Reddit mentions of Is Voting for Young People? (3rd Edition) (Great Questions in Politics)

Voting is, frankly, quite easy in most states already. Making it a federal holiday wouldn't massively increase turnout. People who don't vote already aren't going to suddenly vote. It's not as if people are sitting around saying, "Damn, I wish I could vote. But I just don't have time today! If only it was a holiday or something."

Those people, by the simple virtue of caring about voting, are likely the ones who would take the five minutes to fill out an absentee ballot request.

So, that's not really a good reason. And I doubt it's the main reason why people would be opposed to it. There's a cost factor involves in public holidays. Government workers get holiday pay, for one.

Since the idea is to make it a day where people have no obligations other than voting, businesses would lose revenue. Obviously, the economy can't shut down for a day. People will have to work. But that defeats the purpose of the holiday. More states allow people paid time off to vote than don't (23 to 19). That seems like a much better option.

After really thinking about turnout dynamics in the United States, I firmly believe that the only sure way to get to 90%+ levels of turnout is to require people to show up to the polls.

If you're interested in reading about this, I recommend two books:

• Is This Any Way to Run a Democratic Election? by Stephen J. Wayne
  
• Is Voting for Young People? by Martin P. Wattenberg
  
  They're both written in plain English, so you don't need a degree in political science to understand them.