Election Day falls on the first Tuesday in November, making it the responsibility of students and working Americans in Virginia to find a way to the polls regardless of job and school commitments. In order to declare Election Day a state holiday, legislation would have to be passed by the Virginia House of Delegates.
Although Virginia has no specific law requiring employers to grant employees time off to vote, 23 other states do provide paid leave for employees on Election Day.
Supporters of declaring Election Day a state holiday often argue people are too busy at work to vote.
Del. Mark Cole (R-Fredericksburg), chair of privileges and elections committee in the Virginia House of Delegates, said he has seen no studies proving a correlation between having Election Day off of work and higher voter turnout.
For example, in the 2012 presidential election, Virginia had a 71.78 percent voter turnout rate, higher than several states which do provide paid leave on Election Day.
Michael Gilbert, Sullivan & Cromwell Law professor at U.Va., explained several problems that could result from declaring Election Day a state holiday.
“The people who would’ve gone to work and taken thirty minutes off to go vote, will instead, because they have the day off, go camping and don’t vote at all,” Gilbert said. “Also, if it’s a holiday and the schools aren’t open, it might’ve been possible to leave work and vote while my kids are at school. But if all my kids are at home, it might be hard to leave home, or bring all my little kids with me and vote.”
Cole also pointed to data indicating that declaring Election Day a holiday might result in lower voter turnout. In addition, he suggested giving employees leave would be very expensive for both government and private corporations.
“Every holiday costs money,” Cole said in an email statement. “Government agencies and some companies will have to pay overtime costs for employees required to work on a holiday.”
Cole pointed out that the University could declare Election Day a University holiday if it wanted to.
“U.Va. may incur some additional costs, but they have plenty of money to cover such costs, so they certainly could do it if they wished,” Cole said. “Local school boards can already close schools on Election Day, without it being declared a state holiday. Doing so may help things go smoother on Election Day since many polling places are located in schools.”
University President Teresa Sullivan sent an email Monday to the University community mentioning an informal policy allowing University employees to vote without taking leave. Sullivan also provided information on registering to vote and requesting an absentee ballot.
“Next month, U.Va. faculty and staff will receive a message from our Human Resources office encouraging managers to be flexible in assigning work schedules to allow employees to vote without taking leave,” Sullivan said in the email. “I support and underscore this message now, and I hope that all eligible members of our community will fulfill their responsibilities as citizens on Election Day.”
Both Sullivan and Cole encouraged voters who cannot go to the polls on Nov. 8 to vote absentee. Virginia residents can either request a mail-in absentee ballot, or can cast an in-person absentee ballot on a machine in the Local Voter Registrar’s Office on weekdays from Sept. 23 to Nov. 5.
“If you have early voting, it’s just a way of extending the opportunities to vote,” Gilbert said. “Maybe I can’t get time off on Election Day to vote, but give me not one but 10 Election Days and I’ll find time on one of them.”
However, Gilbert also acknowledged that while these voting measures provide more opportunities to vote, they cannot correct disinterest.
“It may be that people vote at different times, but you get the same amount of people voting,” Gilbert said. “Most people that really want to … [vote] find a way to do it.”
While there are currently no bills to declare Election Day a state holiday, Cole said he “would not be surprised if some are submitted for session in January.”
In Virginia, absentee ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day in order to be counted. Applications for mailed absentee ballots must be received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 1 and can be requested online.
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