Why is America's Election Day On a Tuesday In November? Question: Why Is Election Day on a Tuesday in November? Answer: Federal law in the United States requires that the presidential election be held every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. In modern society that seems like an arbitrary time to hold an election, but it made a lot of sense in the 1800s. In the early decades of the United States, the date for the election of the president would be set by the individual states. Those various election days, however, almost always fell in November. The reason was simple: under an early federal law, the electors for the electoral college were to meet in the individual states on the first Wednesday of December. And according to a 1792 federal law, the elections in the states (which would choose the electors) had to be held within a 34-day period before that day. Beyond meeting legal requirements, holding elections in November made good sense in an agrarian society, as the harvest would have been concluded.

continue reading below our video 4 Tips for Improving Test Performance And the harshest winter weather would not have arrived, which was a consideration for those who had to travel to a polling place. In a practical sense, having the presidential election held on different days in different states was not a major concern in the early decades of the 1800s. Communication was slow, and when it took days or weeks for election results to become known it didn't matter if states held elections at different times. As communication improved with the introduction of the railroad and the telegraph , it seemed obvious that election results in one state might influence the voting yet to occur in another. And as transportation improved, there was also a fear that voters could travel from state to state and participate in multiple elections. In the early 1840s Congress decided to make a standardized date for holding presidential elections across the country. Congress Standardized Election Day in 1845 In 1845 Congress passed a law establishing that the day for choosing presidential electors (in other words, the day for the popular vote that would determine the electors of the electoral congress) would be every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

That formulation was chosen to fall within the time frame determined by the aforementioned 1792 law. And making the election the first Tuesday after the first Monday also ensured that the election would never be held on November 1, which is All Saints Day, a Catholic holy day of obligation. There is also a legend that merchants in the 1800s tended to do their bookkeeping on the first day of the month, and scheduling an important election on that day might interfere with business. The first presidential election held in accordance with the new law was held on November 7, 1848. In that year's election, the Whig candidate Zachary Taylor defeated Lewis Cass of the Democratic Party, and former president Martin Van Buren , who was running on the ticket of the Free Soil Party. Why Hold the Presidential Election on a Tuesday? The choice of a Tuesday is most likely because elections in the 1840s were generally held at county seats, and people in outlying areas would have to travel from their farms into town to vote. Tuesday was chosen as people could begin their travels on a Monday, and thus avoid traveling on the Sunday sabbath.

Holding important national elections on a weekday seems anachronistic in the modern world, and it's no doubt true that Tuesday voting tends to create obstacles and discourages participation. The introduction of early voting procedures in many American states in recent elections has addressed the problem of having to vote on a specific weekday. But, generally speaking, the tradition of voting for the president every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November has continued uninterrupted since the 1840s. Election Day in the United States Home Calendar Holidays the United States Election Day Election Day in the United States Election Day in the United States of America is the Tuesday following the first Monday in November. It can fall on or between November 2 and November 8. It is the day when popular ballots are held to select public officials. These include national, state and local government representatives at all levels up to the president. Many people in the United States vote on Election Day. Many people in the United States vote on Election Day. ©iStockphoto.com/Igor Smichkov What Do People Do? On Election Day, citizens of the United States of America can vote by popular ballot for candidates for public offices at local, state and national levels.

In even numbered years, federal elections are always held. In years divisible by four, presidential elections are always held. Elections for local and state officials may be held in odd or even-numbered years, depending on local and state laws. The way in which people vote depends on the state in which they live. In Oregon, all votes are cast by post and all votes have to be received at a given time on Election Day. In the state of Washington, nearly all people vote by post and the envelopes containing the voting papers have to be postmarked with the date of Election Day. In other states, people vote at voting stations, where long queues can form. Public Life Election Day is not a federal holiday, but it is a yearly or biennial holiday in some states (see table below article), including: Delaware Montana West Virginia Employees in some states have the legal right to have time off work to vote, and in some cases, without losing any pay. Background In 1792, a law was passed allowing each of the states to conduct presidential elections at any point in the 34 days before the first Wednesday in December. This was the date when the meetings of the Electors of the U.S.

president and vice-president, known as the Electoral Colleges, were held in each state. A date in November or early December was preferable because the harvest would have been finished, but the most severe winter storms would not have begun. As long distance communication improved and became quicker with the advent of trains and telegraphs, allowing each state to conduct its elections at any point in a period of more than a month, became outdated. The results of the elections that were announced earliest could influence the outcomes of elections held later in the permitted period. In 1845, the United States Congress chose a single date for all national elections in all states. The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November was chosen so that there would never be more than 34 days between Election Day and the first Wednesday in December. Election Day is held on a Tuesday so that voters will not have to vote or travel on Sunday. This was an important consideration at the time when the laws were written and is still so in some Christian communities in the United States. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first African-American to be elected as president of the United States, 45 years after Martin Luther King Jr’s speech about equal opportunities.

On Inauguration Day , which is on January 20 every four years, the president and vice-president of the United States of America are sworn in and take office. Election Day Observances When Is Election Day - 2016 Presidential Election Updated February 23, 2016. When is Election Day? The next presidential election date is Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. But there are other offices on the ballot in addition to that of president. Voters will elect members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate as well as a new president of the United States in the 2016 election. Related Story: All About Super Tuesday 2016 The date of the federal election is always the second Tuesday in November. In the 2016 presidential election, voters also choose 34 of the 100 members of the U.S. Senate and all 435 members of U.S. House of Representatives . The political makeup of Congress will likely change. Congress requires elections be held on Tuesdays. In fact, elections for president, U.S House of Representatives and Senate have been held on Tuesdays since 1845 .

