countries where election day is a national holiday

As you can see, the world is mostly divided between countries that celebrate a national independence day and countries that celebrate a national unification or revolution day. Sundays are the most common day for elections, but this is less true in the Anglosphere; Saturdays are used in New Zealand and Australia, and weekdays for the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. In the 2016 presidential election, 14% of registered voters cited being too busy or having a conflicting schedule as the main reason they didnt cast their ballots, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data. In 2018, the general election was held on Wednesday. Understanding what happened in the Chicago mayoral race. Veterans Day typically is about one week after Election Day so this would involve little disruption in terms of job schedules and monthly routines. In the United States, it varies from state to state and even county to county, so the idea that one entire country might use the same voting method is actually pretty unique to Americans! Proponents say teens are knowledgeable enough to vote. Incidentally, Australia routinely reaches more than 90. On Sunday, Virginia Democratic Gov. The ideal solution is simple: Congress should make Election Day a national holiday, or move Election Day to the weekend. American election laws have been reformed before with minimal impact on voter turnout which remains low compared to other democracies around the world. Delaware Hawaii Kentucky Louisiana Montana New Jersey New York Ohio Puerto Rico Virginia West Virginia While Tuesdays have been custom for elections in the United States, Sunday is the day of. Runoffs take place on the last Sunday of the same October. In Sweden, for example, 83% of registered voters participated in the 2014 national . By comparison, Belgium reported the highest OECD voter turnout: 87.2% in the most recent national election. Pew also found that certain issues motivate voters more than others: "health care, poverty and education are the top motivators for political engagement." Making the presidential election a national holiday is another way to get people to the polls. Other countries may only require it of certain people, and otherwise make it voluntary for others. Whether accurate or not, elected officials likely think that making it easier to vote would advantage one party traditionally it is believed to help the Democrats at the expense of the other party, the GOP, said Vincent Hutchings, a University of Michigan political science professor. Voter turnout in the United States is usually considered low, especially in years without a presidential election. However, some countries, or regions within a country, which hold elections on a weekday declare election day a public holiday. Election Day isn't a national holiday in the US, but some people think it should be. Congress would shore up the peoples right to vote while guaranteeing the time to engage in this fundamental right. Do you think it's time for the US to follow their lead? So, workers having a day off to vote wouldn't be a disruption to the economy, or anything a citizen of our country could deny would be worthwhile and smart thing to do. First Sunday of July until 2018. [24] Holidays usually mean more work hours for retail workers, because stores run promotions and sales. This article is about the general term "election day" worldwide. 1, which adds a new paid holiday for federal employees every other year. An ordinary act of Congress could move Election Day to a Saturday or make it a holiday, thereby giving more people more . From 2021, the first Sunday of June. The bill would also effectively revive Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which requires states with a history of voter discrimination have all changes to their election laws approved by the federal government, updating the law in response to the Supreme Courts 2013 holding in Shelby County v. Holder. Of these countries, 27 hold their national elections on a weekend. This is the day we cast ballots to select public officials from local to the national government. The bill has no cosponsors, but the concept was supported by every 2020 Democratic candidate for president, excluding Mike Bloomberg and now-nominee Joe Biden. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a group that includes 36 countries. Portugal celebrates the 1580 death of celebrated national poet Luis de Camoes, Spain celebrates Columbus Day (yes, the holiday is a little controversial there as well, although not as much as in the U.S.), the Netherlands celebrates the queen's birthday but it still use her mother's birthday for the date and, in Greenland, the celebrate the longest day of the year. [10][11]] [28][29], Patagonia, an outdoor clothing retailer, paused operation on Nov. 6, 2018 so that all employees could vote. Should the United States Use the Electoral College in Presidential Elections? More people would vote if they had more time to cast their ballots Furthermore, celebrating our democracy publicly would send the message that we value each others citizenship as much as we value honoring past presidents. [13], Donald Green, PhD, Burgess Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, found that nonpartisan community parties celebrating Election Day in 2005, 2006, and 2016 increased