On Nov. 8, millions of Americans will head to their local precincts to vote in what has become the most contentious presidential election in decades. But millions more won’t even be able to cast a ballot.

For a large swath of the American population, voting is as much an inconvenience as it is a right. Amid their work, school and personal schedules, these individuals won't have the time or freedom to make it to the polls. Of course, it's easier to take time off to exercise this fundamental right when you have enough money, when you're not scraping by on hourly wages — and so the poor are particularly disadvantaged in this regard. In any election, especially one in which the two major candidates promise to take America in wildly different directions, this is unacceptable.

There is, however, a first step that can immediately be taken toward a broader solution.

Mashable is calling on President Barack Obama to declare Nov. 8 a federal holiday. Doing so is the most immediate and impactful action that the president can take to make voting easier for a portion of U.S. voters, particularly those whose voices need to be heard the most.

Declaring election day a federal holiday is hardly a revolutionary idea. In fact, the president himself said in May that election day should be a holiday, and the power to declare a federal holiday is something President Obama has already exercised. He gave government workers the day off on Dec. 26, 2014, which was the Friday after Christmas. Declaring a federal holiday is not a panacea for the country’s election problems, and has its shortcomings when it comes to retail workers and parents. Obama’s declaration would be a symbolic move — but it’s also the kind of action that can spur widespread change in how our country elects its leaders.

The notion of giving employees the day off on Nov. 8 has already gained traction in the tech community. Venture capitalist Hunter Walk led a charge in August to get companies to give their employees the day off. His public spreadsheet now includes 281 companies, including Spotify and Square, that have agreed to give at least some time off, if not the entire day. (Mashable is also giving its employees the day off.)

To be clear, this would be an executive action that only affects employees of the federal government, but that's 2.76 million people, and private companies are far more likely to give employees the day off if it's a matter of following the government's lead. That might sound like wishful thinking, but most generally recognized national holidays grew out of the government’s introduction of a federal holiday. The federal precedent matters, and it’s time for a new one.

Given the urgency of this election, Mashable advocates that the holiday only extend to Nov. 8, 2016, not future elections (baby steps); a congressional vote would be required to make election day a permanent federal holiday. While there have been legislative efforts to do just that — most recently the Democracy Day Act of 2015 — all have failed.

The miserable state of U.S. voter turnout has been well-documented, but it is worth revisiting. Americans head to the voting booths less often than almost all other citizens of developed countries. At 53.6 percent, turnout in the U.S. during the 2012 election lagged well behind top performers (Sweden topped the list for countries where voting is voluntary with 86% of registered voters casting ballots in 2014). And though the U.S. ranks seventh for eligible voters who have actually registered (84.3 percent) among countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, we rank 27th in actual turnout, well behind countries that have elections on weekends or holidays.

Income is a clear indicator of whether a voter will likely make it to the polls: The poorer an American is, the less likely they are to cast a ballot. Some 7.4 million Americans work multiple jobs, just about ensuring they won’t be able to take time on a Tuesday to wait in a long line at a polling location. Tens of millions more are hourly workers for whom missing work can make or break being able to eat that day.

Low-income Americans aren't the only group experiencing ballot barriers. When asked by the census why they didn’t vote in 2012, Americans were relatively uniform in their response: Roughly 25 percent of respondents in all income brackets pointed to their schedule, transportation issues or voting location.

Voter apathy is not a problem unique to this election, nor will it be drastically changed by declaring November 8th a federal holiday, certainly not mere weeks before the election. Moreover, the fact that one major candidate is statistically the most disliked in history, with the other being only marginally more popular, doesn't exactly motivate people to participate in the democratic process.

No one individual or gesture can automatically inspire an ambivalent voter to head to their local polling place. But what one individual can do is give time, which these days is a scarce commodity, particularly for those scraping to get by.

All Americans have equal, inalienable rights, one of which is to vote. But not all Americans have equal circumstances that ensure they can exercise this right. As his time in office draws to a close, President Obama should take a major step toward changing that.