by Leigh Goessl

Created on: February 01, 2008   Last Updated: July 22, 2008

Election Day is an important day, no doubt about it, but there is no good reason it should be designated as a federal holiday. In the US Election Day is the day citizens have the fantastic opportunity to get out and vote the candidates they feel best represents their views (or unfortunately in some cases get the chance to vote the lesser of evils!) This ability to vote is a precious right and privilege.

All things considered, Election Day should not be deemed a national holiday. You've got to figure once Election Day is selected to be given federal holiday status the merchants will jump on the opportunity to offer all kinds of creative ways to commercialize the day. Can you envision it now? The myriad of greeting cards, flowers, balloons and gifts exchanged, and commercialism to downgrade the significance of going to the polls.

Honestly, does the US really need another holiday which will evolve into an additional day where people lose focus of the reason behind the holiday? The significance of Memorial Day, 4th of July and Veterans Day holidays, to name a few, has already become secondary. If Election Day were deemed a federal day of observance to put emphasis on the right to vote, what are the odds it will remain true to its purpose? Probably slim to none.

Before we know it, the usual Tuesday designated to vote will be moved to a Monday. This will maximize time off from work and add another long weekend to the calendar year. Certainly the travel industry will start offering discounted rates for people to jet off to a warm and sunny destination to enjoy the long weekend, offering people a temptation to throw away the chance to vote in favor of taking the advantage of a "holiday" trip.

The importance of the civil right and privilege to vote should be preserved by keeping the integrity of Election Day intact and leaving it as an "ordinary" work day. This is not a suggestion that Election Day is just another "ordinary" day because it's not, but by attaching the label of "holiday" to it will automatically remove the emphasis of the importance of casting a ballot and make voting secondary. In the US the voting turnouts are already at an undesirable low rate, federalizing the day will likely reduce those numbers even more.

As it stands, the polls are already open 12-15 hours in order to maximize the window for voters to have the chance to cast their ballot, deeming a "day off" is not necessary to vote. It seems the logic behind making Election Day a federal holiday would be done in the hopes of increasing voter turnout, but it is likely to have the opposite effect.

In the US the election system already has significant problems between its structure and the turnout of voters, it doesn't need the added complications of "holiday status" to further detract from the importance of the day.

Besides, doesn't Hallmark already have enough holidays for us to choose from?

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