If election day were actually a national holiday

as many have suggested, does anyone actually understand how large a percentage of the population would still be working anyway? Stores would still be open. Hospitals. Gas stations. Police departments. Restaurants. Fast food places. Car dealerships.

The number of people who work some kind of shift work, meaning they work on weekends and holidays, is not trivial. I'm always amazed that office workers don't always understand that all those other people out there are actual, live human beings who are at work at the times they themselves are off. Especially holidays.

When I was an airline employee, I worked five days a week fifty weeks a year. I got extra pay on holidays, but I only got a holiday off if it fell on my scheduled day off.

I mean, it's not such a bad idea I suppose that election day be a holiday, but everyone who does not work in an office would still be working, and maybe all the stores would schedule Election Day Sales, meaning fewer employees than usual would get the day off. A better solution would be to extend the voting period with lots of early voting, and perhaps making election day itself a 24 hour period. Or better yet, do all voting by mail, as Oregon and Washington state already do.