Dem senator wants to make November election federal holiday, expand ‘curbside voting’

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand urged Congress to make Election Day a federal holiday in response to the coronavirus pandemic and to expand “curbside voting” in every state.

The New York Democrat and former 2020 presidential candidate said she’s “actively” trying to get those provisions included in the next coronavirus stimulus package.

Democratic lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi want $4 billion in any future coronavirus stimulus bill to expand mail-in voting.

Gillibrand suggested Monday that she is open to several types of non-in-person balloting for the November election, when asked if it will become an election by mail.

“We want every tool available for elections because we don’t know where COVID is going to be at that stage. And certainly vulnerable people won’t want to be voting in-person. So we want to make sure there’s a vote by mail component in all states,” she said in response to a conference call question from Just the News.

“We want things like curbside voting to be available," she also said. "We’ve used that in some states for seniors, for the disability community. We want to make sure that’s up and running." 

Virginia is the most recent state to make Election Day a state holiday, repeal photo-identification requirements and allow voting up to 45 days early without providing a reason for not being able to vote on Election Day.

Gillibrand said the federal government should pass an early-voting provision in the next coronavirus bill and make Election Day a federal holiday.

“We want to make sure Election Day is a day off and we want to make sure people can vote early because that’s another way, if COVID is still very much an issue. If you could vote for two weeks before the election, any day you want, you could spread out the number of voters who have to go to the voting site," she said. "We want to activate all the flexibility in voting.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has called past efforts to make Election Day a federal holiday an attempted “power grab” by Democrats.

“Just what America needs, another paid holiday and a bunch of government workers being paid to go out and work, I assume [for] our colleagues on the other side – on their campaigns,” he said last year.