Despite the requirements on when Election Day is to be helf, voters in about two-thirds of states are allowed to cast their ballots beforehand under "early voting" laws. continue reading below our video How Do Senate Elections Work? Presidential Race American Presidential Elections « American View Allan J. Lichtman,Professor of History,American University The American President The United States Constitution created a president independent of Congress who was both chief executive and commander in chief of the armed forces. The president would neither be chosen by Congress nor elected directly by the people. Instead an Electoral College of members selected by each state would elect both the president and the vice president. The Electoral College system arose from a compromise between large and small states at the American Constitutional Convention of 1787. Votes in the Electoral College would be roughly apportioned according to the population of each state, which satisfied the interests of the large states. However, no state would have less than three Electoral College votes, which guaranteed that the small states would not be ignored by candidates for the presidency. In 2000, if defeated Democratic candidate Al Gore had won a single additional state with three Electoral College votes, he would have also won the presidency.

Today, the United States is the world’s only superpower, with a military budget nearly equal to the spending of all other nations combined. An American president is not only the most powerful ruler in the world, but arguably the most powerful ruler in the history of the world. Thus the results of an American presidential election have an impact on people across the globe. Americans formally elect their president every four years on Election Day, designated by Congress as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. But an American presidential election is a rich pageant that in recent times has begun to unfold a year or two before the November election. Some candidates never stop campaigning. John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, has been campaigning for the 2008 presidential nomination since 2005. Like a well-made play, the American presidential election is a drama in three distinct acts. During Act I, the candidates compete for their party’s nomination. Their objective is to win delegates to the national nominating conventions that are selected in primaries and caucuses held in the American states. During Act II, the parties hold their national conventions, which actually nominate presidential candidates.

During Act III, nominated candidates compete in the general election for president of the United States. Act I: The Primary Campaign Since the 1970s, voters have selected delegates to the Republican and Democratic nominating conventions mainly in open primary elections held within the states. The states hold three distinctive kinds of primaries. First, most states conduct closed primaries in which only those registered as party members can vote in the party’s primaries. States with closed primaries include Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania. Second, there are open primaries in which voters can participate in the primary regardless of their party affiliation. States with open primaries include Georgia, Indiana, and Ohio, Third, there are mixed primaries in which independent voters, but not members of another party can vote in the primary contest. States with mixed systems include New Hampshire and North Carolina. A few states hold caucuses that differ from primaries by requiring voters to attend party meetings to support the candidate of their choice. Otherwise the rules of inclusion and exclusion are the same. States holding caucuses include Colorado, Iowa, and Minnesota. The state of Iowa traditionally begins the primary election season when it holds its Republican and Democratic Party caucuses. Shortly thereafter, New Hampshire holds the first primary election.

(See Timeline) This gives two small states, with populations that are not representative of the diversity of the nation, considerable influence over the selection of a presidential nominee. In the past thirty years, only Bill Clinton in 1992 has been nominated by the Republican or Democratic parties without winning either the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary. In the 1970s, primaries and caucuses were conducted over a period of about five months from February to June. Candidates could build momentum from one contest to the next. In recent elections, however, the primary process has become considerably compressed with states moving their contests earlier in the process to gain more influence over the selection of the nominee. This so-called “front-loading” of primaries is most evident in 2008. This year the Iowa caucuses were conducted on January 3, followed by the New Hampshire primary on January 8, the earliest scheduled times for these primaries in U. S. history. By February 5, 2008, more than half the states will have held their primaries or caucuses, including such large states as California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey.

(See Timeline) Thus the United States has moved close to establishing, in effect, a national primary for nominating presidential candidates, which heavily favors candidates with high levels of funding and name recognition. Although the primaries are “front-loaded” to take place early in the election year, the candidates begin competing for their party’s nomination at least a year before the Iowa caucuses take place. Candidates begin campaigning so early because it takes scores of millions and even hundreds of millions of dollars to run a campaign for the Republican or Democratic nomination for president. By the end of 2007, candidates for the major party nominations had already raised substantially more half a billion dollars combined. By the time the primary process is completed, the presidential candidates will likely have raised far more than $1 billion. Candidates can accept matching funds from the federal government for the nominating contest. However, candidates accepting matching funds must also adhere to limits on campaign spending, so leading candidates in 2008 have rejected this option. Under American election law, corporations cannot contribute to presidential candidates, contributions by individuals are limited to $2,300 for the primary contests, and contributions by Political Action Committees are limited to $5,000.

With these restrictions in place, candidates cannot raise the vast sums needed to run a presidential campaign through their own efforts. They rely on events featuring movie stars and other celebrities, and some have effectively used the Internet as a fundraising tool. Candidates also recruit wealthy and well-connected individuals who make a commitment to raise hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars for the candidate. Despite the prohibition on corporate contributions, corporate executives can contribute large sums to a candidate by “bundling” together many individual contributions of $2,300. In the 2004 election, for example, executives associated with the investment firm of Morgan Stanley contributed $600,000 to the campaign of President George W. Bush. Although there have been a few exceptions, candidates are not likely to be taken seriously unless they demonstrate significant fundraising capacity and perform well in the polls taken before the primary contests. A little-known candidate who raises unexpectedly large sums of money and does well in the polls can move into the top tier of contenders. This was the case, for example, with former Vermont Governor Howard Dean in the 2004 Democratic pre-primary campaign. Voters discuss the candidates at a caucus in a small town in Iowa.

