--- title: President Obama Thinks You Should Get the Day Off to Vote description: President Obama told Rutgers' student newspaper that he "absolutely" supports having election day as a national holiday. authors: - name: Ethan Wolff-Mann url: https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 160 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/ewolffmann former_staff: true published: '2016-05-13T20:27:44.000Z' modified: '2024-05-16T11:10:27.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - elections - Holidays - pubdesk - time off - Voting word_count: 326 canonical: https://money.com/president-obama-election-day-national-holiday/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![US-VOTE-OBAMA](https://img.money.com/2016/05/gettyimages-457546388.jpg) Voting happens on Tuesdays, and Tuesdays are weekdays--*work* days. It's one reason why the U.S. has such [poor election turnout](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/06/u-s-voter-turnout-trails-most-developed-countries/). Even though most states, like New York, technically require employers to allow workers to leave the job for a few hours to vote, many working Americans find it difficult to squeeze in a visit to the voting booth during a hectic work day. One of the ways proposed to increase voter turnout is making election day into a federal holiday, when non-essential employees would be off of work, just like on Thanksgiving or Memorial Day. The idea, which would obviously make it easier for more Americans to participate in the democratic process, has been floated occasionally. Last year Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT-I) [introduced a bill](https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1969) that would make the first Tuesday in November—in even-numbered years—a national holiday. The bill has not gotten anywhere yet, however. But the movement has just gotten one major new supporter: President Barack Obama himself. In an [interview he gave](http://www.dailytargum.com/article/2016/05/president-obama-sits-down-with-the-daily-targum) to a Rutgers student newspaper *The Daily Targum*, President Obama was asked whether the U.S. should follow the lead of other countries that treat voting day as a holiday. "Absolutely. We are the only advanced democracy that makes it deliberately difficult for people to vote," he said. He continued: "The single most dramatic political change that could occur in this country—and the best way for us to relieve the frustrations that people feel around the political process—would be if we had greater participation that was more reflective of the day-to-day concerns that people have." ***Read Next:* [Zappos Thinks Everyone Should Have This Day Off From Work](https://money.com/leap-day-national-holiday-zappos/)** While Obama has endorsed the concept of making election day a holiday in interviews, [ThinkProgress](http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/05/12/3777843/obama-election-day-national-holiday/) noted that he has not pushed particularly hard for Congress to pass legislation to actually make the change. Furthermore, he has not issued an executive order that would give federal employees the day off and bring the issue to the fore. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/president-obama-election-day-national-holiday/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Elections", "item": "https://money.com/elections/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "President Obama Thinks You Should Get the Day Off to Vote" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/president-obama-election-day-national-holiday/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/president-obama-election-day-national-holiday/", "name": "President Obama Thinks You Should Get the Day Off to Vote", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-05-13T20:27:44.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/president-obama-election-day-national-holiday/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/president-obama-election-day-national-holiday/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-16T11:10:27.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "President Obama Thinks You Should Get the Day Off to Vote", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/05/gettyimages-457546388.jpg", "width": 4500, "height": 2996, "caption": "US-VOTE-OBAMA" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ethan Wolff-Mann", "url": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/ewolffmann" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-05-13T20:27:44.000Z", "description": "President Obama told Rutgers' student newspaper that he \"absolutely\" supports having election day as a national holiday.", "abstract": "President Obama told Rutgers' student newspaper that he \"absolutely\" supports having election day as a national holiday.", "@id": "https://money.com/president-obama-election-day-national-holiday/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-05-16T11:10:27.000Z", "wordCount": 326, "keywords": [ "elections", "Holidays", "pubdesk", "time off", "Voting" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Election", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election" ] } ] } ] } ```