It's a holiday
by Chris Jungle

All of the hoopla and hubbub about the 1996 elections has wound down, and although I found several aspects of the campaigns entertaining, I was in the minority. In fact, anyone who actually voted in the election was in the minority because, once again, voter turn out was on the weak side. Every time the turn out is less than fifty percent I'm reminded of an old idea I had for a story in which an evil super hero comes to America during an election year and gets all of the non-voters to vote for him (it has to be a guy because no one votes for women). It's a strange and bizarre exaggeration of what could actually happen, but the truth is that Americans don't think it's cool to vote. So, the obvious solution to the problem is to make Election Day cool, and nothing is as hip as an official holiday.

By official holiday, I mean parades, parties, big dinners, no work, and possibly a football game. Election Day should have little to do with the candidates, but it should focus on the process. Let's be honest, a person's vote doesn't matter much beyond the local level, but the process itself is one thing that the forefathers got right. It's such a cool thing that there should be a whole day of celebration devoted to the concept. The actual process of voting including waiting in line rarely takes more than an hour or two, and then the rest of the day can be spent relaxing, playing, or even checking to see if anyone else voted like you did.

Fortunately for me, Tuesday was one of my regular days off work, so it was like a holiday. I voted, caught a late matinee, and got home right after the TV news declared Clinton the winner. I kept watching the coverage to make sure a bond issue which would give two million dollars to public libraries for new books passed. It did. Although I knew Clinton would win regardless of who I voted for, it was still fun to vote and then play around for the rest of the day.

During my holiday, I did see something that disturbed me. One of my 'things to do' was get a cheap plastic pot for a plant I'd just purchased, so I went to the neighborhood WalMart. The distressing thing was that there were many more cars in the WalMart parking lot than at my voting precinct. I was afraid to ask anyone there if they had voted because the I knew a probable answer would have been "For what?" Apparently, people don't mind waiting in line to spend money as much as waiting in line to vote.

With the Election Day holiday, there would, of course, be a down side. The post office, banks, and anything governmental would be closed, but it's worth the sacrifice. There will be people who take Election Day Eve off, so they can have a four day weekend. As long as they absentee ballot, that really shouldn't be a problem either. Since the bars are closed until voting is done, there won't be a lot of middle of the day drinking, and people have to go to work the next day which means most of the drinking will be done at political party headquarters. On this holiday, the pros outweigh the cons.

The main question people would ask when considering another official holiday is "Why bother? If people don't want to vote, it's their own ignorance." That's partially true, but there should be more done to change ignorance rather than just scoff at it. It's sad that the only people who vote are the ones who follow politics as a hobby. Others may say "Isn't it a little extraneous to have a holiday for voting?" Maybe, but if we have five days set aside for veterans, we should have one day set aside for voting.

One thing about democracy is that, while it's probably the best style of government around, it has a tendency to cause indifference. There's nothing wrong with trying to bribe people into voting by giving them an entire day off. So strike up the bands, cook up those turkeys, buy those American flags, and whoop it up every first Tuesday of November. People have lied, stolen, fought to the death, attacked other countries, loved, petitioned, and influenced others just because they thought free elections were a good idea. Next year, let's all party because of it.

Chris Jungle is still celebrating a landslide victory by almost all of the county and state bonds on the ballot.

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