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It’s Time to Make Election Day a Holiday in Law and Spirit

We need to bring back the celebratory atmosphere that animated Election Day in the 19th century.

Although Americans today are unaccustomed to debating political issues around open barrels of booze, other aspects of our long Election Day tradition should be revived, along with the passionate electoral engagement that accompanied it. American voter participation is abysmal compared with other established democracies, trailing behind countries such as France and Mexico that observe federal holidays for general elections — and also compared with Americans of the 19th century.

The far more robust voter turnouts of this earlier period, in which elections occasioned boisterous public festivities, reveal a civic culture that we’ve lost. That culture was not perfect; Election Day was not only a day of celebration but also of exclusion and, importantly, of resistance. We should should seize on this history — and learn from its blind spots — to imagine a public, social democracy in the United States today.

As property requirements gave way to “universal” white male suffrage around 1840, Election Day became synonymous with raucous public revelries of common people enacting and celebrating democracy. Parades sometimes stretched to 10 miles, with musical bands, banners, horse-drawn floats and huge balls revealing slogans as they rolled. These festivities were family-friendly affairs during the day, with popcorn balls, candy and peanuts for sale along parade routes and carnival tents nearby. From 1840 to 1900, young people were central to these events. First-time voting was a thrilling rite of passage for men turning 21, openly compared to the loss of virginity.

Is it any wonder that this period was also the pinnacle of voter participation in American history? From 1840 to 1896, about 80 percent of eligible voters showed up for elections. By comparison, the most vigorous turnout in a recent election was 63 percent, in 2008; it was down to about 56 percent in 2016.

This low turnout is attributable in part to the fact that Americans can’t get time off from work to vote. In early America, elections took place on different days in different states, but in 1845, when Congress chose a uniform date for all to observe, it was selected specifically with voter turnout in mind. The now-familiar Tuesday in November was chosen so that voters in remote areas would not have to travel to the polls on Sundays, and because it fell after the busiest season for farmers but before winter storms had started.