I've been working on a letter to the president about making election day a national holiday.  I wrote it as a bullshit blog post first (saved, didn't post) then rewrote my ideas in longhand in my car between classes.  Now I am digitizing that re-write.  I kind of want to post it on the internet so that other people can look at it, but I am afraid that if I did so, then it would be that much easier to link my internet accounts to me in real life; all one would have to do would be to type in the contents of my final letter and google it with quotes around it.  This is a method that teachers use to catch plagiarists, and a good reason if you post your academic work on the internet to notify your teacher about it and maybe stage some sort of demonstration or something.  I'm going to show it to some people before I send it (and I intend to send it to newspapers as well, so that's who I'm thinking will try and link it to my account; I doubt the people sending out the pro-forma letters will bother).  Oh, and then if it gets printed I wouldn't be able to brag about it.

Anyway, my argument is that on the one hand, some people weren't able to get out because Tuesday is such a hard day of the week to get off work, and in the recent elections so many "battleground" states cut early voting and eliminated weekend voting.  Then there's the people who don't think it is important, who will find themselves with nothing else to do.  I think if we make election day a mandatory day off (except for people critical to public safety who must remain on duty) it will send the message that voting is important, and it will stop people like students and the working poor from losing out at the franchise because they just can't fit it into their schedule.  I'm also asking for a provision that any changes in polling places be announced a certain amount of time before the election, and that it be vigorously enforced.  I'm just concerned that I may be overselling it, or underselling it, or writing like a child or something.  The important thing is to get it banged out all the way, then see if I can improve it.  If it's written, and written well, I will send it even if I still feel self-conscious about the thing.  

I'm wondering if anyone can suggest good places to send it to, the best places to go where I might rally support.  Other than sending one to every member of the national government, and the national newspapers.

This post was last modified: 11-15-2012 06:41 AM by Lang.

There's actually already a movement to do exactly that for the reasons you stated. I'm not sure if the president would be able to do it by executive order, or if it would have to be passed by congress. Either way, good on you for getting involved beyond just voting.

Thank you.  Yes, I have seen facebook posts about it, and a graphic with Bernie Sanders supporting it, but you know, anyone can make a graphic, I'd like to hear it from the man himself.  

But thanks for the response, I've started needing a little encouragement.  We're doing social movements in sociology, and we were talking about how they result from conventional actions (like voting and writing letters) not working.  But it's good to have it in writing.

I think I have heard Bernie Sanders say that he does support that.

Awesome.  I think it would be good to get Elizabeth Warren on board too.  I think if she doesn't support it, she could be convinced, based on the way Moveon has portrayed her.  Which would then get MoveOn.org into it.  Maybe.  Now I'm getting ahead of myself.  I have to finish typing

How about campaign offices? With enough support from the presidents awesome campaigners, he is bound to listen.

If you think voting is important, you'll fit it into your day without needing to be off work. There are procedures for absentee voting, too, so being at work is no excuse for not participating.

Not every state makes it as easy as you seem to think.  Just look at what happened in Florida.  They reduced the early voting and ended Sunday voting, and the lines were so long during voting hours that it took until after midnight to get to all the people who were in line before the posted hours were over.  And they won't let just anybody use an absentee ballot in most places, but again it depends on the state you're living in.  

Taking the stance that, no matter what the problems with voting there are, you'll simply overcome them if only you care is the wrong one.

I searched on SignOn.org, and I found two petitions already made by other people.  I'm posting them here since it's on-topic

http://signon.org/sign/national-holiday-and

http://signon.org/sign/call-for-federal-holiday

So, it turns out I don't need to start a petition myself.

The US Federal Government can have whatever holidays they want, going from that to a nationwide holiday (as you seem to be implying) is a rather different matter.  For example, some states close state offices for Flag Day, while I know of counties where flag day is only observed by the courts.  Various agencies at Federal and State levels can set holidays, but I really don't see how you could have a national holiday such as the one you appear to be envisioning.