(© AP Images) Act II: The Nominating Convention In the 1830s, the major parties in the United States began holding national conventions to nominate presidential candidates, write a party platform, and establish rules for governing the party. Today, the conventions consist of delegates chosen through state primaries and caucuses, with each state allocated a number of delegates roughly in proportion to its population. Since 1976, however, one candidate from each party has gained a clear majority of the delegates well before the nominating convention. Thus, the conventions have become something of an anti-climax, with the outcome already known. The parties have used the conventions as a media event to present their presidential and vice presidential candidates to the American people and to launch the general election campaign. Little attention is paid to the party platform, because candidates follow their own strategies in running for president and often ignore the party’s official positions. The highlights of recent conventions have been the speeches by the presidential candidates accepting their party’s nomination and setting the themes for the general election campaign. It is possible, however, that in 2008 one or both parties will have meaningful conventions.

If no single candidate sweeps the primary contests, the nomination will be decided by bargaining and deal-making among convention delegates. The 2008 nominating contest is unique in several ways. For the first time in many decades, both major parties have wide open contests for the presidential nomination, with the possibility that the primary vote may splinter among several candidates. In addition, the sitting president or vice president is not included among the candidates seeking the nomination of the party holding the White House, in this case, the Republicans. Since 1956, the presidential party has always nominated either the sitting president (who is eligible to serve only two terms) or vice president. If no candidate enters the Republican or Democratic convention with the majority of delegates needed to secure the nomination, the convention delegates may even turn to a nominee who has not competed in the primaries at all. Adding to the drama for 2008 is the fact that the party conventions are being held especially late this year. The Democratic Convention will be held from Monday, August 25, through Thursday, August 28. The Republican Convention quickly follows. It will be held from Monday, September 1, through Thursday, Supporters for various candidates gathered at St.

Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. (© AP Images) Act III: The General Election Campaign The general election campaign traditionally begins in early September after America’s Labor Day holiday. In the early twentieth century, the political parties conducted the campaign. Today, the candidates conduct their own campaigns with little input from the formal party organization. Since the 1970s, general election campaigns have been funded by the federal government of the United States. The candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties will each receive about $85 million to run their campaigns on the condition that they do not raise private funds. However, it is likely in 2008 that the nominees of both the Republican and Democratic parties will choose not to accept federal funds. This means that they can raise and spend an unlimited amount of private money. Candidates will allocate their funds primarily for television advertising, but also for hiring consultants, and building a national political organization. In addition to spending by candidates, the political parties can spend unlimited amounts on the presidential campaigns provided that they do not directly coordinate their efforts with the party’s nominees. In 2004, the two major parties spent about $140 million in such independent expenditures.

Also, political action committees and other privately organized groups can spend unlimited amounts of money independently in support of their favored candidates. In the 2003-2004 election cycle, independent spending by liberal and conservative groups exceeded $500 million. Overall, spending on the American 2007-2008 general election cycle may approach $3 billion. Remarkably, this money will be concentrated on a relatively small number of American states. An American president is not elected by the national popular vote, but by electors chosen from each of the individual states, with no state allocated fewer than three Electoral College votes. It takes an outright majority of 270 out of 538 Electoral College votes to win the presidency. Most states have adopted a winner-take-all system in which the winner of the popular vote in a state gains all of the state’s Electoral College votes. In the 2000 presidential election, for example, Republican George W.

Bush beat Democrat Al Gore in the state of Florida by 537 votes out 6 million votes cast, but he still won all of Florida’s 25 Electoral College votes, which gained him the presidency with a bare majority of 271 Electoral College votes. Bush won the presidency even though he lost the national popular vote to Gore by some 500,000 votes. Democratic candidates field questions at the CNN/YouTube debate in South Carolina in July 2007. (© AP Images/Charles Dharapak) Most American states, however, lean heavily toward either the Democratic Party (blue states) or the Republican Party (red states). As a result, Republicans generally concede such blue states as California and New York to the Democrats, and Democrats generally concede such red states as Utah and Texas to the Republicans. This means that the campaigns are focused on the so-called fifteen to twenty swing states that in a close election could vote either Republican or Democratic. In the 2004 campaign, for example, the candidates and their backers aired very few ads in the nation’s top media markets of New York and California, because both these states were considered safe for the Democrats.

Likewise few ads were aired in the major Texas cities of Dallas and Houston, because Texas was considered safe for the Republicans. Yet in just an average week of the 2004 campaign, television viewers in the small city of Reno, Nevada – a swing state – were subjected to 460 Bush campaign commercials and 358 from the Gore campaign. In the 2004 campaign, wrote reporter Tommy Egan of the New York Times, there were “truly two Americas, to borrow a phrase from John Edwards: the swing states, which are fickle and fawned over, and the invisible states, which are predictable and as a result largely ignored.” The differences between red and blue America are not random, but reflect differences in the electoral base of the two parties. The Republican Party has positioned itself as the party of traditional Christian morality and of private enterprise. The base of the Republican Party consists of white Protestants – especially men – more affluent voters, highly devout Catholics, and married women. The Democratic Party has positioned itself as the party of personal choice on moral issues, the party of the welfare state, and the party that is more sympathetic to labor than employers.

