Why Do We Vote On Tuesday?
In 1845, before Florida, California, and Texas were states or slavery had been abolished, Congress needed to pick a time for Americans to vote. We were an agrarian society. We traveled by horse and buggy. Farmers needed a day to get to the county seat, a day to vote, and a day to get back, without interfering with the three days of worship. So that left Tuesday and Wednesday, but Wednesday was market day. So, Tuesday it was. In 1875 Congress extended the Tuesday date for national House elections and in 1914 for federal Senate elections.
Today, we are an urban society, and we all know how hard it is to commute to our jobs, take care of the children, and get our work done, let alone stand on lines to vote. Indeed, Census data over the last decade clearly indicates that the inconvenience of voting is the primary reason Americans are not participating in our elections.
If we can move Columbus Day, Presidents’ Day, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Holiday for the convenience of shoppers, why not make Election Day more convenient for the sake of voters? First and foremost, it is time to end the deafening silence of good people on this vitally important issue. So we ask: Why Tuesday?
What does Tuesday voting mean to you? Leave a comment below!
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
October 25th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
As a former elections administrator, I agree that there may “Updates” that needed to be done to our electoral process. Keep up the good work.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Absentee voter. Vote any time you want!
November 3rd, 2007 at 1:14 pm
We The People need to return to voting and counting using paper ballots in the sunshine - ie. where the ballots never EVER leave the sight We The People. 96-98% of our votes are counted in darkness today using computers and electronic machines that - experts have proven - can be programmed and hacked to achieve a desired result.
I believe We The People should vote on Saturday! In the sunshine! Bring ALL the family and kids and make it into a National celebration of civic activism, transparancy, accountabilty and responsibility!!
Music, dance, bands, songs, picnics, parades, convocations, crusades, fireworks, the works!!
We The People need to EXIT these Wizard of Oz-like Castles and DEMAND that we all meet in the sunshine where there’s lots of music, song, laughter, food, families, children, etc.
Peace and God Bless,
Fred Smart
The Freedom Fellowship
November 19th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
Do you really want everyone to vote? Most Americans are interested in who Brad Pitt or Paris Hilton is doing it with than have to keep up with current events. I was born and lived in a third world country until I was about 23. I cannot begin to tell you what I went through to vote. Even then I’m not sure if my vote really counted. Bottom line most people are not informed therefore I don’t believe they should vote.
November 28th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Why are we first concerned with the day we vote. I believe most Americans don’t vote because of the electorial voting system. The real question and concern in my mine is does my vote count? From what we have seen recently, individual votes don’t count. My father always said to get out and vote because you might cast the deciding vote. Right now that is not true.
What is it called when government is run by the people? Democracy
With the technology that is in place today what is the purpose of the electorial vote anyway. We are running our country on systems that were designed around the 1700 era. Things have to change with time. Can you imagine running a business like they did during that era?
If you want some answers about electorial votes go to this website.
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/
But way to go WhyTuesday!
November 29th, 2007 at 1:38 am
I love your perspective and mission. Please keep up the excellent work.I learned a lot from your site and videos.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
election reform is long overdue, however, you may want to look at the ratio of congresspeople to citizens.
750,000:1 is why people feel they don’t have a voice.
every 10 years a zero-sum game is played by shifting congresspeople from one part of the country to another.
here in PA we gained close to a million people, but lost 2 congresspeople.
the constitutional realignment after the census should include adding seats, as it did in the 19th century.
The last seats were added in 1911, when there were a little over 110 million people.
with 300 million people we cannot be served properly.
November 30th, 2007 at 1:09 am
Just watched your headline video… Anderson says that there aren’t enough election reform questions being asked to get those question addressed by the candidates…
Problem::> Solution… ?
What if you edit that clip, (maybe shorter?) adding explicit directions at the end of your video asking the viewer to request the candidates address election reform issues (verified voting)…. The link could then be sent around the country possibly influencing the agenda.
November 30th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
this is a reply to Mike (comment #4) who asked, “Do you really want everyone to vote? Most Americans are interested in who Brad Pitt or Paris Hilton is doing it with than have to keep up with current events.”
I do not think most Americans are really interested in Brad and Paris, I think the media is feeding us stories about Brad and Paris to keep us distracted from asking real questions… I know, conspiracy theory much?
Seriously though, I did not vote this year because it was inconvenient. I went to Yoga instead. I would more likely vote on a Saturday.
December 1st, 2007 at 4:08 am
I think that we should vote on Veterans Day. What better way to honor our democracy, and the sacrifices made by our soldiers, than to vote?
For the elections that happen on other times of year (primaries, etc) they should be held on Saturday and/or by mail.
December 1st, 2007 at 2:51 pm
I think voting by mail would be great. I also think voting is imperative. I hate big media. It keeps us distracted from our dreams. People without dreams are apt to be controlled.
Keep it up WhyTuesday!
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:28 pm
I want people voting that care enough about the vote that are willing to put up with a little inconvenience.
If you do not care enough about the future and leadership of our governement to take off a day of Yoga or whatever to vote, then why should your vote count the same as someone who cares enough to take the time to go vote.
Voting is important to me, I will get out there and vote regardless or the weather or what I need to change in my day to do so. With 4 kids of different ages and 2 jobs, my time is always tight, but I still go out and do it.
These barriers to voting, which are merely inconveniences, are a very good thing. It keeps the ballots free from the lazy and undedicated.
Voting in many other countries is not nearly as convinient as it is for us, and they have much higher turnout.
The problem why US voting is low is not because its on a Tuesday, or that you need to register 30 days in advance. It’s that many people just don’t care enough. And if they don’t care, they should not vote.
Carlos
December 6th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Carlos, what a horrible attitude. it is on par with saying “anyone who doesnt think like me or look like me or vote like me shouldnt have a vote”. not very american, hmmm? i was recently in Jamaica on my honeymoon, on the day they elected their new Prime Minister. Businesses were closed, bars shut down, people came out of their homes en masse and gathered at the voting places. why isnt voting day a national holiday? we all americans should be devoted to this, our right, our own check and balance, our contribution to our own government. dont even get me started about the Electoral College. of the people means of the people, not of a few people’s interpretation of the peoples’ vote…
December 12th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
I believe inconvenience is not a valid excuse for apathy. In my county (Los Angeles, CA) it is fairly simple to vote via mail, thus avoiding so called “inconveniences”. If someone doesn’t care about voting to begin with, I doubt changing the day of the election will have any effect.
December 13th, 2007 at 1:14 am
RDizzle:
Inconvenience is never an excuse for apathy. There are barriers that make the voting process hard for some people, and that should not be confused with apathy. It should be noted that voting by mail in LA is a luxury item that some Americans do not have.
For example, in Mississippi, a single mother who juggles two jobs cannot vote by mail or submit a no-excuse absentee ballot. I am sure you’d agree that when you have children and multiple there are unexpected events that might prevent you from going to the polls. Those are the same unforeseen reasons that attract you to vote-by-mail.
In fact, the few States and localities that have adopted a vote-by-mail system experience higher turnout than the national average.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Mr. Zitron is entirely correct; and Mr. Dizzle, in addition to suffering an unfortunate name, suffers from myopia and is illustrative of the need for all of us to expand our vision and be more inclusive of the realities of others.
January 15th, 2008 at 2:49 am
Let’s not complicate things. It is obvious that our voting system is broken when we rank 139th out of 172 countries. The Tuesday after the first Monday is something outdated when the country was comprised of mostly farmers. We’re in a different time where PDA’s and tight schedules are what make up today’s working class. It’s a simple change and an obvious one, just move Election Day to Sunday. Anyday is a good day to vote but, you and I can agree that there are better days than other and the weekend is a hell of a lot better than a Tuesday.
January 16th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
It really doesn’t matter so much which day of the week election day is so much as it should be a Federal holiday. Our electoral system is in desparate need of an overhaul. Our current two party system is a political straight jacket. We need to make it easier for more parties and more candidates to compete. Many people are apathetic about voting because their beliefs just don’t fit into the duopoly of American politics. Ranked voting systems such as Instant Runoff Voting are a positive start to fixing the system.
January 21st, 2008 at 9:39 am
most European nations vote on weekends and vote for more than one day. You think if congress really cared about big D democracy they would do things like make voting convenient for people. That’s like your coverage of Caucuses, caucuses are the most archaic backward way to select candidates, yet many states still do it. And more importantly the states that we consider the most important states in selecting presidential nominees do it still. They disenfranchise voters wholesale, yet people love tradition. When will we see real change ?
