We Change National Voting Day To Monday

This editorial by my classmate Javonnie is about low voter turnout in the United States, and how we could fix it. He believes that this is caused by people not being able to get time off of work.  Voting was originally scheduled on a Tuesday because that would help farmers - the largest occupation in the United States at the time. Javonnie’s argument is that in order to get people to vote, we should change when we vote to a Monday national holiday, such as Presidents’ Day.

            The claim put forth in this post is that if we change when we vote to a national holiday, people will already have time off so it will be more convenient to vote. National holidays are a chance for most people to get the day off, and often schools aren’t in session, allowing parents to expose their children to voting. That is a good argument, but it is incomplete. For starters, two thirds of states offer early voting, often including weekends. That gives ample opportunity to arrange a time to vote.  Also, not all employers give national holidays off, especially those with hourly jobs (such as food service and retail) which not only have the most unforgiving schedules but are often held by those in the 18-25 year old range – the highest demographic of non-voters. Finally, employers are already legally obligated to give their employees two hours off to vote, but often people either aren’t aware of this law or don’t take advantage of it.

                         

The idea of changing when we vote is a very good idea but it’s not enough. A much bigger problem is hiding behind the scenes - voter apathy. Choosing the leader of the United States – or any elected official - is not to be taken lightly. A voting education class should be a solid part of our nation’s curriculum. When people don’t know the importance of voting, they usually don’t vote. Most states already have government classes that we can insert voting education into. Make sure that kids know how and why to vote from first grade and teach them more and more and by the time they are 18, they can be educated voters.

Voting education could be one or two week each November, teaching major concepts about voting. Some things that should be taught include teaching first graders the importance of voting, and as you get older: how to vote using a digital voting machine, how to research a political campaign, how vote for the option you want - not strictly party lines, and how to read the legal “fine print” of propositions on the ballot.

In order for changing when we vote to help, citizens need to know why we vote.  Decreasing voter apathy could be solved by teaching school aged children why we vote. Between moving when we vote, and teaching our nation’s children how to vote, we will have more involved citizens in ten years.