No, Election Day won’t be a holiday in Utah

Voters cast their ballots at the Salt Lake County Government Center in Salt Lake City on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)

A bill to make Election Day a state holiday — giving some Utahns the day off to vote — failed in the House Monday. 

This is the second year in a row Rep. Ryan Wilcox, R-Ogden, has run legislation to designate the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, Election Day, as a state holiday. This year, HB104 failed on the House floor after a 33-39 defeat.

The bill would have given workplaces the option to close by marking Election Day on state calendars, a move Wilcox told Utah News Dispatch he hoped would “encourage employers and others to let people off to (vote).”

“The intent behind the bill really was to create a space where people can vote in person again, and not just nostalgically,” he said. “I think we’ve lost something of that civic sacrament that we used to have in the country where we would all show up.”

Utah House passes scaled back bill to require voter ID, still allow voting by mail

Currently, the vast majority of Utah voters cast their ballots by mail or in drop boxes.

Utah provides workers the “right to time off for election” — joining 16 other states that require paid time off to vote without recognizing Election Day as a holiday. Fourteen states nationwide recognize an Election Day holiday, but only five of those states require employers to give their workers paid time off to vote. 

That’s according to the Movement Advancement Project, an independent, nonprofit think tank that says a common barrier to voter accessibility is getting away from work. 

“There is no federal law that requires voters be provided time off to cast their ballot, so that policy choice is left up to the states,” the report says. “Policymakers have taken two approaches to solve this issue: making Election Day a public holiday or requiring employers to provide paid time off for voting.”

Referencing non-religious Utah holidays like Columbus Day and Juneteenth, Wilcox told Utah News Dispatch that he wants state holidays to move away from what he calls “fake Monday holidays” to better represent values of the state.

“In an ideal scenario, we would prioritize the things that underpin legitimacy of our government and our contract with one another,” he said. “It’s nice to remember a lot of (those holidays), and I don’t know that any of them are more important than us exercising the function that happens from voting.”

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX