Renate catches a mind-numbingly early bus for work, and we’re being sociable tonight, so we pulled ourselves out of bed at 5:15 this morning to vote.
If the polls hadn’t opened at 6, we would’ve been SOL. We would’ve been electoral miscreants. We would’ve been those people the pundits moan about every year (except 2004) when people shrug instead of tromping to the local school auditorium.
Now, the crack of dawn is better than nothing. But 9a.m. is even better, especially after sleeping in and downing a few cups of coffee while thumbing through the paper.
So forget all this early voting and electronic balloting. I want the day off. I want parades and little kids running around with sparklers. I want someone standing outside the polling place with warm cupcakes and hot cider. Warm cupcakes would do a thing or two for voter turnout.
Are there too many federal holidays? Fine, let’s swap one out. I’d trade President’s Day or Columbus Day for a holiday that exists for a tangible reason; I just don’t sit around on Columbus Day and think about Columbus.
Election Day is a holiday in nine states. John Conyers of Michigan has proposed a bill to make Election Day a national holiday, and he wants to give it the cheesy title of Democracy Day. Fine. So long as I don’t have to eat Freedom Fries.