Would more people vote if Election Day were a national holiday?

 President Barack Obama endorsed that idea during an interview with the student newspaper at Rutgers University, among other ideas about getting more people to participate in voting.

“The single most dramatic political change that could occur in this country — and the best way for us to relieve the frustrations that people feel around the political process — would be if we had greater participation that was more reflective of the day-to-day concerns that people have,” the president said.

It’s easy to agree people are frustrated with the political process, but not so easy to agree that people aren’t voting in larger numbers because the act of voting is particularly difficult.

 It would make sense to hold all elections on Saturdays and stop having them on Tuesdays, since more people are off work on the weekend, kids are not attending school, etc. That could make voting a bit more convenient for some.

But even when elections are on Tuesday the embarrassingly low turnouts we’re seeing cannot logically be blamed on the voting process.

When was the last time you heard about long waiting times at area polling places? Certainly in most elections locally you can get in and out of your voting precinct in a matter of a few minutes.

We are seeing more people participate in early-voting opportunities and that’s certainly made voting more convenient for many. But yet in recent years, an overall turnout of voters of 50 percent of those registered to vote has been achieved rarely.

“We are the only advanced democracy that makes it deliberately difficult for people to vote,” the president said in the Rutgers’ interview.

But how difficult is it really? People can register to vote at their convenience once they are old enough. They’re not forced to wait until the last minute before an election. Election dates are set months in advance and are typically well publicized so people can decide if they want to use the early-voting options or wait until election day to vote.

Sure, there may be a few people that have real issues where the process is a factor in them not voting — no transportation or having a work conflict on Election Day or other. Yes there are frustrations like the president says that people feel about the political process, but that’s more about campaigns or unappealing candidates or frustrations about issues that are more about what happens after an election, not during the actual effort to cast a vote.

We need more people to vote and take part in the process, but more people who give a darn, who pay attention to the issues, who educate themselves during campaigns and who make an attempt to make a reasoned decision.

The democratic process will not be improved simply by having more people vote, particularly those who are disengaged and don’t care enough to make a reasonable effort to participate.

WILL CHAPMAN

PUBLISHER