by Laura Krantz

Americans have been voting on Tuesday, smack in the middle of our modern-day work week, for 163 years, and the reason given most by non-voters for not casting a ballot is that they're "too busy."

Jacob Soboroff, Field Vlogger

WESUN is running a month-long series to find out how Americans have changed since the 18th century - and ask what it means to be an American today. This week it's the 19th century, and I'm contributing an essay on the program about why we vote on Tuesday in the United States.
So, why Tuesday?

It's a tradition that dates to 1845, when Congress decided that because of a variety of factors, Tuesday would be the most convenient day for Americans to vote. Americans have been voting on Tuesday, smack in the middle of our modern-day work week, for 163 years, and the reason given most by non-voters for not casting a ballot is that they're "too busy." Nobody has ever changed it!

 

For the past two years, I've been working with my colleagues at Why Tuesday? to track down and interview the 2008 presidential candidates about what they think we can do to increase voter participation in the United States. Here are my interviews with Barack Obama and John McCain:

To see what the other candidates had to say, check out the Why Tuesday? Candidate Challenge