Today is election day. A few blogs back I mentioned that “Election Day” has become part of the month of November — and — the reason, surprisingly, is because of the farmers. I found that interesting, so I thought that today — election day — might be a good time to explore other interesting things about elections and Election Day.
Although elections are held on other days, “Election Day” is the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November.
Why a Tuesday in November? In 1792, a law officially designated this day as Election Day each year because this guaranteed that no more than 34 days could pass between the first Wednesday in December, which is when the Electoral College met to vote on the President and Vice President. An early November date was also considered a wise idea because it enabled more voters to go to the polls. Back then, most Americans were farmers, so this date ensured that farmers weren’t trying to find time to vote during the busy harvest season, but the date wasn’t so late in the year that voters needed to battle winter storms while they walked, rode horses or drove buggies to the polls.
America’s early elections didn’t resemble the ones we have today…. In 1758, a young candidate in Virginia for the House of Burgesses footed a huge liquor bill to woo voters on Election Day. George Washington spent his entire campaign budget — 50 pounds — on 160 gallons of liquor served to 391 voters. Buying votes with booze was already a custom in England, and Washington was also following a Virginia tradition where barrels of liquor were rolled to courthouse lawns and polling places on Election Day.
In years when federal elections aren’t held, not all states feel the need to have an election on a traditional Election Day. In 2015, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Louisiana held elections later in the month.
Felons in both Maine and Vermont are allowed to vote and have had the privilege since those states were founded in 1820 and 1872, respectively.
The legal voting age across the United States was once 21 but in 1943, Georgia became the first state to lower the legal voting age to 18. This became an official part of the U.S. Constitution when the Twenty-Sixth Amendment was ratified in 1971.
The Nineteenth Amendment was adopted in 1920, giving women the right to vote, and since 1964, more women voters have gone to the polls than male voters — during presidential election years.
And while on the subject of elections, Gerald Ford is the only person who served as president and vice president without having been elected to either office.
So the history of elections in the U.S. is interesting, but the important thing is that today is Election Day. Go vote!! A lot of people in the world don’t have such a privilege.
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