As we all head to the polls, I thought it might be interesting to review exactly why we are voting today.
By that I mean, why is it that our national elections are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November ?
Well, it may interest you to know that, for the first 50 plus years of our nation, there was no uniform Election Day. The only requirement with regard to Presidential voting was that it occur during a 32 day period prior to December of the election year so that electors would have time to vote and get their ballots to the Congress in time.
As to voting for Congress, it could happen at any time and, in some cases, it actually took place in odd-numbered years because the Congress generally did not meet until December. Under this system, some states would have voted in 2007 to select House members for the 2007-2009 session, which would have started in December 2007. Since Senators were elected by the state legislatures, it did not matter when those votes took place.
Initially, this was not a problem as the issues of distance and communication required a somewhat-flexible time frame for voting. But, as technology advanced, it was decided that a uniform Election Day should be chosen. In 1845 the Congress passed a law providing for the First Tuesday rule.
The reasons for the particular date had to do with the circumstances of the time. Although travel technology had improved, it was still hard for people to get around in bad weather. So January and February were out in much of the nation (this is also why Inauguration Day was once March 4th.
Many people were either farmers or in some way tied to the agriculture industry. Once you got into March, it was the early part of the planting season in some parts of the country. This continued through the Spring and Summer for the planting and harvest season. It wasn’t until near the end of October that you started getting past the harvest season in the majority of the nation.
Taking a few extra days to be safe wiped out the rest of the month.
Since November and December were the start of winter, this pretty much left a small window of early November for the voting to take place. Once they had chosen a period, then they had to settle on a date. One issue to be dealt with was the fact that, in many parts of the country, there was only one place to vote, in the county seat. It could take a full day for a farmer to make his way to vote.
Since Sunday was not a possible travel day for religious reasons, you could not vote on Monday, so it was decided that Monday could be a travel day, Tuesday voting day and Wednesday travel back home. This meant a Tuesday in very early November.
But it could not be November 1st for two reasons. First it was All Saints Day, which was a day of holy obligation for Catholics. In addition, most businessman took the first day of the month to balance their books from the previous month.
So they made it the First Tuesday after the First Monday to avoid this problem.
And that, gentle reader, is why we are voting today.