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An Excellent Election Day Question

Why Tuesday?

Pattie and I have allowed the city to use our garage as the polling place for our division since last November. It helps make sure our neighbors have a convenient place to vote, so I’m happy to do it – I figure it’s part of our contribution to Get Out the Vote efforts.

Of course, I wasn’t so crazy about it this morning when I had to get up at 6:30 to finish clearing out the garage, let the voting guys in, and get Alex ready for school so Pattie could go to work and I could go teach. The logistical problems involved in having a single day of voting right smack dab in the middle of the work week really hit home today. So there I was, asking Why Tuesday? I’m a little embarrassed to say I thought it was a Constitutional issue setting the date for federal elections, but as it turns out I learned from the site above that it’s because of an 1845 act of Congress. Tuesday was apparently a good day for rural folks who had to travel to vote. Which may have been all well and good 150 years ago, but doesn’t work so well today. This is one of those situations where re-evaluating what we do to see if it makes sense would come in handy.

There are occasional rumblings about making Election Day a national holiday, which would certainly be a good start. Of course, at this point, I want the day after the election to be a holiday . . .

About

Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.

November 8, 2005 @ 9:59 pm
Public Policy

2 Comments

  1. Ping from Pattie Gillett:
    Tuesday, November 8th 2005 at 10:34 pm | 

    Of course the problem with making it a holiday is that Americans would get caught up in “holiday” things and never get around to actually voting. Think of all the federal holidays that people never seem to observe in their intended manners. President’s Day anyone? Get ready for the Election Day ‘We Need to Make Room for Next Year’s Models Sale’.

  2. Ping from Dave Thomer:
    Tuesday, November 8th 2005 at 10:58 pm | 

    What if we have tailgate parties in front of the voting locations? I’ll move the grill out front next year.