Why Vote on a Tuesday

Several years ago, the editors of the Farmers’ Almanac™ actually made a suggestion to change Election Day from Tuesday to Sunday, to promote greater participation. Since Sunday is not a working day for a majority of the population, it might encourage more people to find the time to go to the polls and cast their votes. Many of our readers agreed, but Election Day is still held on Tuesdays.

A look back at history tells us that Election Day has been held on this day of the week ever since 1845. Back then, most Americans were farmers, and many lived in very rural areas. Since the polling places were at county seats, most had to travel far to exercise their right to vote. This travel was slow going in buggies, on horseback or by walking. Not wanting to interfere with people’s religious beliefs, Tuesday was chosen so that voters would be able to start their journeys on Monday.

The time of year that Election Day is held (fall) was also chosen due to the agricultural population. By November, most of the farmers had harvested all of their crops and were a lot less busy with their farming responsibilities. The first Tuesday after the first Monday was chosen as Election Day due to two reasons.

First, November 1st is All Saints’ Day, a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics. The second reason was that most merchants tried to settle their books for the proceeding month on the first of the month. With this in mind, it seems that Congress was worried about the financial impact of tallying sales and how that might affect the voting of those business people.

So even though our country has changed drastically since 1845, and farming responsibilities and travel are not the big issues they used to be, we still hold Election Day on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November. This year, it falls on November 4.

Get out and vote.