Its base consists of African-Americans, Hispanics, Jews, those unaffiliated with a religion, less affluent voters, less devout Catholics, members of labor unions, and single women. Thus states where the voting is dominated by white Protestants tend to be red states, whereas states where the voting is more diverse tend to be blue states, with shades of purple in between. The enclosed map, roughly divides the nation into red, blue and purple or swing states, based on whether the state has two Republican Senators (red states), two Democratic Senators (blue states), or one Republican and one Democratic Senator (purple states). Democratic strength is concentrated is the northeast and west coast and Republican strength is concentrated in the south and the mountain west. Presidential campaigns consist of media advertising, phone, Internet, and door-to-door contact with voters, speeches, campaign events, interviews, and the presentation of policy positions. However, the centerpiece of both major party campaigns is the televised debates between the candidates, which command national attention. The tradition of conducting televised debates began in 1960 in the contest between Republican Richard Nixon and Democrat John F. Kennedy.

In 2004, Bush and Kerry clashed in three debates, one on foreign policy, one on domestic policy, and one in which they answered questions from a group of ordinary citizens in a town-hall meeting format. In 1992, independent candidate Ross Perot became the first and to date only candidate unaffiliated with either the Republican or Democratic parties to participate in a presidential debate. Although America has had a stable two-party system of Democrats and Republicans since the 1850s, independent and third-party candidates have frequently competed for the presidency. Independent candidate Perot won 19% of the popular vote in 1992, the best showing for any candidate from outside the major parties since 1912. When American voters go to the polls on November 4, 2008, they will have already experienced nearly two years of presidential campaigning. The media assumes that the outcome of the election will be decided by the ups and downs of this marathon campaign. However, larger forces are at work in an American presidential election.

My own research suggests that a pragmatic American electorate chooses a president according to the performance of the party holding the White House as measured by the consequential events and episodes of a term – economic boom and bust, foreign policy successes and failures, social unrest, scandal, and policy innovation. If the nation fares well during the term of the incumbent party, that party wins another four years in office; otherwise, the challenging party prevails. I have developed a system for gauging the successes and failures of the party holding the White House and predicting whether that party will win or lose an upcoming election. The enclosed table provides a do-it-yourself scorecard for rating the prospects of the incumbent and challenging parties in this interesting and consequential election year. Timeline of the American 2008 Presidential election １月３日 Political Map of the United States: Red = Republican states, Blue = Democratic states, Purple = Swing states * Red states have two Republican senators, blue states have two Democratic senators, Swing states have one Republican and one Democratic senator. The 13 Keys to the White House The Keys are statements that favor the re election of the incumbent party. When five or fewer statements are false, the incumbent party wins.

When six or more are false, the challenging party wins. KEY 1 (Party Mandate): After the midterm elections, the incumbent party holds more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives than it did after the previous midterm elections. KEY 2 (Contest): There is no serious contest for the incumbent party nomination. KEY 3 (Incumbency): The incumbent party candidate is the sitting president. KEY 4 (Third party): There is no significant third party or independent campaign. KEY 5 (Short term economy): The economy is not in recession during the election campaign. KEY 6 (Long term economy): Real per capita economic growth during the term equals or exceeds mean growth during the previous two terms. KEY 7 (Policy change): The incumbent administration effects major changes in national policy. KEY 8 (Social unrest): There is no sustained social unrest during the term. KEY 9 (Scandal): The incumbent administration is untainted by major scandal. KEY 10 (Foreign/military failure): The incumbent administration suffers no major failure in foreign or military affairs. KEY 11 (Foreign/military success): The incumbent administration achieves a major success in foreign or military affairs.

KEY 12 (Incumbent charisma): The incumbent party candidate is charismatic or a national hero. KEY 13 (Challenger charisma): The challenging party candidate is not charismatic or a national hero. Allan Lichtman, Professor of History at American University in Washington, DC, is the author of many books and scholarly articles on the presidency of the United States and on voting rights. His most recent book is White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement, forthcoming in June. He has given political commentary on a number of television programs, including NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, C-SPAN, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, BBC, PBS, and numerous other broadcasting outlets internationally. He has testified before the United States Commission on Civil Rights regarding voting systems and voting rights, and before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate. Professor Lichtman received his undergraduate degree from Brandeis University, Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude. He earned his doctorate at Harvard University as a Graduate Prize Fellow.

TAGS: US election 2016: How to become the president of the US - BBC News BBC News US election 2016: How to become the president of the US 20 January 2016 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Election Day comes after as much as two years of campaigning The US presidency is described as the world's hardest job and the election campaign is said to be its toughest job interview. How do you run for president? BBC News explains the process. The early stages Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Hillary Clinton is embarking on her second run for the presidency A politician with presidential ambition usually forms an exploratory committee to test the waters and raise money. This can begin up to two years before the election. The US constitution requires only that a person be a "natural born citizen" of the US, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the US for 14 years. If the candidate attracts significant favourable notice from the news media, party officials, prospective campaign strategists, and donors, he or she formally declares his or her candidacy and launches campaigns in key early states.

