Earlier this month, a coalition of progressive organizations launched a campaign to persuade President Obama to declare next Nov. 8, 2016 – Election Day – a one-time federal holiday. It is a well intentioned move that has little chance of succeeding, in part because ongoing changes to how Americans vote are making it moot and in part because there is little evidence it matters.

The idea is that Tuesday is a work and school day and, especially for busy parents, getting to the polls is a burden made worse if waiting in line is also involved. Other advanced democracies typically either vote on weekends or have made their election days holidays to allow time for voting.

Doing something similar is seen as a way to address this country’s abysmal voter participation rates. But such a move would meet considerable resistance – justified and otherwise – and there is little reason to think it would make for much improvement.

One source of pushback would be those who simply respect tradition. The timing of elections in the United States is a remnant of our agrarian past. In a horse-drawn era, voting on Tuesday allowed for Monday as a travel day without impinging on what most Americans considered the Sabbath. (And there would be objections from those who still do if a Sunday was picked for voting.)

In the first years of the republic, the federal government did not specify when voting for president occurred. States could vote at any time, so long as it was within 34 days of the first Wednesday in December when the Electoral College convened. A November date also would not interfere with the harvest.

But allowing states to set the date of voting gave an advantage to those states that voted later, so a uniform Election Day was established in 1845 as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Adding “after the first Monday” kept it within the 34-day rule. With that, Election Day can be no earlier than Nov. 2 and no later than Nov. 8.

Changes would face political objections as well. Democrats typically want to make voting easier on the assumption that doing so benefits their cause. Republicans seem to think their older, whiter base is more likely to negotiate stiffer rules. Both may be right.

But rather than a national holiday, to which employers would also object, why not vote by mail as Colorado does? Election Day becomes simply the day the clerks count the ballots. With ballots sent out weeks before, all a voter need do is find time to mark the ballot and drop it in the mail. What could be easier? (And can online voting be far behind?)

Then again, neither convenience nor the date may matter. In La Plata County’s most recent election, 32 percent of registered voters exercised their franchise. And if more than two-thirds of voters cannot be bothered to mail a letter, why would a federal holiday matter?

The United States has a lousy record on voter turnout. And, since the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision largely gutting the Voter Rights Act, some states have enacted more restrictive voting laws. But when it is as easy to vote as Colorado makes it and the turnout is still embarrassingly low, we have deeper problems than the holiday status of Election Day.