Last week a new law was proposed in Sacramento to make the forthcoming November 2017 elections a state holiday. What this would mean is that schools and employees would get the day off (but be paid for it).  Private businesses would not be impacted (just like with other holidays that are paid for the public sector but not enforceable in the private sector) although it is hoped ultimately that places of work would ultimately want to be a part of this as well and thus take it on themselves.

The main goal of the bill is to enable those in low income communities to get out and vote.  More than half of the less than 60% of California’s November 2016 eligible voters, as it is did so by mail, thus indicating the difficulty of getting to ballot stations. With paid time out, this might change.

Assembly Bill 674 – developed by Asssemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell) is set to break down the barriers of “work and school obligations” preventing so many from voting.  With the mere 2 hours off from work, current state law is deemed inadequate.

As the current law stands, only one holiday (in addition to federal-enacted ones) is marked by Californians – that being a state holiday in honor of Cesar Chaves, the late farm labor leader.

The hope is that Low’s efforts will be more successful than those undertaken by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2015 to get election day to become a federal holiday.