Not just anyone can credibly stand for election: In the last 70 years, every non-incumbent major party presidential nominee has been either a sitting or former US senator, governor, vice-president or five-star general. However, the current Republican race has seen the rise of outsider candidates such as businessman Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson who have not held elective office. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton (a former first lady, New York senator and secretary of state) and Bernie Sanders (a member of Congress since 1989) have more traditional presidential resumes. The nomination fight Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Candidates get up and close personal with the people in the early voting states After declaring, the candidates begin vying for their party's nomination for the presidency. Typically - but not always - they spend the next several months campaigning heavily in the early primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Those states hold the first contests of the campaign in the January before the election, and good performances there can make or break a candidacy.

US primaries and caucuses Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Early voting states like South Carolina have outsized influence on the race Voters in each of the 50 states, plus Washington DC and some US territories, select party delegates who in most cases pledge to support a particular candidate. Some states use a caucus - a local meeting system - rather than primaries. The primary election campaign lasts until about June, by which point one candidate has amassed enough delegates to win the nomination or has driven every other contender from the race. The party convention Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Conventions are normally highly scripted affairs but that could change in 2016 The national party conventions are held in the late summer about two and a half months before the election. There, the parties formally nominate the candidates chosen by party voters in the state primaries and caucuses. Before or at the convention, the nominee picks a running-mate, sometimes from among the defeated rivals. Because the nominee is almost always known before the start of the convention, the conventions are mostly geared toward promoting and celebrating the nominee and laying out the party's message and agenda.

However, some analysts have suggested that this Republican convention could be a "brokered convention" where the the result is decided over rounds of negotiations and voting among party delegates. Some in the Republican Party are concerned that the current front-runner Mr Trump - a political novice with hard line views on immigration - could hurt the party in Congressional races, particularly among Latino voters. The final lap Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Most of the campaigning is focused so-called "battleground" states like Florida After the conventions, the candidates fully square up against each other on the campaign trail, over the airwaves and in widely viewed debates. Each spends millions of dollars on advertising and a major flurry of state-by-state campaigning. This year, there will be three debates between the presidential candidates and one between the vice-presidential candidates, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates. In the final weeks, the contenders typically concentrate their attention on big so-called "battleground" states, where the electorate is more or less evenly divided and hence the outcome is uncertain. Hordes of campaign volunteers and paid staff converge on the key states, where they work the telephones and go door to door to try and persuade voters to go to the polls to support their candidate.

Watch for the candidates to blanket the airwaves with adverts in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The election Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The winner of the popular vote most often becomes president but not always American presidential elections are always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This year, it is 8 November. Voters do not, technically, participate in the direct election of the president. They choose "electors", who are pledged to one or another candidate, in a process known as the US electoral college. Each state has a certain number of electors to the college, based on the size of its population. In almost every state, the winner of the popular vote gets all the electoral college votes in that state. Because of this system, a candidate can take the White House without winning the popular vote, such as in the 2000 contest between George W Bush and Al Gore. The inauguration Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The president's inauguration is day of pomp and pageantry for Washington In the days and weeks after the election - if the vote is decisive - the victor will assemble a cabinet and begin crafting a more thorough policy agenda.

Meanwhile, the departing "lame duck" president works to shape his legacy and begins packing up his belongings. Under the US constitution, the president is inaugurated on 20 January of the year following the election. Congratulations Image caption The presidency comes with many perks but also heavy scrutiny from all sides You won. For your efforts, you become a virtual prisoner in the White House, unable even to walk across the street without a contingent of Secret Service agents and a gaggle of aides. You will have to endure 24-hour scrutiny and criticism of your every word and action, surround yourself with aides planning tell-all memoirs and scheming among themselves for power, and work 12-hour days in which your schedule is planned almost down to the minute. Expect a constant battle with a hostile news media and an opposition party dedicated to frustrating and impeding your every move, from your grand economic agenda to your lowest appointments. Only difficult decisions reach your desk - the easy ones have all been answered at lower levels of your administration. But you will have the chance to put your personal stamp on a country of 318 million people and indeed on the entire world.

You will shape its economy, culture and society, and win a chapter for yourself in the history books alongside George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and other American luminaries. Why Are Elections On Tuesdays? : It's All Politics : NPR Why Are Elections On Tuesdays? Embed Embed Why Are Elections On Tuesdays? Why Are Elections On Tuesdays? Embed Embed Enlarge this image A print in The Illustrated London News of Dec. 3, 1864, depicts Election Day in a wealthy (top) and poor (bottom) neighborhood in New York. The top caption reads: "A polling-place in the 'upper ten.' " The bottom caption reads: "A polling-place among the 'lower twenty.' " Click Here To See A Full-Size Image Library of Congress hide caption toggle caption Library of Congress A print in The Illustrated London News of Dec. 3, 1864, depicts Election Day in a wealthy (top) and poor (bottom) neighborhood in New York.

