Should Election Day Be A Holiday In Boston?

BOSTON — Should Election Day be a holiday in Boston? City Councilor Matt O'Malley says if everyone had the day off, it could drive up voter turnout.

O’Malley, Boston City Councilor for Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, Back of the Hill, parts of Roxbury and Roslindale, is set to introduce a Hearing Order at today's council meeting to explore making election day a holiday in Boston.

The United States is one of the few developed nations that votes on a workday. With only about one-quarter of Boston voters typically participating in municipal elections, it doesn't exactly scream democratic process.

Today O'Malley plans to speak about his plans for a hearing to explore a municipal holiday that would more encourage participation as an annual celebration in the City of Boston.

"Such a holiday could be introduced by creating an additional paid day off or shifting the day off provided by an existing holiday, and would encourage residents to vote and honor Boston’s history of leadership in voting rights," said O'Malley's office in a release.

City councilor Andrea Campbell agreed.

"This builds on our legislation to establish early voting for municipal elections so we can make voting easier for everyone," the city council president said on social media.

In 2018 a little more than 60 percent of registered voters turned out across the state for state elections. For the state primaries that year, voter turnout was nearly 22 percent, according to the Secretary of State's office. During municipal elections the numbers are historically much lower. In 2017 the November 7 Boston municipal election 27.8 percent of voters came out, according to city data. That's 109,034 ballots cast out of 392,188 registered voters and 544,608 residents.

In 2015, the turnout was closer to 13.6 percent - or 50,833 people. By comparison, in 2015 there were 372,889 registered voters, and 540,031 residents.

Turning Election Day into a holiday is not unheard of in the early days the state and national elections were a holiday. And now Statewide Election Day in November is a public holiday in some states, including Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, New Jersey, New York and West Virginia. Some other states require that workers be permitted to take time off with pay.

Yet, some caution a holiday may not solve the city's low turnout issue. It's also possible there are other reasons why people are choosing not to vote, including disillusionment, identification issues and access.

According to a United States Census Bureau survey of registered voters who did not vote in the 2016 general election, found people were not interested or didn’t like the candidates or issues on the ballot so they didn't vote. A little more than 14 percent cited busy schedules as a main reason.

Related:

Record Turnout For Midterm Elections In MA: Secretary Of State

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).