Why do Americans vote on Tuesdays

TED-Ed

Dig into the history of Election Day in the United States, and how voting on Tuesdays affects voter turnout.  --  Since 1845, Americans have been voting on Tuesdays — but why?  In this humorous talk, Jacob Soboroff shares the history of Election Day and shows how voting on a Tuesday affects voter turnout.  Lesson by Jacob Soboroff.

Transcript

00:00I want to tell you all about a piece of American history that is so secret

00:18that nobody has done anything about it for 167 years until right now.

00:25And the way that we're going to uncover this vestigial organ of America past is by asking

00:30this question, why?

00:34As we all know, we're in the middle of yet another presidential election, hotly contested

00:40as you can see.

00:42But what you may not know is that American voter turnout ranks near the bottom of all countries

00:48in the entire world, 138th of 172 nations.

00:52This is the world's most famous democracy.

00:55So, why do we vote on Tuesday?

01:02Does anybody know?

01:05And as a matter of fact, Michigan and Arizona are voting today.

01:08Here's the answer.

01:10Absolutely no good reason whatsoever.

01:13I'm not joking.

01:16You will not find the answer in the Declaration of Independence, nor will you find it in the

01:20Constitution.

01:21Constitution, it is just a stupid law from 1845.

01:30In 1845, Americans traveled by horse and buggy.

01:33As did I, evidently.

01:34It took a day or longer to get to the county seat to vote, a day to get back, and you couldn't

01:38travel on the Sabbath.

01:39So, Tuesday it was.

01:41I do not often travel by horse and buggy.

01:44I would imagine most of you don't either.

01:45So, when I found out about this, I was fascinated.

01:48I linked up with a group called What Else?

01:49Why Tuesday?

01:50To go and ask some of our nation's most prominent elected leaders if they knew the answer to

01:55the question, why do we vote on Tuesday?

01:58Anybody know?

02:01Okay, I'm going to be stumped on this.

02:02Anybody know why we vote on Tuesdays?

02:04You happen to know?

02:06On Tuesdays?

02:06Uh-huh.

02:07The Tuesdays after the first Monday in November?

02:09I don't know how that originated.

02:12Do you happen to know why we do vote on Tuesday?

02:14No.

02:15No, I don't.

02:17Here at this school, everybody.

02:19No.

02:19These are people that live for Election Day, yet they don't know why we vote on that very

02:31day.

02:33Chris Rock said, they don't want you to vote.

02:36If they did, we wouldn't vote on a Tuesday in November.

02:39Have you ever thrown a party on a Tuesday?

02:42No, of course not.

02:44Nobody would show up.

02:48Here's the cool part.

02:49Because we asked this question, why Tuesday, there is now this bill, the Weekend Voting

02:53Act, in the Congress of the United States of America.

02:56It would move Election Day from Tuesday to the weekend so that, duh, more people can vote.

03:05It has only taken 167 years, but finally we are on the verge of changing American history.

03:12Thank you very much.

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