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:25 pm
The goal of any election reform should be to make sure that everyone who wants to vote can, and that all votes are counted accurately.
I dare say most engaged voters will vote regardless of the day of the election. Polls are open for 13 hours. People who want to be part of the process have ample opportunity to vote.
If voting were held on a weekend, wouldn’t many of the people who say they are disenfranchised now (foodservice and hospitality workers, laborers who don’t work 9-5 jobs) still have a hard time getting to the polls? Also, if voters aren’t engaged, what’s to stop them from traveling over the weekend, especially if election day becomes a national holiday?
We need to make sure ballots are counted accurately. I we want more turnout, we have to rely on candidates to give us something to turn out for.
January 29th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I believe you need to standardise all your voting systems and make it compulsory as we do in Australia as we believe that many have died to get the right to vote and all should exercise that right even if forced too. Also we utilise preferential voting to ensure an accurate reflection of the voters wishes rather than first past the post.From my perspective your different formats for voting should be abolished and one simple standard method introduced and one day for all states which doesnt have to be tuesday, we vote on saturdays after a 4-6 week campaign.
January 29th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
You’ve got a practical problem in moving the national election day from a Tuesday to the weekend. Move it to Saturday, and a sizeable number of the practicing Christian population will be forced to choose between voting and worshipping on the sabbath (one of the reasons why election day was never on a Sunday to begin with). Move it to Saturday, and a sizeable number of practicing Jews will be forced to choose between voting and worshipping on the sabbath. Either choice risks insulting a powerful religious voting bloc and is, simply put, political dynamite.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:22 am
To respond to Alan Smith above me, I’m a Christian and go to church for a few hours on Sunday mornings, but that’s not what would stop me from voting on the weekends. I am employed at a restaurant and work all the weekends, as do a lot of lower class people who are in the service industries.
Ah, Friday, the poor man’s Monday.
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:24 am
If Why Tuesday? organized a meaningful PACKAGE of adjustments to the logistics of how we vote, I believe it would make a difference…for exmple a combination of a Voting Holiday, and instant Registration could be helpful in creating new dynamics to voting.
February 12th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
voting system should be changed so that some social issues may as well be put on vote.. politics is too important to be left to politicians!
March 26th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Honestly, if someone doesn’t vote from being inconvenienced, I’d rather not have them vote. Our nation’s future is too important for it to be placed in the hands of people who would so flippantly refuse to become involved.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Won´t somebody think of the market?? How am I supposed to sell my cow if we change Election Day to Saturday?
April 19th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Another reason “Why Tuesday?” Some added trivia:
It’s not just “Tuesday”, but “the first Tuesday after a Monday” (technically, the first Tuesday after Nov 1st). The reason for that is because, at the time, before phones, radio, TV or even film, most people’s primary source of news was “work”. In urban areas, going in to work on Monday and only then finding out it was “Election Day” would of given many people no time to prepare. So Election Day was scheduled to take place after at least one November workday had passed.
April 20th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
It doesn’t matter which day to me. In Oregon, where I live we can only vote one way… by MAIL. There is absolutly NO excuse why 100% of the people don’t vote. Speaking for myself, if ya don’t vote, ya can’t B!t(#, and I Love to B!t(#.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:22 am
Although it is touted as such, our nation is not a pure democracy, but a federal republic. We elect representatives that are supposed to do our bidding but there is nothing that binds them to it.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I still can’t believe that such an advance nation has so outdated ideas and laws.
Delegates and superdelagates??? what happened to one person-one vote, where is democracy. Somebody mentioned absentee voting, but I think that is not the solution, just do the right thing and change the voting day so EVERY AMERICAN can vote.
May 10th, 2008 at 1:06 am
I don’t think changing election day to Saturday is helpful- that just screws people who work weekends, many of whom work shifts of twelve hours or more. Transportation also runs less on weekends, making it harder to get to the polls. Rather, I think we should make election day a federal holiday as they do in my fiance’s country (where elections aren’t even real!)
