Despite a year of non stop news coverage, a constraint stream of chatter on talk radio and cable television, and the most robust 'get out the vote' effort in history, only 57% of registered voters participated in last month's elections.  The turnout was actually down from elections in 2008 and 2004.

  Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) says one solution is to make Election Day a state holiday.

  "This bill would simply make every day on which there is a statewide election, including primaries, a statewide holiday," Ellis said.

  The United States is one of very few democracies worldwide which schedules elections on a work day.  Most nations hold their national elections on Saturday or Sunday or on traditional days off like Friday in Muslim countries.

  The decision to make Election Day the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November was based entirely on 18th century customs and traditions, dealing with farmers riding carts into county seats, not wanting to miss market day, and avoiding Sunday, because in the 18th century, most people never ventured out of their homes on Sundays except to attend sometimes hours-long church services.

  Ellis says making Election Day a holiday for state employees, and encouraging local governments, schools, and private employers to follow suit, would also focus attention on the importance of participating in elections.

  "Making Election Days holidays elevates the importance of our citizens participating in the electoral process," Ellis said.  "It also raises awareness of what is at stake."

  Ellis says in order to make Election Day a holiday, the state, and other government agencies would have to agree to drop another holiday.

  Current state law requires that employers give workers two hours off on Election Day to vote, but that law is riddled with loopholes, including a loophole that workers who work a traditional 9-5 shift already have two hours free, from 7AM to 9AM and from 5PM to 7PM, to vote, so employees don't have to do anything.

  Efforts to make Election Day a state holiday have been introduced in Texas before, and have always failed.