Why tuesday election day

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 37 states and the District of Columbia allow early voting with no excuses or justification required.

Advance voting periods range from 4 days to 50 days. The group also says that all 50 states and the federal district allow absentee balloting.

Some 20 states require a reason for an absentee ballot. Three states — Colorado, Oregon and Washington — mail ballots to all eligible voters. With the exception of votes from overseas military, mail-in ballots are to be postmarked by Election Day. This means that the vote tally may not be fully computed until a week or more after Election Day.

Because we have never made Election Day a federal holiday, early voting helps make it easier for people to vote at their convenience. To be fair, more than 38 million Americans already have voted early in person, by mail or by absentee ballot, according to a tally maintained by University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald. The first law designating Election Day as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November was passed back in At the time, every state except South Carolina was choosing its presidential electors by popular vote, and had considerable flexibility in deciding when to hold its elections.

But as transportation and communications links between the states improved, concern grew that later-voting states could be influenced by the results in earlier-voting ones. But why November, and why on a Tuesday? As a State Department explainer from put it, back then the U. November made sense because it was after farmers were done with their harvest, but before hard winter weather that could make it difficult for them to get to town to vote.

And since traveling by horse over unimproved roads could take a while, lawmakers wanted to avoid making their constituents travel to or from the polls on a Sunday widely considered a day of rest and worship, not politicking. There have been repeated proposals in the U. We enjoy plenty of rights in a democracy. These rights are for our protection and wellbeing.

But they go together with duties. To ensure the protection of our rights, we need to perform certain duties, one of which is voting. We should constantly strive for perfection. We have faced many issues in the past as a society, and the only way we were able to fix them was when we unanimously demanded change.

Voting is the best way to demand that change. So vote today to ensure a better future. We keep track of fun holidays and special moments on the cultural calendar — giving you exciting activities, deals, local events, brand promotions, and other exciting ways to celebrate. Holiday survey data is powered by TOP Agency. Skip to content View the calendar. Today Friday.

November Chicken Soup for the Soul Day. Lifestyle Mental Health. National Donor Sabbath. National French Dip Day. American Fast Food. National Happy Hour Day. Fast Food Italian Food. World Pneumonia Day. Awareness Diseases. Special Interest. Menu National Today. Log in Sign up. History of Election Day Elections are the one thing that separates a democracy from a dictatorship, giving people the right to control their leaders and oust them without the need for a revolution.

Election Day timeline. Wyoming legislature passes a law allowing women to vote, Colorado follows in In February , the 15th Amendment grants African-American men the right to vote.