Today, despite early voting and voting-by-mail in most states, in 15 states you can only vote on Tuesday during the hours the polling place is open. So if you're a single mother or father, or work two or three jobs, or have long hours in school and you can't make it to your polling place tough luck. This in a country whose voter turnout ranks 138th of 172 nations. It's hard to believe that the world's most famous democracy has one of the world's worst voter turnouts. Moving Election Day to the weekend will make it more convenient for people to vote and the voter turnout will rise dramatically in my opinion.
Whether we move Election Day to the weekend or make it a National Holiday to increase turnout, or adopt convenience voting in all 50 states, something must be done to fix our terribly broken voting system. With rules that make it more difficult to vote, from voter ID, to purging, caging, felon disenfranchisement, and tricky registration regulations, the least we can do is vote on a day or in a way that makes voting accessible.
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