I worry that making voting a holiday or putting it on the weekend would lead to LESS turnout. If you give vacation-starved Americans an extra day off, many of them will just take a day off instead of using it for its intended purpose. Also: it’s not like all businesses would close- the white collar folks would get a day off, but all the retail/service people would still need to work.
A better solution is to expand and require early voting periods. Give people 1-2 weeks to stop by and vote. It gives maximum flexibility and keeps lines short.
The big advantage to having in-person voting on a weekend is you greatly expand where you can have polling places. In Australia, for example, voting is on a Saturday and your local polling place is very likely to be a school.
Not everyone has the luxury of being able to take time off work. This is worse on a weekday. White collar workers may have that flexibility more often but if, say, you're a health professional, you're required to be there for your shift and that shift could be 24 hours or more. So you're going to have this problem regardless but it is worse on weekdays.
Likewise, it'll be easier to find people to man polling places on weekends.
Anyway, weekend voting is part of a comprehensive voting accessibility strategy, not the sole solution.
Why not both? California is actually pretty good about this. We have early voting at select stations, and legal time off on Election Day. A full day off is unnecessary IMO, but a federal legal mandate for 2 hours PTO on Election Day would be great policy.
A better solution is to expand and require early voting periods. Give people 1-2 weeks to stop by and vote. It gives maximum flexibility and keeps lines short.