With the 2008 presidential elections approaching, we should not forget the important role voters play in choosing our next president. After all, a democracy is only as strong as the participation in it.

That said, it is troubling to see a decline in voter turn out in our national elections. For the last three presidential elections, barely more than half (51.9 percent) of the voting age population voted. Yet, little has been done to correct perhaps the most serious obstacle to voting in the United States.

Election day is inconveniently scheduled in the middle of the week — Tuesday — when voting for most people means taking off time from work, school or child care.

Holding elections on a Tuesday is a historical anachronism from the horse and buggy era of the 19th century.

That is why earlier this year I reintroduced legislation to change our national election to the weekend. My goal is to encourage greater participation and improve the process by which voters determine who should represent us in government and lead our nation.

Under my bill, congressional and presidential elections would be moved from the first Tuesday in November to both days on the first weekend in November.

Holding our federal elections on a weekend would ensure that voters have an opportunity to cast ballots on the days that they have the most free time. It would also help end the gridlock at polling places that threatens to undermine our elections.

Furthermore, because the polls would be open from Saturday to Sunday, voting would not interfere with religious observances.

The last two presidential elections revealed a glaring need for us to rethink how we conduct elections. The 2000 election with the weeks-long "hanging chad" dispute in Florida galvanized Congress into passing major reform.

However, as the 2004 election made clear, with long lines at polls causing people to give up on voting in such swing states as Ohio, there is much that still needs to be done.

This year, with record-shattering registered voter turn out at primaries and caucuses, these issues are expected to intensify come Nov. 4.

We need to build on the existing movement to make it easier for Americans to cast their ballots. We should provide alternatives to voting on just one election day.

Twenty-eight states, including Wisconsin, now permit any registered voter to vote by absentee ballot. These states constitute nearly half of the nation's voting-age citizens.

Thirty-one states permit in-person early voting at election offices or at other satellite locations. Oregon now conducts statewide elections completely by mail.

These innovations are critical if we are to conduct fair elections. It has become unreasonable to expect a nation of 300 million people to line up and cast ballots at the same time.

But these improvements, while praiseworthy, do not get at the heart of the problem — the outdated practice of designating Tuesday as election day.

Just as the original selection of our national voting day was done for voter convenience, we must adapt to the changes in our society to make voting easier for the regular family.

Sixty percent of all households have two working adults. Most polls are open only 12 or 13 hours on one day in the middle of the week. Given the demands of work or school, voters often have only one or two hours to vote.

As we saw in the 2004 election, long lines in many polling places kept some waiting much longer than one or two hours. If voters have children, and are dropping them off at day care, or if they have a long work commute, there is not enough time in a workday to vote.

Because my legislation would require polling places to be open longer over a two-day period, there would be greater demands placed on these facilities, volunteers and workers. To offset the burdens, the federal government should provide some aid to lessen the burden on communities and to train poll workers and volunteers.

This would be a relatively small investment given the stakes — the integrity of elections and greater voter participation.

I hope my colleagues in Congress recognize this common sense proposal as one of the most significant steps we can take to ensure the voice of the people is heard loud and clear.

Kohl is a Democratic U.S. senator from Wisconsin.