And why just one day? Maybe it would be better to keep the polls open for three or four days.

Why not make Election Day a national holiday?

While we're being contrarian, a universal day off might be bad for Democrats. Lots of working class jobs where shutting down the entire office is impossible -- nursing and home care -- while all those workaholic professionals can more easily take the day off.

Now, I have no data to back any of this up, but Matt's right ... this is a more complicated question than it looks. Though, increasing the number of self-identified Democrats by two or three points would make it a clearer win. 

It won't be too long before we will have a national ID system in place, which will be based on biometric eye scans and fingerprints that insure accurate ID and uniqueness. This will lead to a national voter database connected electronically. Thus, everyone will be able to vote from their own computer terminal, or at terminals placed in post offices and other approved locations. As with banking transactions, there will be little to no error. Voting will be available to everyone anywhere anytime, so an actual day of voting will probably have little meaning. I would be surprised if we have a "election day" in the present meaning of the term in the year 2016 or 2020. 

"While we're talking voting, why not require passing a civics course a requirement to vote.  And no, it is not illegal as long as everyone has to meet the same requirements."

You have got to be kidding!  

While this sounds like a good idea, it would be struck down by the courts in a heartbeat.  And, your progressive friends would be the first to condemn such a requirement.

It's not as simple as it sounds.

No, it's not... for many types of relatively low-wage work, like the retail & hospitality fields, it's almost impossible to get time off on a Saturday.  In those areas of employment, Tuesday is very frequently the slowest day of the week and it's therefore easier to take time to go vote.  The weekday is generally only Monday-Friday for us white-collar types, who can make anything from low temp/clerical wages to millions, while by the same token, some shift workers & service managers can make very respectable incomes working evenings & weekends compared to minimum-wage earners.  In any case, it can't be assumed that turnout would be better or more favorable to Dems if we implemented Saturday voting (Sunday, maybe, just because businesses tend to have shorter hours).

(Sunday, maybe, just because businesses tend to have shorter hours)

Hmmm, I wonder is that would help Dems b/c religious conservatives wouldn't want to break the sabbath, or hurt, because people could go straight from preaching to the voting booth?  In any case, it's not practical b/c in a lot of places churches are used as polling places. 

Besides, God would smite us.

In practice it would never be equally applied. It basically amounts to a poll tax. How many people go to schools that don't even offer a civics class? I never had the opportunity myself. Would there be an opportunity for a remedial civics class? Who'd pay for it? What about the people in rural areas that would have to travel hundreds of miles just to take their makeup class. And then who designs the curriculum? Who decides who passes and fails? It's very easy to turn a civics class into political indoctrination. In fact, that's what a civics class is. This is a horrible, horrible idea. 

Voting is both a privilege and a requirement of a good citizen. I believe that with all of my heart. I would no more miss voting than I would rob a bank. Unfortunately, most people obviously don't share my feeling.

Making election day a holiday would very, very soon lead to making it be on a Friday or Monday, so folks could have another three day weekend. That, of course would depress voter turnout, as people would all be away at their vacation spot of choice.

Perhaps a better way is to reward voting. For example, if you were to turn in your voting receipt you would get $10 off on your income tax - better yet, the $10 would go to your political party of choice.

Voting for three days or a week, or even mail in voting are to me very bad ideas. Everyone should vote on the same day so as to be voting with the same information available to them when they vote. For example, those voting on the third day of the voting period would have read two days of newspaper articles propounding some side of the election that the early voters didn't see. In addition, it is extremely difficult to staff the voting places for a one day event. A three day event would be impossible to staff, without paying a much higher stipend to the poll workers. And, lastly, mail in ballots are much more prone to mischief than are ballots cast and left at the polling place. We suffer enough voting mischief already.

Off of the discussion over at Drum's site, I was thinking about it. And yeah. I think you're right. I think that you keep the polls open for an entire week or so, and that's the best thing.

In the early American republic, polls were open in many places for a week, to allow voters to travel to their polling place. (Its also the case that they did not have a single day when everyone voted, and indeed there is no reason why states could not opt to move election day to Saturday for federal as well as state elections.)

All that aside, I'd rather see a move towards IRV and see federal laws standardizing (and widening) ballot access; I think that would do a lot more to reinvigorate our democracy.

Voting systems based on early voting in a number of voting centers without regard to precincts are a far better solution than moving the date of the election.

Larimer County, Colorado, had great success in the 2004 election with such a system.  Here in Florida we had such success with a limited system which had several voting centers in each county that the Election Supervisors in all Florida Counties petitioned the legislature to authorize more voting centers similar to those in Larimer County.  Unfortunately, the Florida legislature, in characteristic fashion, ignored the suggestion.

The idea is still a good one.

I fear that the growth in voting by mail is going to lead to more instances of vote buying and coercion. I don't like it that such absentee voting has become even as significant as it has already, since it essentially spells the end of the secret ballot.

Groups of people can get together and be sure that they're all voting the "right" way -- whether because someone's rewarding them for it or because their employer is pressuring them or because their community leaders think it's the way to go -- and I don't think that's a healthy development.

1.) Making it a holiday doesn't help everyone vote.  Restaurant and retail jobs don't get national holidays off. Think of the people that work on Christmas or Labor day.

2.) A civics class would discriminate against not just low income, but low intelligence. Mentally retarded people can vote too, right?

My suggestions are too fold.

1. Start on a Saturday and go through Tuesday. Thats 4 days, of which just about anyone should be able to get to the polls. You wouldn't even need to have a day as a holiday.

2. I actually favor a national voter registration card. I know, I know, discrimination, blah blah blah.  But if you give the ability to register right at the polls, there shouldn't a problem. This cuts down on the voter fraud, which shows we're serious about it, but it would also speed lines.  Instead of having Grandma Glasses ask for you last name and checking a sheet and then never actually asking for ID, we could have computerized machines that read a card just like the NYC subways do. These machines would also ensure, one person, one vote.

The one thing we SHOULDN'T do is craft any suggestions about voting day as an advantage toward the Democrats. Remember, we're the good guys here. Our ideas stand on their own (or at least they should.) We should be for fair voting no matter which party a citizen votes for. Lets take the moral high ground on this one.