re: #7 Sea Mexican!

As an outsider to the US election system, this is the most puzzling aspect I find. Why is a state holiday not declared for elections?

Besides the obvious reasons (the powers that be don’t like others voting).

Early voting has eased some of the access issues and the only people getting off to vote if it were a holiday would be government people and the GOP would never go along with that.
The retail stores wouldn’t close, or the convenience stores, hospitals, restaurants or construction sites. The folks who I would think have a hard time getting to the polls would probably not get the day off.