The reason for elections to be held on a Monday or Tuesday in North America is that it allowed people to travel to polling stations without needing to do so on a Sabbath and did not interfere with the majority of market days.
That no longer makes sense.
Currently this practice inhibits lower income people from being able to vote, and effectively makes a barrier to entry based on wage since most people can't afford to take the day off from work.
I would propose that either elections be held on a Saturday, or a Monday/Friday that is turned into a National Holiday. Thereby reducing the number of people barred from voting due to not being able to get the day off of work.
"But this wouldn't help people who work jobs that still function on holidays"
No, but it is a step in the right direction. Not to mention that many of those jobs are rarely standard 9-5 jobs and many involve shorter shifts or odd-hour shifts that still allow the person to get to a polling station.
Edit - I am looking for a GOOD reason to have elections take place on a workday. As in a reason that the workday is preferential to a day off.
Edit 2.0 - Holidays are off the table because evidently a more representative government isn't worth a few billion dollars. But we have yet to find a reason why a workday is better than a weekend.
Edit 3.0 - Most responses are "a better alternative would be to have early voting or mail-in voting". These are irrelevant. I'm looking for reasons why a Tuesday election in the middle of November is preferable to a weekend or public holiday election, whether you create a new holiday or move the elections to a holiday such as Columbus day.
Maybe instead of trying to pick the perfect day, why not hold elections for the duration of a whole week?