Should election day be a national holiday?

It would benefit one political party over the other

Question: Should election day be a national holiday?
Position‹2 of 2: No, election day should not be a national holiday
Argument1 of 3›: It would benefit one political party over the other

From the President of the United States to down the list of GOP politicians, Republicans have gotten stunningly candid about their electoral playbook and their desire to block increased voter turnout. Making election day a national holiday would benefit the Democrats.

The argument

Election day should not be turned into a national holiday because it would favor one party over the other. This is an unspoken argument made by Republicans. Republicans are more likely to benefit when fewer people vote. Lowering voter turnout was even an alleged strategy of the Trump campaign in 2016 to make Hillary Clinton an unattractive candidate and drive down turnout. According to a Pew Research Survey, people who don’t vote are generally more likely to support Democrats when they do. 51% of nonvoters lean towards Democrats, compared to the 30% that lean towards the GOP. The Democratic Party does not really care about making life easier for citizens to vote; their true intentions are more self-serving. Making election day a national holiday would likely increase voter turnout, but it would benefit of the Democratic Party and likely harm the Republican Party.

Premises

[P1]Making election day a national holiday would likely raise turnout, and because nonvoters lean Democratic (51% versus 30% GOP per Pew), higher turnout would favour the Democratic Party. [P2] Republicans tend to benefit when fewer people vote, so the change would advantage one party over the other rather than serve citizens neutrally. [C] Therefore, because it would benefit one political party over the other, election day should not be a national holiday.

Counter-arguments

Election day should not be made into a national holiday, not because Republicans want to encourage voter suppression, but rather because they believe there are larger issues. Turning Election Day into a national holiday would supposedly help to increase voter turnout. But Republicans don’t believe voter turnout is the issue that the government should be working to solve. Republicans want to solve the issue of voter fraud, and turning election day into a national holiday won't solve that problem. According to a survey that asked people what they think the biggest problem related to voting was, there was a large split. 72% of Republicans polled saying voting illegally is a larger problem, while 71% of Democrats polled said the same thing about voter suppression. Election day does not need to be a national holiday because people are worried about the issue of voter fraud. Voter fraud is not something that can be solved by turning election day into a federal holiday.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Nonvoters' stated leanings do not predict how they would vote if they turned out, since the group is defined by not voting — and the survey describes a national sample rather than the marginal voters a single day off work would actually add. [Rejecting P2] That a change would advantage one party is a claim about consequences, not about whether it is right; the same reasoning would count against any measure making voting easier, and the argument's conclusion is offered on behalf of the party it says would lose.