Joe says, "Blog about efforts/merits of making election day a national holiday." There are some efforts to do this, and it has many merits. But it's not my favored route. Making election day a national holiday has an array of problems: First, you have a lot more business and stakeholder opposition, as it's hard to get folks to come into work on holidays, and employers don't want more days when folks don't come to work. Second, my understanding is that, technically, the US doesn't have national holidays, as the states have jurisdiction over holidays. Congress can only name federal holidays -- where government workers get the day off -- and holidays in the District of Columbia. The hope is that when they name a holiday, everyone else follows suit. But there's no guarantee. So you'd end up with a few problems: It would be hard to pass and, in most cases, non-binding. I prefer the "Why Tuesday?" approach, which moves election day from its traditional Tuesday berth to a full weekend. Most people already get weekends off, making voting a two day window gives more opportunity for GOTV and round-the-clock news coverage, and there's no reason that the business community would care if voting is moved to a weekend (actually, they'd probably prefer it). For more on the Why Tuesday idea, go to WhyTuesday.org.
