There is good news and bad news about voter turnout in this country.
The good news is that voter turnout in the U.S. has been rising in recent years, as more and more Americans realize how high the stakes are in presidential and congressional elections.
A record number of Americans — 158.4 million of us — voted in the 2020 presidential election where Joe Biden turned Donald Trump out of office. That's nearly 63% of the voting age population.
The bad news is this:
The U.S. still lags far behind dozens of other countries in overall voter turnout.
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According to a Pew Research Center study last year, the record-setting U.S. turnout in 2020 ranked 31st in the world, right between Greece (63.5%) and Colombia (62.5%).
Not a good look for a nation founded on the principle of self-government, where the people rule.
What to do about this?
A very wise and very prominent U.S. congressman from Cincinnati may have given us the answer over 50 years ago.
William J. Keating died in 2020 at the age of 93 after an amazing life that included serving on Cincinnati City Council, being publisher of the Cincinnati Enquirer, and a stint as president of the Associated Press.
Bill Keating was the leading Cincinnati Republican of his generation.
In 1973, Keating represented Cincinnati in the U.S. House at a time when Republicans were in the minority.
He introduced a joint resolution in the 93rd Congress declaring the November general election in even-numbered years as a legal public holiday.
Keating specified even-numbered years because those are the years in which voters across the country are voting on federal races such as president, the Senate and the U.S. House.
His resolution also would have established staggered voting hours across the country — people in the eastern time zone would vote 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., through central and mountain zones, ending with 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. on the West Coast. That way, there would be no waiting in the east for voters in the west to cast their ballots.
It was an ingenious plan. Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t adopted.
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Bill Keating believed strongly that every citizen had an obligation to his or her country to vote. It was a heartfelt value that he passed on to his children and grandchildren.
One of those grandchildren is Liz Keating, who served as the sole Republican on Cincinnati City Council before losing the seat in 2023.
"My grandfather wanted all of us to participate in democracy,'' Liz Keating told me recently. "He made sure that we knew every candidate on the ballot — who they were, what they believed in.
"He made this clear to us at a very early age. Once we were of voting age, it was a competition among the grandchildren to get to the polls first on Election Day."
Keating said she once took her infant daughter with her to a polling place, pushing her in a baby carriage.
"I took a picture of her in her stroller at the polls on Election Day," she said. "When she is old enough to vote, I will show her that photo and tell her how important it is to vote.
"My grandfather would like that."
Bill Keating and I were friends — even though he had been publisher of the newspaper I worked for and I was the president of the Enquirer unit of the Newspaper Guild.
I had deep respect for his intelligence, his kindness, his devotion to his family, and his unshakeable belief in democracy.
And I believe the idea he put on the table in Congress in 1973 is just as valid today as it was a half century ago.
If Election Day were a national holiday, what would change?
It would give millions of Americans a day off from work, taking away one obstacle that people often cite as a reason they don't vote — they can't leave their jobs; they work during voting hours.
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That would not help every voter — employers wouldn't be required to give workers that day off, just as many don’t shut down for national holidays like President's Day or Juneteenth. But it has the potential to turn millions of Americans into regular voters.
Having known Bill Keating as I did, I think he would be appalled by efforts by his fellow Republicans in the Ohio Statehouse and on Capitol Hill to make it more difficult for people to vote.
Maybe this idea of a public holiday on Election Day is just a dream.
But, then again, maybe there are more Bill Keatings out there to pick up the ball and run with it.
