FACT BRIEF

Do most developed countries hold their elections on the weekend?

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

By Austin Tannenbaum

Copy link

Copy featured image

YES

Most developed countries hold elections on a Saturday or Sunday.

A Pew Research study from 2018 found that "27 of the 36 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development hold their national elections on the weekend, while two others (Israel and South Korea) hold elections on weekdays but make those days national holidays so economic hardship won’t be a barrier to electoral participation."

In the U.S., elections are usually held on a Tuesday. This, combined with limited polling places and hours and registration rules that vary from state to state, appears to inhibit voter turnout. U.S. turnout in 2016 ranked 30 out of the 35 OECD countries for which data was available. Proposals to boost voter turnout in the U.S. include declaring Election Day a holiday, automatically registering citizens to vote and allowing every U.S. citizen to vote by mail.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Pew Research: Weekday elections set the US apart from many other advanced democracies

Brennan Center: New voting restrictions in America

Foreign Policy: Why is it so hard to vote in America?

Pew Research: In past elections, US trailed most developed countries in voter turnout

CNBC: Democrats want to make Election Day a national holiday—here’s why

Fair Vote: Universal voter registration

Brookings: How does vote-by-mail work and does it increase election fraud?

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR

Gigafact

Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

FACT BRIEF BY

Latest fact briefs

About fact briefs published on Gigafact

Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.