voter participation between 2.6 percentage points and about 4 percentage points. Part of HuffPost Home & Living. Compulsory voting does not necessarily guarantee 100% turnout rates, however, though they still see higher rates than countries which do not require it. 4) The outliers are few but tell you a lot about those . While making Election Day a national holiday or moving it to the weekend would by no means be a cure-all, it could be used in conjunction with other strategies like automatic voter registration (nearly 87% of registered voters participated in the 2016 election), restoring voting rights for formerly incarcerated people and removing other barriers such as voter ID requirements and voter roll purges that often disenfranchise people of color. In India, for example, a polling place is required within two kilometers (about a mile) of every single person in the country of 1.4 billion. All this despite the fact that these types of restrictions have typically been considered illegal under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires that elections be equally open to all people. Again, it is not clear that this is demonstrably true but it is a widespread perception. I'll look into this some more and may change it on the map. Countries that have weekend or holiday elections do tend to have better turnout overall. Stay up to date with what you want to know. CBS News reporter covering climate change and energy. A lot of people go to work, or they're in school during the weekday. The outliers are a tiny minority, and only two countries have no formal national day at all. Some say a holiday would increase voter turnout by enabling more people to vote while celebrating democracy. Lessons in How to Hold Elections", "GE2015: First time Polling Day falls on a Friday, but not first time polls held on a weekday", "180/2014 Z.z. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Proponents say the Electoral College ensures everyone selects the president. In many countries, general elections are always held on a Saturday or Sunday, to enable as many voters as possible to participate; while in other countries elections are always held on a weekday.However, some countries, or regions within a country, which hold elections on a weekday declare election day a public holiday. I am from Malta - a tiny EU island nation and today we celebrate the shipwreck of St. Paul on our island. Establishing Election Day as a holiday, taken together with the pending federal voting rights reforms, would go a long way towards stabilizing democracy and ensuring basic democratic rights. Lists national days around the world by country or date. It is set by statute as "the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November.". TOP QUESTION Would making Election Day a federal holiday increase voter turnout and celebrate democracy? There is a simple and straightforward solution: make Election Day a national holiday so that people have the time and freedom to vote without taking time off from work. Furthermore, making this small shift would celebrate the purpose and sacrifice of our fighting forces. For example, Australia typically has a turnout in the 90 percent or more range, and other nations such as Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Mexico achieve very high turnout via universal voting and time off for voting. They stated, Citizen Day would do more than give our democracy the honor that it deserves; it would help our democracy work better. Read more: The evolution of American voting rights in 242 years shows how far we've come and how far we still have to go. Election day is a national holiday. [7] A handful of states have made election day a state holiday, including New York, Hawaii, Kentucky, and, in Apr. At the top of his list: making Election Day a national holiday. According to Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus, Australia adopted compulsory voting in 1924 after turnout there dropped to less than 60 percent in 1922. Accessed February 21, 2023. https://www.procon.org/headlines/election-day-national-holiday-top-3-pros-and-cons/, potential benefits and difficulties of changing election day, election day should not be a national holiday. "I'm not a fan," said Eddie Perez, an election administration and election technology expert at the Open Source Election Technology (OSET) Institute. The COVID-19 pandemic convinced. Meanwhile, in Macedonia this past September, voters chose to stay away from the polls because of the proposed name change for the country. Consider this: Even if Election Day were moved to a weekend or turned into a national holiday, retail and service industry employees would still need to work. 14, 2019, BBC, "Singapore Election: Governing Party Secure Decisive Win, bbc.com, Sep. 12, 2015, Holly Jackson, "It's Time to Make Election Day a Holiday in Law and Spirit," washingtonpost.com, Oct. 22, 2018, BCP Associates, "India Elections 2019 - Declaration of Paid Holiday on Polling Day, bcpassociates.com, Apr. Election Day is a US State Holiday observed on several states on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November every even-numbered year. This map, inspired by a Reddit thread with a similar map, shows the national days of the world's countries. 2020, Virginia. And that election saw the second highest voter turnout in 20 years. Thats not to say no one has tried.