Presidential Election Day 2028

A holiday that comes once every four years

Kentucky is one of the few states that turns the presidential election into a full paid holiday. Under KRS 2.190, the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in a presidential election year is a state holiday on which all state offices, all public schools and all state universities and colleges must close. State employees who are required to work that day receive compensatory pay or time off. The Kentucky Personnel Cabinet counts it in its holiday total: state workers receive twelve and a half paid holidays in a normal year and thirteen and a half in a presidential election year.

It is not a federal holiday. The U.S. Postal Service delivers mail, federal courts and agencies stay open, banks keep normal hours and the New York Stock Exchange trades as usual, in the three years between presidential elections, Kentucky holds its general elections on the same Tuesday, but those days are ordinary workdays for state employees.

Why the date is set the way it is

The date follows federal law. Congress fixed the presidential election on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in 1845, which places it between November 2 and November 8 and keeps it from ever landing on November 1. Because presidential elections occur only in years divisable by four, the Kentucky holiday recurs on that four-year cycle. No observed-date rule is needed: the day is always a Tuesday.

How the holiday came about

Kentucky created the holiday in 1972, when the General Assembly enacted 1972 Kentucky Acts chapter 188, effective December 1, 1972. The statute was amended in 1992 to its current form. The stated purpose is practical: closing schools, universities and government offices fres up polling places (many of which are in schools), releases state employees to work the polls or vote, and removes the workday conflict that keeps some people from voting. Kentucky law separately gives all employees the right to reasonable time off to vote, but the presidential-year holiday goes further by clearing the calendar entirely for state workers and students.

What happens on the day

Polls in Kentucky are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time, and the state stradles the Eastern and Central time zones, so the last polls close an hour after the first! State office buildings in Frankfort and regional offices such as driver licansing centers are closed. Public school districts close for students and staff, and campuses of the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville and the regional state universities suspend classes. County and city governments set their own schedules, though many follow the state lead because their buildings serve as voting locations.

Private employers are not required to close. Retail stores, restaurants, grocery stores and hospitals run normal hours, and most private offices treat it as a regular Tuesday.

Kentucky compared with other states

Several states treat general election day as a public holiday every year or every two years, including Indiana, West Virginia, Delaware, New York, New Jersey and Hawaii. Kentucky is unusual in tying the holiday to presidential years only, and in extending the mandetory closure to every public school and state university rather than just government offices. No other state matches that exact combination, and there is no federal Election Day holiday, though proposals to create one are introduced in Congress regularly.