Why is the US Election held on a Tuesday?

In Australia we always have our democracy sausage on a weekend, but there is a reason – well, at least a storied history – as to why the US holds its presidential election on a Tuesday.

While early voting, as well as voting by mail in some states, offers an alternative, it does seem like a strange idea to ask millions of people to queue for hours at polling stations on a business day.

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But if you look back through the history books you’ll find there’s a perfectly good explanation for the election taking place at such a specific time.

Why is the election held on a Tuesday in November?

It all goes back to 1845 when Congress passed a law to set a single election day for the entire country.

The law states that: “the electors of President and Vice President shall be appointed in each state on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November of the year in which they are to be appointed”.

Up until then, different states could hold elections when they wanted as long as it was within a 34-day period before the first Wednesday in December.

But the system meant that the results of states who voted early could affect the turnout in states that held their vote later on. On top of that, it could also sway opinion. Holding elections on the same day across the country was hoped to limit that.

But why a Tuesday of all days?

Again, the decision to make election day a Tuesday in November was all about the way people lived their lives in the US back in 1845.

At the time, most Americans were devout Christians so Sunday was a no-go as it was set aside for church and as a day of rest.

In most areas Wednesday was a market day when farmers would sell their crops, so having elections on that day wouldn’t work either.

For many people, voting meant travelling long distances to cast their vote, meaning they had to leave a day to travel. That meant that election day couldn’t be a Monday or a Thursday, because they would have to travel on a Sunday or a Wednesday, clashing with church or market. That left Tuesday as the best choice.

Why did Congress choose November for US elections?

Unlike Australia’s Westminster system where the prime minister gets to choose the timing of the election (within certain parameters), the US election is set in stone.

At the time that decision was made, the US was a largely agrarian society, with farmers making up most of the labour force.

That meant that holding elections in spring or early summer would coincide with the planting season, while late summer and early autumn would clash with harvest.

Holding elections in early November meant any harvest was over, so farmers would actually take time out to cast their vote, but the harsh winter weather hadn’t quite arrived, allowing them to make the sometimes-lengthy journey to the polls.

Will the election date ever change?

For most Americans nowadays, Tuesday is a work day, making it more disruptive than it once was.

Some have suggested that election day should be moved to a weekend to encourage higher turnout, while others have suggested that election day should be made a federal holiday.

Two former Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg tweeted today that Election Day should be a national holiday.

Changing the date of the election would require a bill passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president, followed by a change in the constitution.

Given the hyper-partisan nature of Washington, that certainly isn’t happening any time soon.

with Yahoo News UK

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