Ocasio-Cortez calls for making Election Day a holiday instead of Columbus Day

Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is proposing ditching Columbus Day as a holiday and replacing it with Election Day.

The New York Democrat first questioned why Columbus Day is a federal holiday and Election Day is not in a tweet Saturday.

Her tweet got the attention of Daily Mail editor David Martosko, who joked on Twitter that the incoming Democratic lawmaker “hasn’t even started the job yet and she’s already angling for more vacation days.”

AOC hasn’t even started the job yet and she’s already angling for more vacation days. https://t.co/0BPFe8YeSy

— David Martosko (@dmartosko) November 18, 2018

“While I would disagree with your complaint that Americans get too much vacation time (we work some of the longest hours of any dev country & have no Fed required paid leave),” Ocasio-Cortez responded on Saturday, “I am willing to compromise by eliminating Columbus Day to give Election Day off.”

While I would disagree with your complaint that Americans get too much vacation time (we work some of the longest hours of any dev country & have no Fed required paid leave),

I am willing to compromise by eliminating Columbus Day to give Election Day off.

See? I can be pliant. https://t.co/NITFcBSmxw

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 18, 2018

A majority of respondents in a new American Barometer survey earlier this month said Election Day should be a federal holiday for which everyone gets a day off from work.

{mosads}Pollster Mallory Newall said in an interview with The Hill’s “What America’s Thinking” that Election Day will not become a holiday in the U.S. until voters agree on the need for increasing turnout from both parties. 

“You have a near-majority of Republicans saying that voter fraud is a bigger issue, so I think until it changes [to] where a majority of Americans across the party lines can get on board with wanting to increase turnout, and giving people more time to vote, I don’t see it happening,” she said at the time.