The world’s largest democracy, the United States has kept the tradition of electing its president and congressmen on every Tuesday after the first Monday in November and this dates back to 1845 when a law was enacted to unify the US Election Day in the country.
Prior to that legislation, states in the US had separate days when voters elect the president principally, but the quest to consolidate the US election date also came with the consideration for the most suitable day for the American voters, particularly the workers.
Part of the factors responsible for the choice of Tuesday as America’s Election Day was agriculture. Farmers formed the largest population of workers among the American workforce at that time. November is, therefore, believed to be most convenient when the harvest season would have been completed.
At that time, voting centres were not located in the US rural communities where majority farming population resided as such. Farmers had to travels several miles to the nearest voting location before they can vote as such, there was strong consideration for the travelling distance and the time required for the farmers to reach the centres where they were expected to vote.
This was a time when the American society was largely agrarian and had less automobiles to convey commuters. The Tuesday after the first Monday was adopted to also escape the US election falling on November 1, which is observed by Christians as All Saints’ Day in the United States.
Secondly, recognition was also accorded Sunday as a worship day to for the large Christian population who needed the day to rest and worship. The decision to exempt the US election from holding the next day, which is a Monday, therefore gave thoughts to the understanding that the voting Christians in the rural areas could not embark on the journey to vote on Sunday.
Relatedly, there were thoughts about holding elections on Wednesday, which did not scale through because of market days and the thought that Wednesday and following days were needed to reconcile business books.
However, as the United States developed beyond agriculture as its main economic base with just about 2 per cent of its population employed in the sector, there were calls to move the elections to the weekends and a federal holiday declared for that purpose.
This has not received the support of the government due to the now opportunity for the American voters to cast their votes electronically ahead of the Election Day with a good percentage of voters having to exercise their franchise against the central Election Day on Tuesday.
As Americans file out on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, to elect between the two top leading presidential candidates in the US election – Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party and the incumbent Vice President, and former President Donald Trump of the Republican stock – all eyes are on America with centuries of democratic practice on how this election would further enrich the US democracy or otherwise.
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