The top caption reads: "A polling-place in the 'upper ten.' " The bottom caption reads: "A polling-place among the 'lower twenty.' " Click Here To See A Full-Size Image It's Tuesday — exactly two weeks out from Nov. 6, Election Day. Why is voting day for American federal elections always a Tuesday? The answer is a bit obscure and has to do with buggies. Let me explain. The story starts all the way back with the Founding Fathers. "The Constitutional Convention just met for a very brief time during the summer of 1787," Senate Historian Don Ritchie says. "By the time they got finished they were exhausted and they hadn't made up their minds on a lot of things." They were pooped. So they left the question of when federal elections should be held undecided. Without that laid out, states were left to set their own voting dates, which meant several decades of electoral chaos. Ritchie describes it as a "crazy quilt of elections" held at all different times, all over the country. Finally, in 1845, Congress decided to get things under control.

Ritchie says lawmakers reasoned that Monday was out because (this is where the buggies come in) people would have to travel to the polls in their buggies on Sunday, the Sabbath. And in a mostly farming society, Wednesday wouldn't work because that was often market day. Article continues after sponsorship So, Tuesday was the day, and that seemed to work great for 19th century voters. "In the 1840s, elections were a big to-do — there was a lot of hoopla, there were parades," Ritchie says. "Whole families would come on wagons from the farms; people would get dressed up for the occasion." Though the America of buggies and markets has long since given way to minivans and supermarkets, Tuesday remains the day we vote. "That may have made sense in 1845, but the world has moved on," Rep. Steve Israel , a New York Democrat, says. "Democracies have moved on, and so Congress should also move on and make it easier for people to vote." There are, of course, other options for a lot of folks, like absentee and early voting.

Still, there are voters who can't cast ballots unless they can find a way to get to the polls on Tuesday. " In 15 states you do not have an opportunity to vote early or by an absentee ballot or by mail, which means you have to vote on Tuesday," says Jacob Soboroff of Why Tuesday , who also is a host and producer for HuffPost Live. "It's just ridiculous; it's absurd. There is absolutely no good reason whatsoever to vote on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November." Soboroff and Israel say Tuesday voting bars access to democracy and keeps America's voter turnout chronically low . They point to census survey data showing that 1 in 4 people says he's too busy or his schedule doesn't allow him to get to the polls . Their solution? Move Election Day to the weekend. Israel has been introducing and reintroducing a bill to move voting to the weekend . But moving poll day turns out to be no easy task. The weekend voting bill keeps dying in committee. And earlier this year, when the Government Accountability Office talked to elections officials about how weekend voting would work, they came up with a list of logistical difficulties , from keeping equipment safe overnight to recruiting poll workers to work the weekend.

There's also, of course, no guarantee that moving Election Day would change voter turnout. Then there's the simple fact that Americans have gotten used to voting on Tuesday. "We're a very traditional county, and that became a tradition in a lot of ways," says Ritchie. "That's the way people were accustomed to doing it, people could count on it, you could set your calendars on it." For this election, the date is set. So — as in every presidential election since the 1840s — Tuesday is the day to vote. Correction Oct. 24, 2012 A previous audio version of this story incorrectly said that Congress set the second Tuesday in November as Election Day. Congress actually set Election Day as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. DATES OF U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION "EVENTS": 1789 to the present 6 January 2017 Election No.

[for (N)th Administration]: As is the case with Congresses of two years' duration each, Presidential Administrations of four years' duration- likewise- can be numbered (in fact, the number of a given four year "Administration" is half of the number of the later of the two Congresses in office during that Administration: for example, because it was the 110th Congress that was meeting during the last two years of President George W. Bush's second term, those four years of that term make up the 55th Administration [110/2 = 55]). Although it is altogether unofficial, Presidential Elections can be numbered according to the number of the Administration of the President that has been elected therein (thus, the 2004 Presidential Election- which resulted in President George W. Bush being elected to a second term [again, the aforementioned 55th Adminstration]- was Presidential Election No. 55). Date Presidential Electors "appointed" [Presidential Election]: Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of Electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress...

from Article II, Section 1, clause 2 of the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES The "appointment" (to use the proper constitutional language, as seen above) of Presidential Electors is what ordinary Americans mean when we say 'Presidential Election' - even though many Americans are most unaware that they are really choosing a slate of Electors rather than, as they would describe what they are doing, "voting for President" (and- obviously, at the very same time- Vice President). The Congress may determine the time of choosing the Electors...

from Article II, Section 1, clause 4 of the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES Nowadays, this is the day United States citizens resident in the 50 constituent States of the Union and the District of Columbia who wish to vote in said Presidential Election (and are, indeed, eligible [and have registered] to do so) go to their respective polling places and cast their votes (although several States now permit Early Voting and, even apart from this, many Americans will vote by Absentee Ballot- in each case, actually casting votes well before this date [but their votes will not be counted until this date])- but, in the earliest days of the Federal Republic, it was merely the date- or dates- on which each State formally chose its Presidential Electors (whether such choice was by Popular Vote of the State citizenry or not-- not until 1836 did all but one State allow for Popular Vote for President [in reality, the People of the States "appointing"- to use the language found in the U.S. Constitution itself- their State's Presidential Electors thereby]).

What follows is the actual text of the regulations for said Presidential Election (again, this being the date Presidential Electors are to be "appointed") and the election years in which a given regulation was actually in effect: 1789: ...[T]he first Wednesday in January next be the day for appointing Electors in the several States... from Resolution of 13 September 1788 by the Confederation [=Continental] Congress 1792 through 1844: ...[E]lectors shall be appointed in each State for the election of a President and Vice-President of the United States, withint thirty-four days preceding the first Wednesday in December, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, and within thirty-four days preceding the first Wednesday in December in every fourth year succeeding the last election, which Electors shall be equal to the number of Senators and Representatives, to which the several States may by Law be entitled at the time... from 1 Stat. 239, Section 1 1848 to the present: ...

