What would be your new National Holiday?

Election Day, kind of self-explanatory.

May 8.

Maaaaaaaaaaate’s Day.

Roistering at leisure.

“Far Niante” Day. A day in June when you are entitled to do absolutely nothing all day. You can take a walk, go on a picnic, go to the beach or stay in bed and read but the tradition is that there is no tradition. Each person decides for themselves what they want to do as long as it doesn’t place an obligation on anyone else.

I’m with @canidmajor

Not sure if you folks have ever been poor but Burger King doesn’t give a fuck if you need the day off to vote. And even if they gave it off to you would still be poor and would need the hours to pay your electric bill.

Shit needs to be a paid holiday. It is a systematic plan to keep poor people from voting. Retired granny from Florida is swimming in free-time.

Karl Marx Week.

I’d declare the 4th Thursday of November as Impeachment Day. Would give a whole new meaning to giving THANKS!!!

Burger King doesn’t give days off for National holidays in America. Nor does hotels, Disney World, tons of retail, and many more. Making Election day a National holiday wouldn’t solve the problem. The government would need to mandate time off during election hours.

I like the idea of an International Day or Immigration Day. Celebrations around the country representing where people’s families are from, or them themselves. Food, music, etc.

There are still millions of lower income Americans that are employed by businesses that would close if it was a national holiday, @JLeslie. Just because @johnpowell happened to mention Burger King doesn’t mean that we don’t understand the limitations that are in place, but trying to alleviate them is not a worthless endeavor.

Almost ALL the businesses here will give you a PAID day off IF you wear your “I Voted” sticker to work the next day. No sticker, no pay. Many close down for the day. Fast food places don’t count because they know that with extra people off work that they will be making extra money for the day.

How difficult or complicated, or time consuming is it to vote in the USA?
Why would one need a whole day off?
Here it’s just a day as any other.

Voting stations are open from 7 am till 9 pm (maybe even earlier).
You vote before work, or in your lunch break, or after work.
Takes all but 15 minutes.

Is it different there then?

Edited to add:
Turn out can be as high as around 70–75 percent (with General Elections).
Non-mandatory.

@rebbel We are plagued with large groups that want to restrict access to voting for the lower classes. There are areas where it is hard to vote, because of distance to polling places, because of problems when one works multiple jobs,, because of the way the buses run after work hours; so many barriers are raised.

Yes, it is different there.

@rebbel I forget which year it was, but there was one year that everybody was passionate about the ones who were running. I was in line to vote for 3 hours. By the time I got to work, it was time to go to lunch & the day was half over. Also, IF you vote & go straight to work, you need millions of people at the voting booths at 7:00am in order to get to work on time. That would mean a 3–5 hour wait for EVERY election. Those who chose to vote at the end of the day had to leave 2–3 hours early to make sure that they could be in line on time or their vote wouldn’t count. Anyway, we spoiled Americans will take a day off anyway we can get it!!!

I don’t need a whole day off, but I did find it fair to PAY ME for the time I had to be off in order to vote!!!

@canidmajor @LadyMarissa Thank you for your informative answers!
How very disgusting and undemocratic….
My suggestion of putting up more voting stations probably will not be heard then (by the forces that are trying to restrict)?
I just looked into it, and here there is a station for every 1000 to 2000 voters, approximately.
That means, in my city of 100000 inhabitants, circa 50–75 (correction: 43).
I can vote in the one that’s 300 meters from my house, but I can also choose to take the one located in the train station (or any other one that I desire).
I’m really gobsmacked that in a country like America these practices are going on.
Sad.

Erection Day. In honor or male priapism.

@rebbel I have a designated station where I’m allowed to vote. I have to drive past one voting location in order to get to the designated location. This is set up to assist in preventing voter fraud. Most of the workers are retirees who volunteer their time & live in the same area. Most know the individual voters by sight. Between knowing us & seeing our identification, it’s designed to keep the crooked folk from voting more than once.

@rebbel I have a polling place district too. It has always only taken me 15 minutes to sign in and vote. Difficulty really varies from area to area and there has been a great deal of voter suppression in some parts of the country.

Because so many working people would not be off even on a national holiday, I think measures being put in place like early voting, weekend voting and vote by mail might be more effective. However, I am not against the idea of a national holiday as well.

Voters/voting fraud, voter suppression, mistrust (I think I read that between the lines).
Very serious and ridiculous issues, I feel, in the country that wants to appear as the democratic power in the world.
I hope things can get resolved.
It shouldn’t be an obstacle course just to apply your right to choose.
No wonder (some) people choose to not vote.
It’s discouraging.

@rebbel And that’s not even talking about gerrymandering where district lines have been drawn so that one party always prevails in that district. We are not, and probably have never been, a “shining city on the hill.” There are actually not that many instances of voter fraud but there are increasing issues with voter suppression in some states.

@janbb Perfect! Will there be any fireworks?

@Vignette Only if a celebrant feels like it!

This is your National Holiday folks. If you want to give EVERYONE the day off…just call it. Holiday Inns, 7–11’s, airlines, hospitals, and Gas stations will have to close if you say so.

National Native Day. We all celebrate with pow wow’s, native dance, foods and culture.

I like the idea of NND

Travis County, Texas is a good case in point of how gerrymander dilutes the voting power. Travis, a county of 1.2 million people, is a Democratic stronghold in a mostly Republican state. In 2003 the county was divided between 3 districts, which had the effect of all but nullifying the Democratic vote there.

Silence Day.
For one day, everyone will STFU.
The night before,a man dressed in a Home Depot uniform, driving an El Camino, will stop by after midnight and leave a roll of duct tape under everyone’s pillow.

Nice one @lucillelucillelucille Will there be fireworks?

@lucillelucillelucille

You’re just a shill for Big Adhesive.

@Vignette -Sure.when he drives off on his rims.
@Darth_Algar -No, I’m not and I’m sticking to that story.

Maybe we should have National Fireworks Day so @Vignette can get the much needed fireworks fix!!! ALL fireworks will be FREE from 11:00am to Noon & can’t be lit until AFTER dark that night. It will probably fall between Dec 22 (the shortest day of the year) & New Years Eve so you’ll have more time to enjoy the show!!!

@lucillelucillelucille Do you live in the South by any chance??? We all are obsessed with duct tape!!! ;]

@LadyMarissa -No, but we do have a reverence for duct tape.

@lucillelucillelucille Close enough…I just made you an honorary Southerner…may your Christmas stocking be filled with duct tape!!!

@LadyMarissa I am trying to laugh but something is preventing me! :D

^ Could it be the duct tape over your mouth??? ROFLMAO

@LadyMarissa I like to celebrate early! :)

Tickle a tortoise day.
Everyone returns to work when the penis headed shell dweller laughs.

@canidmajor My point was you need a mandate that employees must be allowed time to vote. There are a tremendous amount of occupations that don’t get “Federal” holidays off. I guess a National holiday where everything is closed could work, but we just don’t have any holiday like that in America that I can think of. A tremendous amount of companies are open on many of the “federal” holidays. I’m not against your idea, I like the idea, but like most things there could be loopholes if not all the bases are covered.

I think early voting and mail in voting has helped a lot with this, but that is imperfect too. If we really want to ensure everyone gets the opportunity to vote if they want we also need to provide transportation, and the ability to vote anywhere in the state not just a designated voting location. Although, where I live the Democrats got out in a big way last election to provide transportation, and only a handful of people utilized it.