Commentary: Dump Presidents Day. Election Day is a better way to honor American democracy
The federal holiday we call Presidents Day, celebrated this year on Feb. 19, doesn’t technically exist. It is officially George Washington’s birthday and has been a federal holiday since 1879, though it was moved to the third Monday in February in 1971 so that Americans could enjoy a three-day weekend in his honor.
Nor does Presidents Day have anything to do with Abraham Lincoln or the other two presidents born in February — Ronald Reagan and William Henry Harrison. The true meaning of this holiday — honoring the legacy of the nation’s first president — seems to have been forgotten. Instead of great presidents, we are more likely to think of this as a three-day sales event on furnishings and appliances.
While the presidential contest will garner the most attention in 2024, there are many important races and measures on state and local ballots.
Though perhaps Washington would have understood the need for a good sale (his bed at Mount Vernon was crafted of expensive wood and featured mattresses stuffed with horsehair), surely he would agree that the holiday has lost its significance in the 21st century.
If we’re just using the day to trade in old mattresses for new ones, how about we also swap what has become a lackluster holiday for what could be a meaningful one? Election day.
If ever there were a patriotic reason for a day off, it’s to participate in democracy by voting in a local, state or federal election.
The landmark law provides a check on attempts to weaken the political power of nonwhite voters. But it’s not much of a protection if it can’t be enforced.
I remember reporting from a polling place in South Los Angeles on election day in 2008. Less than half an hour before the polls closed a young woman walked in with her father. He worked at a restaurant in a country club and had come to vote after a long day at work. I admired that he didn’t blow off this last but profoundly important chore of the day. His bosses had let him leave early to vote. California and many other states require employers to give their workers paid time off to vote. But what about other workers who can’t leave early? Wouldn’t it be great to let everyone have the day off to vote?
Today, it’s easy to vote in California. Every registered voter gets a ballot in the mail — which can be mailed back, delivered to a polling place or put in a ballot drop box. In Los Angeles County, voting centers are open 10 days before election day.
California has little to gain from allowing a free-for-all system that lets candidates run for as many offices as they’d like. Voters deserve common-sense election laws.
But the voting rules are different, and often more restrictive, in other states. Though most U.S. states and the District of Columbia also offer early voting, only seven states other than California allow all elections to be conducted entirely by mail. An additional 15 states allow voting by mail for some elections. And just 28 states and the District of Columbia allow you to request an absentee ballot without any excuse.
For those who need to vote in person, it can be difficult to get to a polling place. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights found that 1,688 polling places across 13 states closed between 2012 and 2018, most of those since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013. Many states also enacted other restrictive rules making it harder to vote that overwhelmingly affected Black and Latino communities.
For working people and those with children and little leftover time to do anything, an entire day off to find and get to the polls would likely be welcome. But making a holiday out of election day might also help those of us with no barriers to casting a vote other than a sense of ennui and insignificance that some people feel about elections — as in “my vote doesn’t really matter.”
I suspect Washington would have approved of substituting a holiday honoring him for one that really honors the electorate. His farewell address focused on national unity and threats to the young nation, but it did exhort Americans to do all they could to protect their union, saying that “it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness.”
What better justification could there be for an official holiday for voting?
A cure for the common opinion
Get thought-provoking perspectives with our weekly newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