May 17th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Why cant we change it? Because of the twin demons of TRADITION and CUSTOM. These two have blocked more rational change than the moral majority. We cant even seem to dump the dinosaur of daylight savings time, let lone change the sacred day we hold our elections.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I am a believer in a National Voting Holiday.
Tuesday remains Election Day.
The Monday before Election Day is the National Voters Day, where legally all working people are allowed to vote, and by law ALL WORKING PEOPLE MUST BE AFFORDED MONDAY OR TUESDAY OR BOTH DAYS OFF!
That said, further the weekend before becomes Voting Weekend when some of the polls must be open (demarcated and publicized) for early voting so that Business Owners, Self Employed, and others unable to take time off on Monday or Tuesday are afforded convenience at the polls.
Therefore there would be four days of National in-person balloting per year, as well as mail-in balloting.
Finally, it is only a matter of time, before we can safely, accurately and accountably create a computer based system which will allow people to vote (internet, text, phone, etc.) for politicians as easily as they can vote for the contests on Television.
May 31st, 2008 at 3:15 pm
As a Brit immigrant, voting on a Tuesday has always struck me as being ever so slightly barmy. This is coming into sharper focus now I’m on the brink of having a vote here. And the focus has been sharpened further by the Dem primaries, and the Florida & Michigan débâcles.
This web page hints that Tuesday voting is in fact a law. But does that also apply to Primaries? As a potential Democrat, why should our party not set the pace by choosing Saturday, or Sunday on the way from the chapel to the pub?
As for caucuses, they strike me as some sort of dysfunctional Tupperware party.
“You’ve already conceded that it’s dotty,” said the Cheshire Cat, grinning sardonically. “So what else did you expect?”
July 20th, 2008 at 7:28 am
The last 3 times that I voted, the polling place had changed. Since I live in a rural area near a small town it wasn’t a problem to drive through town untill I found the tell-tale signs that a voting place was near. (All those little political posters on stakes) I don’t know if it’s because this is a Republic dominated county (no democrats are even on the ballot for most county offices) and I’m a Democrat, but it doesn’t take long for all my Obama signs to get destroyed every time I replace the last one they “shot up”. Police are real helpful they just tell me that it’s “probably just kids”. Kids with shotguns running around late at night.
July 21st, 2008 at 6:59 am
just read in newspaper about why vote on tuesday i guess i never knew why just that we did. this needs to be changed so that everyone has a chance to vote either on saturday or sunday and yes i’m a christian.
July 27th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
I think we should vote by mail! I understand that ever since they started that in Oregon, about a decade ago, voter participation went way up.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
There are 3 things that are needed to correct the election process. 1.) Change the vote to the end of the week. 2.) The candidates can spend no more than the job pays to get elected. 3.) Donations can only come from voters. If you can vote for the candidate you can contribute to that candidate only.
Number 2 is probably the best. If you or I spent $300,000.00 to get a job that only pays $20,000.00 per year, they would call us lunatics and have us committed.
July 31st, 2008 at 1:35 am
@#30 Concerned Citizen Says:
At least one person got it correct. Thankfully, we are not a pure democracy, but a federal republic.
Why is this important? Why don’t we just go to popular vote?
If we went to popular vote, the large cities of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, LA and the like would carry more weight than dozens of the smaller populated states.
A politician would just have to put a chicken in every pot for the large cities, and the rest of the country is screwed.
Basically it prevents mob rule. Think mob rule isn’t so bad? A gang rape is democracy in action.
August 4th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Here in Oregon we vote by mail, which is wonderful. You can vote any time you want a few weeks before election day, and either mail your ballot in, or drop it off at multiple locations (I always drop mine off at my library, which is close to where I live). Not only does it increase voter turnout, it gives you more time to fill out your ballot, so you can vote intelligently. Plus it gets rid of last minute election craziness — by the time election day rolls around, most people have already voted, so no last minute surprises. I think all states should switch to vote by mail, in which case the day can stay Tuesday.
August 16th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Let’s LENGTHEN Voting Day to two or three days. How about Friday, Saturday, and Sunday? That way, nobody has to vote on a holy day.
