Reading Passage
from “Make Election Day a National Holiday”
Posted on 22 October 2008 by the Editorial Board of The Daily Iowan
Universal suffrage refers to the right to vote for all adults regardless of ethnicity, sex, and economic status; however, a myriad of Americans every election season are limited in their access to the polls. Many are forced to choose between exercising their right to vote and putting food on the table. A steady paycheck takes precedence over taking time off to vote. Every election cycle, countless Americans use the excuse “I didn’t have the time” when asked why they failed to vote. If a lack of time is a common obstacle to voting, the solution seems simple enough: Election Day should be a national holiday.
Pundits and public officials alike complain of the low voter turnout each election year. Voter apathy is a serious problem in this country. If the government wants to increase public interest in the fundamental democratic freedom of voting, then Congress should take the appropriate steps to make Election Day a national holiday. An entire day devoted to the right to vote could change the public’s perception of voting as a hassle or burden into something to be proud of and worthy of people’s time. This concept isn’t new; many other countries have national holidays on their election days.
A national holiday provides us with more than just free time. Growing up, our teachers paid particular attention to national holidays. Plays, papers, and presentations are assigned by our teachers in order to educate the youth of America about the significance behind our national holidays. Children are taught to celebrate why they don’t have to attend school, not just to relish in a three-day weekend. Promoting the importance of voting during our youth may go a long way to cure voter apathy in younger generations. Moreover, an Election Day holiday would allow parents to take their children with them to the polls, reinforcing the importance that their teachers placed on the process.
A government holiday would also free up voting stations in government buildings, such as schools, for longer periods of time, increasing voter access. In theory, with more Americans off work, voting stations would be better staffed on Election Day, thus increasing efficiency. An election holiday may decrease the need for early voting, allowing resources to be spent on increasing the number of voting stations and volunteers on Election Day.
Many of us spend an entire afternoon and day watching the election coverage. We have spent countless hours watching debates, listening to pundits, and being bombarded with TV ads. An Election Day holiday would be the culmination of the entire arduous process of an election year. Certainly the American people deserve a holiday after surviving a presidential-election process that now takes almost two years to complete.
As Americans, we gather all over the country in large parties to celebrate the Super Bowl. Even the commercials are subject to great fanfare and are usually the topic of water-cooler conversations on Monday morning. It’s time we, as Americans, treat the right to vote and Election Day with the same exuberance.
Writing Prompt
After reading the article, “Make Election Day a National Holiday,” write an essay between 500 and 800 words in which you argue whether or not making election day a U.S. national holiday is the best way to address low voter turnout. If you do agree with what the piece suggests, support your point with compelling arguments that expand upon or go beyond those points already offered in the article. If you do not agree, then defend your position and propose an alternative solution to the problem of low voter turnout in the U.S. Your essay should show an understanding of the article without simply repeating it, and you should incorporate specific details from your own experience and knowledge into your response.
Voting day in any country is by far one of the most important days and it deserves the top-notch attention from the whole nation including regular countrymen to officials from every walk of life.
In this article, the author suggests that the election day as should be declared as a national holiday resulting in increasing the voter turn over as most of the people blame lack of time for their absence from voting stations. I do not completely agree with this argument as declaring the voting day as a national holiday from the government will free up the calendar for many people, but it doesn't necessarily mean they will turn up to voting stations despite the lack of interest. I believe the author has overlooked some pertinent points which serves as the core to voter's interests and motivations which I will address in the essay below.
Firstly, author takes the word value of the response stating the "lack of time" as the reason of lower voter turnout. The underlying reason could be (which is most likely the case) the lack of motivation than lack of time. History shows us that choosing a leader through voting is a process which is led by winning people's hearts, keeping them engaged and involved so that they believe in the cause of doing it, they believe that they are responsible for making this choice. We need to tap that section of voter's mindset to actually tackle the lower voter turnout. In my home country, there has been a clear evidence that when one party involved audience in the details of parliament and what all 'rights of information' people have, how things work in parliament, how day to day decisions are made; they were more interested in getting involved and understanding how their vote can make a difference. Rather than providing a national holiday for election day, it is important to drive them for voting. Organizations, public and private offices can conduct voting drives for their employees where it is mandatory for employees to come and vote. With like-minded peers and colleagues, chances of them actually participating increases double-fold.
