Voting Rights Project

Dear Representative McGovern,

I am an eighth grade student writing from Amherst Regional Middle School, in Amherst, MA. I am writing because for many reasons, I am interested in making election day a paid national day off because I think that this would benefit overall voter participation.

The first reason is that everybody has a right to vote. In the past, many people didn’t have the right to vote, such as Black people, women, poor white men, and people under 21. When the 15th amendment was passed in 1890, Black men could vote, but that still wasn’t the majority of people, because women, and people under the age of 21 still couldn’t vote. Over the years, through many protests, women and people under 21 could vote. Everybody has a say in who is in power in their lives, which they didn’t always have, so everybody should be able to see just how important their voice really is, and make it heard just like the people of our nation's past did.

Another reason why election day should be a national holiday also partly has to do with our country's past. Even after the Fifteenth Amendment, which said that Black men could vote, was passed, there were still many challenges for black men to vote, such as literacy tests, the grandfather clause, and other tests specifically designed for black people to fail. Now, there are not nearly as harsh challenges for people to vote, but there are still many obstacles that get in the way of people being able to vote. Not having a poll near them, not having time off work to vote, not knowing how to register, or not knowing how to get a mail in ballot are only a fraction of the challenges that people face when trying to vote. Many of these issues that cause people not to vote could be solved, or at least helped, by simply having a day off of work. Having a day off could help people who can’t leave work to vote take that time to get their vote in, take a drive to a poll, help a family member register to vote or drive them to a polling station, and overall make a bigger deal about voting.

Another reason having a day off work to vote would be beneficial is that people would be more informed about the ballot questions. Having a paid day off work for everyone to vote would lead to more anticipation. People would learn more about the questions, be more informed voters, and be overall more excited to vote. For example, imagine you lived in Massachusetts and had kids and a job. That would make it very hard for you to take time off work to vote, you might not take the time to even learn about questions that concerned you or your children, such as ballot question 2. However, if you knew that you were going to get a whole day off of work just to vote, which is a big deal, you would research, learn about the questions, decide your opinion, and overall be more informed about the questions and issues.

Now, you may be wondering, why do I care so much about voting, if I’m only in eighth grade? It’s not like I can vote. While that is true, kids like me are not powerless. We still have a voice that we can use, and we will. Even if we can’t directly vote for the issues that are important to us, or the people that will make those things we care about happen, doesn't mean that those things are not still important to us. Not just our future, but the future of these things that we care about, depend on getting people to vote. As kids, and especially as kids who will be able to vote in the next election, our future depends on the laws that are made here and now, whether or not we can vote. This is why voting is important to me, because my life, and all kids' lives, are directly affected by these votes.

So, in conclusion, voting is very important, for the future of our country, for the future of our country's people, and for the future of our country's youth that can’t yet vote, but who’s lives depend on it anyway. And this, this is why I think that election day should be a national holiday, because every person has a voice, has an opinion, deserves to be an educated voter, and deserves to be able to exercise the rights that the people of our nation's past fought for.

Sincerely,

Ramona