[T]he Electors of President and Vice-President shall be appointed in each State on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November of the year in which they are to be appointed... from 5 Stat. 721 although the date of the Presidential Election itself was not at all changed, the verbiage in the relevant statute was later tweaked as follows: The Electors of President and Vice President shall be appointed, in each State, on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in every fourth year succeeding every election of a President and Vice President. from 62 Stat. 672, now codified as United States Code: Title 3, section 1 [3 USC 1] Date Electors cast their votes in the several States: The Electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by ballot... from Article II, Section 1, clause 3 of the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES (language retained in the 12th AMENDMENT to the U.S.

Constitution) The Presidential Electors so "appointed"- nowadays, however indirectly, by vote of the People in each of the several States of the Union (and D.C.)- must later meet in each jurisdiction (note that- despite prevalent use of the term- there is no such thing as a single "Electoral College" all meeting together; rather, the Electors from each State [and D.C.] meet separately- thus, there are really 51 separate "electoral colleges") and cast their votes for President and Vice-President. [The Congress may determine]... the day on which [the Electors] shall give their votes, which day shall be the same throughout the United States. from Article II, Section 1, clause 4 of the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES Even though they do meet separately, the Electors must meet on the very same day and the actual text of the regulations governing just which day is to be the date of these separate "electoral colleges"- along with the election years in which said regulations were in force- follow: 1789: ...[T]he first Wednesday in February next be the day for the Electors to assemble in their respective States and vote for a President...

from Resolution of 13 September 1788 by the Confederation [=Continental] Congress 1792 through 1884: ...[T]he Electors shall meet and give their votes on the... first Wednesday in December... from 1 Stat. 239, Section 2 1888 through 1932: ...[T]he Electors of each State shall meet and give their votes on the second Monday in January next following their appointment... from 24 Stat. 373, Section 1 1936 to the present: The Electors of President and Vice President of each State shall meet and give their votes on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December next following their appointment from 62 Stat. 673, now codified as United States Code: Title 3, Section 7 [3 USC 7] Date Electoral Vote tabulated by a Joint Session of Congress: ...The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates [containing the Electoral Vote from each jurisdiction], and the votes shall then be counted...

from Article II, Section 1, clause 3 of the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES (language retained in the 12th AMENDMENT to the U.S. Constitution) Even with the Presidential Electors having met and fufilled their constitutional obligations, a President (or, for that matter, Vice President) of the United States is not officially elected unless and until the Congress of the United States says he or she is. In this regard (and despite the oft-heard claim that the U.S. Supreme Court "really" elected George W. Bush President back in 2000), Congress is- more or less- the "umpire" or "referee" in any and all Presidential Elections. A Joint Session of Congress counts and tabulates the Electoral Vote sent to it by the "electoral colleges" in the several States and the District of Columbia (thus, this meeting of the Federal legislature is colloquially referred to as the "Tabulation Joint Session") and then- assuming, of course, that a candidate has received a majority of the total Electoral Vote- officially declares just who has been elected President (and Vice President).

As with the dates of the Presidential Election (that is, "appointing" of the Electors) and the several "electoral colleges" themselves, the date on which Congress holds this Tabulation Joint Session is also regulated by statute. What follows is the actual text of such regulations (and, again, the elections for which they were in effect): 1789: ... [T]he first Wednesday in March be the time... for commencing proceedings under the... Constitution. from Resolution of 13 September 1788 by the Confederation [=Continental] Congress (NOTE: Thus, 4 March 1789 was the earliest date on which the Electoral Vote could be formally counted by Congress; as things turned out, the First Congress did not achieve a quorum in both houses [necessary in order to hold a Joint Session of the entire Congress] until 6 April 1789 and, so, the Electoral Vote coming out of the first Presidential Election was not counted and tabulated by Congress until that date) 1792 through 1872; 1880 through 1932: ...

Congress shall be in session on the second Wednesday in February, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, and on the second Wednesday in February succeeding every meeting of the Electors, and the certificates [containing the Electoral Vote from each jurisdiction]... shall then be opened, the votes counted, and the persons who shall fill the offices of President and Vice-President ascertained and declared, agreeably to the Constitution. from 1 Stat. 239, Section 5 [NOTE: The Election of 1876 (the [in?]famous 'Disputed Election' between Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes) was a special case-- please see what immediately follows] 1876 only: ...[T]he Senate and House of Representatives shall meet... on the first Thursday in February, anno Domini eighteen hundred and seventy-seven... from 19 Stat.

227, Section 1 It became apparent, well before the Tabulation Joint Session of Congress following this Presidential Election (that is, the "appointing" of Electors by the People of the several States via the ballot) was scheduled to meet on 14 February 1877, that something was terribly wrong with the Electoral Vote coming out of the meetings of more than a few "electoral colleges" held on 6 December 1876: not only would the Electoral Vote be altogether close (as could be easily discerned from the reports of the Popular Returns in each State as already published in newspapers around the Nation) but at least three States in the South (this still being the era of post-Civil War Reconstruction) were sending two sets of Electoral Votes- one in favor of each Major Party presidential candidate- to Congress. To make matters worse, one of these Major Parties controlled one house of the (in those days, it was the outgoing ["lame duck"]) Congress, while the other Party controlled the other (so there was no possibility of a mere Party line vote in Congress electing one Party's candidate President in any event).