Pay no attention to the fear-mongers who bleat that a more accessible or fairer electoral system would lead to “mob rule.” The strongest defenses against mob rule are the Bill of Rights and a free press, not the slave-o-cratic Electoral College, the un-representative Senate, the monarchist Unitary Executive, or any form of disenfranchisement. Let’s give everybody’s vote the same weight as everybody else’s. If you’re afraid of that, then you’re afraid of democracy, and I’m sorry to say that the USA is not the place for you.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I look at all of this, and actually…
#9: That was the point of the post you just replied to. Voting was evidently less important to you than attending yoga.
Voting via mail: Great idea! I’m sure we would all love the jump in election fraud! ( I know enough to know it will go up. )
Getting rid of the electoral collage: Study your history, and check up on the idea of the ‘tyranny of the majority.’ It exists to make it impossible for somebody to become president without winning at least a few low-population states — this is the same reason the rules were what they were for the House and why we have the Senate. ( I do agree that we need to start adding seats to the House — from what I can tell, the main reason they capped the number of seats was because they were too lazy to find room for the extra chairs. I suggest folding chairs…and that Representatives loose some weight. )
As for the rest… Moving it to a different day is either not going to change the problem beyond having lots of people turn up on the wrong day — and that’s ignoring the fact that when it comes to weekends, Sunday’s much more feasible than Saturday unless you really don’t care about members of some minorities getting to vote. Voting by mail’s simply going to render fraud infinitely easier — and finding out where & who did it would become damn near impossible. ( I am too cynical, and have heard too many tales of election fraud, to believe that fake mailed-in votes will get canceled out by purposely-misplaced mailed-in votes. )
The best of the suggestions is to make it a national holiday. However, I’d expect big sales and drunken parties to pop up like mushrooms, which would sort of defeat the entire point of making it a national holiday anyway.
Personally? I think the best solution is longer polling hours — perhaps have it open from 12:00AM to 11:59PM Tuesday. Or better yet, there’s this thing called an absentee ballot, which already exists and you can have one just by asking for it. As far as I know, you don’t even need to explain why you want one, you just have to get it turned in by election day and you’re done!
Voting needs to require a bit of effort on the part of the voter. It ought to require some thought, and actually taking the time to go pick up an absentee ballot or going to the polls. If you can’t be bothered to, say, turn off your TV for long enough to go vote…doesn’t this say a lot about what’s more important in your life?
August 27th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I agree that the day to vote needs to be changed. But, like others, I believe that a universal direct suffrage system is better than our indirect system today. Electorates and the electoral college doesn’t make sense. Everyone’s vote DOESN’T count. Let’s say Obama is able to increase the actual popular votes is states like Illinois, California, New York and overtakes McCain as a result in the popular vote (by much more than Gore/Bush in 2000). But, he doesn’t receive anymore electoral votes because NY, CA and IL already goes D. It’s illogical. Let’s fix both the suffrage system and the voting day together. That will energize thousands, maybe millions, to join in on voting day!
August 30th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
I support four changes to the election system in the U.S.:
(1) Elections should be moved from Tuesdays to Sundays, Saturdays, or, in the case of the fall general election, to Veterans’ Day.
(2) Split-ticket voting should be allowed in primary elections as well as general elections.
(3) Employers should be required to grant time off to all employees - full-time or part-time, union or non-union, old or young, etc. - so no one has to stand in line for inordinate periods just to vote.
(4) No picture ID should be required to be able to vote. (This requirement effectively disenfranchises minorities, the homeless, the elderly, college students, and stalking victims.)
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:11 pm
[…] would be easiest to drop by a ballot box on a saturday or sunday, considering we’re not all farmers […]
October 27th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Who cares what day it is, just do it.
Sheeze… there are more important issues other than what day you vote on. Besides, those who won’t, can’t, or refuse to vote, should not complain when things in our society don’t go as they want… so go and vote if you want to see change. This talk about “your vote really doesn’t count” is foolish because there is no proof of that.
November 1st, 2008 at 10:19 am
the reason it’s not on the weekend is the founding fathers knew that the weekends were for drinking and whoring around. clearly not a good day to vote. monday is hangover day so that makes tuesday the best possible election day! duh
also pure democracy is a horrible form of government. the majority will always take advantage of the minority. you must have republic with individual rights or you end up with mob rule with certain groups getting gang raped by the mob.
November 1st, 2008 at 10:23 am
everyone is a minority in one area or another.