Assistance on Voting Records

[SoulDiva]

I am in the process on writing a speech on Election Reform and I cannot seem to find percentages of population that voted per state.

I am looking to make a comparison within the states that have a Federal Holiday for election day, before and after the federal holiday was put into place. Any help would be VERY much appreciated.

any other resources on this topic would be of great help also.

Shasta M

[Wilms]

1. Presidential Election Atlas

There are numbers here you might compare with census data.

http://uselectionatlas.org/USPRESIDENT/

[Wilms]

2. BTW. Please explain...

..."states that have a Federal Holiday for election day"...

I guess that would be a 'state holiday'. But I didn't know that there were any. Are there?


Here are two pieces of related Legislation.


Election Day/Weekend

S. 144: Herbert Kohl (D-WI) A bill to change the date for regularly scheduled Federal elections and establish polling place hours.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-144


H.R. 63: John Conyers (D-MI) To treat the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in the same manner as any legal public holiday for purposes of Federal employment, and for other purposes.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-63

[SoulDiva]

3. Sure.

http://www.eac.gov/docs/poll%20hours%20survey.pdf

Here is the link showing which states allow for an Election Day Holliday and which allow for school closings.

So what I am actually trying to find is if there was a significant difference in voting statistics before and after the holliday was enacted. :)

Thank you very much for your help! Anything else you know or even an opinion or too could come in handy.

Shasta

[Wilms]

4. Understood.

Who is your audience? Did you get the total voters from the Atlas?

I see you now need the dates when those laws kicked in. I'd recommend State Legislative Librarians for that.

Bear in mind increased registration during that same transition period. You may need to subtract a portion of it from any total increase in participation you find.

An election holiday might:

1. Increase registration (particularly 'same day') as well as participation

2. Find more people available to be Poll Workers (and Watchers).

3. Make more places available for use as a polling place, including places that have disabled-access. (Though that might be negated by if the facility can't be used during non-Federal elections.)

Good Luck.

Update, too.