Why Do Americans Vote on Tuesdays?

And would more Americans vote if Election Day was a Saturday?

I'd much rather see a national holiday on election day than moving it to the weekend.

Either would be an improvement.

Voting by mail might be even more important.

Where are they getting their stats from? Voter turnout in the UK at general elections is not 73.8%

If I'm not mistaken, Tuesday if a leftover from the early days where people would need that long to ride out by horse to where their polling place was located.

Normally, I dislike comparisons to other countries who are much smaller than the US. Excluding India, the US has more people than all the others combined. However, in this case I do agree that voting day should be changed. It would give the Dems one less thing to bitch about. I mean, having to spend a whopping 15 mins, once a year to vote is just way too much of a burden. Not to mention that the polls are only open an inconvenient 12 hours on election day. Since I work 8 hours, that only leaves me a scant 4 hours to get to/from work.

We've already got Veteran's Day on the 11th, why not make that voting day too? What better way to celebrate Veteran's than to engage in an activity they presumably fought to protect? Something besides cheap gas.

I must have missed the part of America where no one works on Saturday and Sunday.

Can anyone help me find it?

The uncertainty of changing it precludes either party making an effort for more convenient voting whether it's day of week or method. Although I think it would benefit democrats more as we tend to have a harder time taking time from work. It isn't going to change.

In the recesses of your fevered imagination? Would it be safe to assume that the majority of people who work on weekends are either (A) shift workers or (B) business owners? If so, (A) can change shifts with someone else, can't they? And (B) can get someone else to tend the counter for an hour while they pop down the street to vote.

If your contention is that none of this is accurate, and/or that more people work on weekends than on weekdays, please present your data.

Certainly it is in my state, where the ballot can run to multiple pages full of judgeships, school board members, local council candidates, and sometimes as many as 20 propositions.

However, I can see that being abused in places where "Speak English or GTFO!" is a big part of the culture. Yes, ballots are available in multiple languages (at least in places where I've lived), but will the same people yammering about photo IDs try to obstruct those as well?

Nor is Germany's at 80%. We wish.

The point you idiotic excuse for a human being is that people work on the weekends just as much as they do during the week.

The same problems that voting on Tuesday cause would be the same problems on a Saturday. It would just be a different set of people dealing with the problem.

Instead of moving voting to Saturday it would be far easier to just expand it to two or even three days. Or like in some places do it by mail.

You have to admit, though, that more people are inconvenienced by Tuesday. At any rate, I agree, opening it up to more days probably makes sense. Personally, I'm not bothered by the current system. If your vote matters to you, you find a way to make it happen. Just the same, if there are simple steps like early voting and mail in ballots to make it somewhat easier, why not?

Just as much? Really?

The other problem with the weekends is that in November you have football going on. I ain't missing the big game just to vote for some stupid president in chief or whatever.

I say we do it by mail, when I voted in '12 it was over an hour's wait to vote. And the line when I left was even longer than when I got there.

Yeah. just as much really.

America isn't all 9 to 5 office workers Monday through Friday.

What do people who are off on weekends do? They go out. Shop. Eat.

INTERACT WITH ALL THE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO WORK ON WEEKENDS.

Not sure why it's a hard concept to understand that just as many people work weekends as those who don't work weekends.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2011-06-22-time-use_n.htm

35% of workers overall work on weekends.

82% of employed Americans work on weekdays, either full- or part-time

@Zombie is full of shit.

This may be one time where living in a small town helps. Our lines are always short. Then again, we could probably fit everyone in the town in one line.

So Rick those 35% of Americans, millions of them, don't count?

Again you switch from Tuesday voting to Saturday voting you're just changing which people have a problem getting to the polls. (and realistically you're probably still not going to increase voter turnout)

Open voting up to multiple days or mail voting solves everyone's problem.

They do count, but they're not "just as much" as 85%.

Okay so maybe I got the numbers off. So fucking what? Still doesn't change the fact that you and some others are more then willing to fuck over a group of people just to vote on a Saturday.

Actually, it's very hard to understand. After all, people who work on the weekend also sometimes go out, shop, and eat, and presumably they do so on the days when they aren't working. Which means that in order for workloads to be unchanged between different days, the different groups have to be dispersed equally, including office workers, or the equilibrium has to be created by some other divergence. It's easy to see that many people work on the weekends; but not that they would be nearly as many as during the week. I would love to know what specifically makes you think that.

Nah, I never face a long wait, either. Some places just have more polling locations than other places. For example, predominately minority neighborhoods in red states tend to have fewer voting booths per voter.

"Maybe"? You made a statement about quantities, and the opposite of that statement was true.

Who's the "you" you're talking to here?

I live in a town of rednecks. We have a polling place on nearly every other block.

Your mama you stupid kraut!

Zombie, being pedantic as usual.

Because that's when Wimpy would rather gladly pay you for his burger.

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