A democracy is a type of government in which the people govern; it is adopted by many countries around the world (Kollman, 2012: 25). People influence the government by actively participating in elections and nominating people they want to serve the country. These people – government officials: mayors, senators, presidents, etc. – represent the people and their ideologies. Some countries honor the electoral system more than others and the United States of America is one of them. This is why voter turnout is important and has become an issue addressed by many political parties and their candidates, with the United States having one of the lowest voter turnout rates. Many factors contribute to this decline, but the most important is the timing and particularly the day on which elections are held (Shaw, 2014). I believe that to emphasize the importance of electing officials and encourage state citizens to vote, Election Day should be declared a national holiday and moved from Tuesday to Monday (Kollman, 2012: 330). Time management is not an easy task. thing to accomplish, especially in the United States. Everyone is constantly on the move trying to get things done and within the limited time they have. Therefore, the priority of a task is the time frame in which it can be completed. This is why many people don't vote. Looking at data from the 2012 Texas election, the hours during which one could vote during the primaries, runoffs, and general elections were from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday ("polling hours"). of 2012"). Moments like these prevent voter turnout from increasing over the years. As noted in the book, voting involves creating a schedule in the middle of a sheet of paper, but if their entire day is dedicated to a single cause, the level of importance increases significantly. Another reason why this will be a good strategy for the government is that it will allow people to put their careers aside and have time to vote. Time will no longer be an issue because people will not be working or in school that day and will therefore have time to take care of their vote. So this is possible and should be considered by many. Works Cited Ken Kollman, The American Political System, (New York: WW Norton and Company, 2012), 25, 322-323, 330, 449. Shaw, Daron. April 7, 2014 (9:00 a.m.), Conference on voting and elections. McDaniel, Eric. April 7, 2014 (9:00 a.m.), Conference on voting and elections. “2012 Polling Hours,” last modified January 22, 2014, http://www.thegreenpapers.com/G12/PollingHours.phtml.