Furthermore, children and youth is the future of any country. Schools and high schools are the best places for them to impart the knowledge needed to understand the importance of elections. A variety of methods should be deployed in schools from a dedicated day on current affairs, focussed group discussions on republican and democratic parties, theme-based events which promote impromptu or prepared speeches, knowledge sharing or even a short play (faculty-driven or kids-driven) can provide plethora of information to children which in turn imparts the importance of voting from the early stages of life. This will also allow parents to keep them up-to-date with the information so they can help their children prepare for their performances.
Human is a social animal and many pieces of research have shown that mankind thrives on social connections. Promoting cohesion between neighborhoods, like-minded people, deploying volunteers across different localities to educate and engage people in elections is a better way to thrive on the internal drive to pursue something. Volunteers from different parties taking time to interact with people in person and talking about their agendas and plans of future development would educate them to make the necessary decision. It would also be interesting to have focussed gatherings on social issues impacting society and discussions on which party seems promising in developing the nation in future. group discussions led to knowledge sharing and assessing the information that one possesses and it could be a great way for people to connect and get involved in the process.
Finally to conclude, declaring election day as a national holiday could drive some people to voting stations but I believe working towards motivating them by educating and involving them during elections would actually result in resolving the low voter turn up issue. Voters are the building blocks of a nation's growth and each voter needs to feel that their vote counts, their decision matters.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-05-09 | Aradhana Sharma | 82 | view |
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 671 350
No. of Characters: 3387 1500
No. of Different Words: 321 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.09 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.048 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.701 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 265 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 199 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 133 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 87 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 30.5 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 15.033 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.455 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.282 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.525 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.146 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 394, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...up the calendar for many people, but it doesnt necessarily mean they will turn up to v...
^^^^^^
Line 6, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... participating increases double-fold. Furthermore, children and youth is the ...
^^^
Line 8, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ldren prepare for their performances. Human is a social animal and many pieces...
^^^
Line 9, column 690, Rule ID: IN_PAST[1]
Message: Did you mean: 'in the future'?
Suggestion: in the future
...eems promising in developing the nation in future. group discussions led to knowledge sha...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 701, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Group
...ing in developing the nation in future. group discussions led to knowledge sharing an...
^^^^^
Line 10, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...nect and get involved in the process. Finally to conclude, declaring election...
^^^
Line 11, column 2, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Finally,
... and get involved in the process. Finally to conclude, declaring election day as ...
^^^^^^^
Line 11, column 306, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'nations'' or 'nation's'?
Suggestion: nations'; nation's
...ue. Voters are the building blocks of a nations growth and each voter needs to feel tha...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, finally, first, firstly, furthermore, if, look, so, talking about
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.9520958084 131% => OK
Conjunction : 26.0 11.1786427146 233% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 18.0 13.6137724551 132% => OK
Pronoun: 49.0 28.8173652695 170% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 99.0 55.5748502994 178% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3458.0 2260.96107784 153% => OK
No of words: 670.0 441.139720559 152% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.16119402985 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.08766726615 4.56307096286 111% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.7688140117 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 328.0 204.123752495 161% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.489552238806 0.468620217663 104% => OK
syllable_count: 1062.0 705.55239521 151% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 4.96107784431 181% => OK
Article: 3.0 8.76447105788 34% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 29.0 22.8473053892 127% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 83.6118044144 57.8364921388 145% => OK
Chars per sentence: 150.347826087 119.503703932 126% => OK
Words per sentence: 29.1304347826 23.324526521 125% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.73913043478 5.70786347227 66% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 18.0 8.20758483034 219% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.140447745966 0.218282227539 64% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.043212085515 0.0743258471296 58% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.045530560347 0.0701772020484 65% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0792257710756 0.128457276422 62% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0411553104629 0.0628817314937 65% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.4 14.3799401198 121% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 42.04 48.3550499002 87% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.6 12.197005988 120% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.24 12.5979740519 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.03 8.32208582834 109% => OK
difficult_words: 168.0 98.500998004 171% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 17.0 12.3882235529 137% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.6 11.1389221557 122% => OK
text_standard: 17.0 11.9071856287 143% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.