Sen. Bernie Sanders has proposed a bill to designate "Democracy Day

[Playinghardball]

Make Election Day a National Holiday

Sen. Bernie Sanders has proposed a bill to designate "Democracy Day" as a national election holiday to make it easier for Americans to vote.

Nationwide, preliminary indications are that the total turnout for the 2014 elections was only 36.6 percent, according to the United States Elections Project at the University of Florida.

In America, we should be celebrating our democracy and doing everything possible to make it easier for people to participate in the political process. Election Day should be a national holiday so that everyone has the time and opportunity to vote. While this would not be a cure-all, it would indicate a national commitment to create a more vibrant democracy.

We should not be satisfied with a "democracy" in which more than 60 percent of our people don't vote and some 80 percent of young people and low-income Americans fail to vote. We can and must do better than that. While we must also focus on campaign finance reform and public funding of elections, establishing an Election Day holiday would be an important step forward.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/democracyday

[madokie]

1. I been saying this since I came home from the war

long before it was popular

[Rex]

2. I love the idea!

Been thinking that for decades now...along with term limits.

[Autumn]

3. That's a wonderful thing, but the ones who need to vote won't be given a holiday.

A couple of hours without pay off is about the size of it and under pressure to hurry back to work, I'm talking about the service industry jobs.

[1StrongBlackMan]

16. My thoughts exactly ...

I think the "better" solution would be having the polls open 24/7 for up to a week. That is if we're married to in person voting.

[Sweet Freedom]

4. FYI: If you follow the link in the OP

It takes you to a petition where you can support the idea.

If you all agree, go sign it!

[Journeyman]

5. Why not expand the days of voting? Vote from Saturday to Tuesday. Or for a week? . . .

Permit mail-in voting. Provide more voting booths each day, to ensure everyone has the opportunity without a six hour wait.

But most importantly, put the kibosh to voter suppression, and make the process as easy as possible for everyone.

What good's a national holiday for voting when you're barred from participating by draconian rules and stifling regulations?

Maybe Sanders should pull his head out of fantasy civics beliefs and confront the realities so many millions must contend with before they ever get a ballot in their hand.

[angrychair]

17. while that would be nice

Those things are not/cannot happen at the federal level. Want to change those things? Almost all of you demands are impossible to do at the federal level. Support Democrats at the local and state level. The only way that is happening is to change red legislatures to blue. Governorships to blue.

[Journeyman]

18. If Sanders is going to wish for ponies, let him at least wish for useful horse shit. . .

[btrflykng9]

6. Finally n/t

[99th_Monkey]

7. Vote-By-Mail

another way to get to the same end.

Voter participation in Oregon '14 Mid-term Election = 70%

AND we stayed solid Blue, US Senator Merkley re-elected, Dem. Governor Kitzhauber re-elected, etc..

Easy-peasy.

[ProSense]

30. Completely agree.

Do they ever consider that some people simply hate going to polling stations?

Vote by mail needs to be a national standard.

[HoosierRadical]

8. Sounds great, but, the Oligarchs will never allow it,

plus I don't know if voter turnout would increase, let's be honest, if people really cared about voting, they would make it a priority.

[jmowreader]

9. Poor Barney...

1. Nationwide mail-in voting.

2. Instant dissolution of corporate charter, confiscation of all corporate assets, and five years' imprisonment for all officers, and any rank-and-file employee involved, for ANY business caught accepting, demanding or trading for goods or services their customers' blank ballots. (Does anyone think that if we had nationwide mail-in voting, we also wouldn't see the "finance for the unbanked" outfits like buy-here-pay-here car lots and payday loan sharks offer to erase people's late fees in exchange for their ballots?)

3. Public financing of all elections.

4. Restrict Campaign Season to the six weeks prior to election day.

5. All campaign ads must name the candidate they are supporting or attacking.

6. Candidates must use public funding for their radio, television, newspaper and internet advertising and postage for mailed ads, and they'll be limited as to the amount they're allowed to run. They may seek donations to fund billboards, yard signs, bumper stickers, transit wraps, skywriting and towed banners, cards on shopping carts, handbills nailed to telephone poles, kiosks, bus stop ads or other posters.

[rurallib]

10. it'll have to be a Monday so people can have a long weekend

er- no - that would defeat the idea.

[ieoeja]

11. Democratic controlled states should go ahead and make this a state holiday. n/t

[woo me with science]

12. K&R

[Waiting For Everyman]

13. Absolutely!

It's a no-brainer, I can't believe we don't have this already.

And petition signed at link.

[angrychair]

14. petition signed

Have to get it done before end the year though.

[badtoworse]

15. Sounds good to me

[Moondog]

19. Long overdue.

[theHandpuppet]

20. This has been needed for AGES!!

Thank you, Bernie Sanders! A voice of sanity in the wilderness.

I've signed the petition.

[Las Vegas Mixx]

21. If cheapskate GOP object to "another" federal holiday, move it to coincide with Columbus Day

http://hypercube.us/forum/national-news-and-opinion/support-creation-of-democracy-day-federal-holiday-)to-replace-columbus-day*/

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/democracyday

"In America, we should be celebrating our democracy and doing everything possible to make it easier for people to participate in the political process. Election Day should be a national holiday so that everyone has the time and opportunity to vote. While this would not be a cure-all, it would indicate a national commitment to create a more vibrant democracy," the progressive senator said in a statement.

Turnout in Tuesday's elections clocked in at a paltry 37 percent, compared to about 41 percent in 2010, according to data from the United States Elections Project. If that projection holds, it would be the lowest voter turnout since 1942.

Although the USA has far fewer vacation days and public holidays than other nations (the hypocritical Republican Congress is on perpetual vacation), if cheapskate Republicans object to another federal holiday, just move Democracy Day and voting to coincide with Columbus Day in October.

[LeftInTX]

22. Or Veterans' Day

[Dustlawyer]

23. +1,000,000,000!!!! If we want our Democracy back, we have to take it!

We can't just bitch about things we have to throw our support 100% behind Bernie and demand all of this stuff, you know, fight for our Democracy? They will not just give it back to us, they have been waging an organized, well planned war! We have to march, protest, write letters to the editor, politicians...

[Reter]

24. Then they could move Veteran's Day so it wouldn't be so close

There are some months without any holidays. Maybe move it back to like June?

[TheNutcracker]

25. Run Bernie Run!!!!!

[Smarmie Doofus]

26. Love it... and beginning to love HIM. K and R n/t

[Freddie]

27. Only if it's a "real" holiday

Like Memorial Day when virtually all non-retail places are closed, and not a pseudo-holiday like Veterans Day when only banks and the post office is closed and it's just another day for everyone else. And enshrine in the law that any employer that is open (retail, hospitals) MUST give employees time off or a short work day so they can vote. Fat chance this ever happening.

[kentuck]

28. nice gesture but too late.

No Repub would ever vote for it. Put it on the agenda for whenever Democrats control the House again. Probably not in my lifetime.

[lumberjack_jeff]

29. My state went to all vote-by-mail a few years ago.

I hate it.

Voting, in a polling place, is about as close as I get to the feeling that most people get in church. As rituals go, it's the most meaningful thing that americans do.

I think it's a great idea, but I'm unconvinced that making it a holiday would encourage people to vote. It's easier to vote when the kids are in school, for instance.

[LiberalElite]

31. I used to get off Election Day then about 20-25 years ago

it was cut to a half day, then two hours off, then nothing.