Why Do We Vote on Tuesday? The 1845 Fix for Fake Voters

Why is Election Day on a Tuesday? You've probably heard it's about farmers and horses. That's true, but it's only the second half of the story. Before 1845, a U.S. presidential election could last more than a month. Each state picked its own day, late states could watch the early results, and "repeaters" voted twice. With the midterms on Tuesday, November 3, here is how the strangest date in American law was born. Every claim has a source: [1], [2]… on screen, full list below. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 A workday chosen in 1845 0:47 The election that lasted a month 1:37 Repeaters and pipe-layers 2:51 One day for every state 3:25 Why November, why Tuesday 4:45 The Tuesday sticks 5:30 The horses left 6:27 So, why Tuesday? 📚 SOURCES [1] Congressional Research Service, "Election Day: Frequently Asked Questions" (R46413) — https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/... [2] Act of March 1, 1792 (1 Stat. 239); 1844 U.S. presidential election — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1844_Un... [3] Presidential Election Day Act, 5 Stat. 721 (1845) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preside... [4] Time, "Why Election Day Is a Tuesday," 2016 — https://time.com/4521253/why-election... [5] Statutes & Stories, "Presidential Election Day Act of 1845 and the Election of 1840" — https://www.statutesandstories.com/bl... [6] Papers of Abraham Lincoln, "Resolution regarding Election Frauds," 1840 — https://papersofabrahamlincoln.org/do... [7] Barry Popik, "Pipe Layer" — https://barrypopik.com/blog/pipe_layer [8] Saint Louis Art Museum, George Caleb Bingham, "The County Election" — https://www.slam.org/collection/objec... [9] H.R. 432, 28th Congress (Duncan bill) — https://www.congress.gov/bill/28th-co... [10] NPR, "Why Vote On Tuesday? Why Not The Weekend?" (Senate Historian Donald Ritchie), 2012 — https://www.npr.org/2012/01/18/145397... [11] Presidential elections in South Carolina — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_... [12] Sunlight Foundation, "Why Tuesday?", 2007 — https://sunlightfoundation.com/2007/1... [13] MIT Election Data + Science Lab, "How We Voted in 2024" — https://electionlab.mit.edu/sites/def... 🎞️ CREDITS "The United States Capitol, 1846" (John Plumbe Jr.): J. Paul Getty Museum, CC BY 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... "Early Voting Line": Eden, Janine and Jim, CC BY 2.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... "Ballot Drop Box Boston": Whoisjohngalt, CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Films (public domain): "Tuesday in November" (U.S. Office of War Information, 1945), "The Vote" (U.S. Army / National Archives, 1963), "Henry Ford's Mirror of America" (National Archives, 1962), "Highway Hearing" (1956, Prelinger Archives), via Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons. Paintings, prints and maps (George Caleb Bingham, Currier & Ives, John Lewis Krimmel, Samuel Morse, George Henry Durrie, Library of Congress): public domain. Hand-colored lithograph illustrations were created with AI; some prints and paintings were given subtle motion with AI. AI narration. 🎵 MUSIC "Investigations", "Smoking Gun", "Sneaky Snitch", "Crossing the Divide", "Fireflies and Stardust" — Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Sound effects: BigSoundBank, Freesound (CC0). [f] Footnotery: the surprising stories behind the things everybody knows. History's small print. Instagram:   / footnotery.tv   · TikTok:   / footnotery   Business: footnotery@gmail.com #ElectionDay #Midterms #History