To this end, Congress quickly passed legislation (it was signed into law by outgoing President Ulysses S. Grant on 29 January 1877) completely bypassing the whole, more usual, process of Electoral Vote counting, instead requiring Congress to hold what would otherwise be the normal Tabulation Joint Session early- in this case, on 1 February 1877- to discern just which States were in dispute and then formally handing such disputes over to a so-called "Electoral Commission" consisting of Senators, Congressmen and U.S. Supreme Court Justices appointed to the task by Congress itself (the earlier-than-usual meeting of Congress in Tabulation Joint Session was intended to buy the Electoral Commission more time [an extra fortnight] in which to resolve these disputes, for there was ever a looming deadline of 4 March 1877, on which date a new President- whoever it turned out to be- would have to take office [if only because, by a combination of constitutional fiat and Federal statute, President Grant's term ended- no matter what!- on that very date]). ...

[after the Electoral Commission has determined which Electors' vote shall be officially counted in each of the disputed States] the two houses shall again meet, and such decision [of the Electoral Commission] shall be read and entered in the journal of each House, and the counting of the [Electoral] votes shall proceed in conformity therewith... from 19 Stat. 227, Section 2 Congress, thus, would have to hold a "follow-up" Joint Session after the Electoral Commission had reported its decision as regarded each State re: which its Electoral Vote was in dispute and the last such Joint Session to count and tabulate a disputed State's Electoral Vote as decided by the Electoral Commission was held on 2 March 1877, just two days before the new President thereby elected [Rutherford B.

Hayes] would constitutionally take office (interestingly, Hayes was not publicly inaugurated until 5 March 1877 because 4 March- the date on which, at the time, a newly-elected Congress as well as a newly-elected President took office- happened to fall on a Sunday that year; however, because the 1876 Presidential Election dispute had been so politically charged [the vote of the Electoral Commission itself had been along Party lines, 8-7 in favor of the Republican Electors, in all disputed cases], there were actual fears of a coup d'etat instigated by supporters of Tilden! Thus, Hayes was first sworn in privately, at the White House on the invitation of outgoing President Grant, on the evening of Saturday 3 March [it also didn't help that neither Constitution nor statute made clear just when, on 4 March, the President actually took office; inaugurating the President during the day was traditional but there was an argument to be made that his Term of Office, as well as those of Congressmen and newly elected or re-elected U.S.

Senators- had actually begun at Midnight Local Mean Time in Washington (Standard Time was still a decade away in 1877): to this end, an outgoing Congress- never all that sure it had any authority to act early on a given 4 March- always adjourned sine die no later than 3 March... it is for this very reason that the 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution- which moved up the beginnings of terms of members of Congress to 3 January and the term of a President to 20 January- purposely makes clear that terms of office begin- and end- at Noon in the Nation's Capital (now on Eastern Standard Time, of course)]). 1936 to the present: Congress shall be in session on the sixth day of January succeeding every meeting of the Electors... [and] all the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the electoral votes... shall be opened, presented, and acted upon... from 62 Stat.

675, now codified as United States Code: Title 3, section 15 [3 USC 15] There have been, since the 1936 Presidential Election, five exceptions to 6 January being the date for the Tabulation Joint Session: two of these were merely because 6 January happened to fall on a Sunday- in 1957 and 1985- and, in each such case, the Tabulation Joint Session was held on the following day (thus, these do not appear in italics in the table above). Three other cases, however, were expressly permitted by statute: [I]n carrying out the procedure set forth in section 15 of Title 3, United States Code, for 1989, `the fourth day of January' shall be substituted for `the sixth day of January' in the first sentence of such section. 102 Stat.

3341 (adopted 9 November 1988)-- thereby, the Tabulation Joint Session of Congress resulting from the 1988 Presidential Election was held two days early relative to the statutory date- on 4 January 1989; The meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives to be held in January 1997 pursuant to section 15 of Title 3, United States Code, to count the electoral votes for President and Vice President cast by the electors in December 1996 shall be held on January 9, 1997 (rather than on the date specified in the first sentence of that section). 110 Stat.

3558 (adopted 11 October 1996)-- thereby, the Tabulation Joint Session of Congress resulting from the 1996 Presidential Election was held three days late relative to the statutory date- on 9 January 1997 (this last was necessitated by the newly-elected 105th Congress not even first convening for its First Session until 7 January of that year) The meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives to be held in January 2009 pursuant to section 15 of title 3, United States Code, to count the electoral votes for President and Vice President cast by the electors in December 2008 shall be held on January 8, 2009 (rather than on the date specified in the first sentence of that section). 122 Stat.

4846 (adopted 15 October 2008)-- thereby, the Tabulation Joint Session of Congress resulting from the 2008 Presidential Election was to be held two days late relative to the statutory date- on 8 January 2009 (this last necessitated by the newly-elected 111th Congress not even first convening for its First Session until 6 January of that year) In these three cases immediately above, the date of the Tabulation Joint Session does appear in italics in the table.

Question: On which day are American Presidential elections always held?
Answer: Tuesday