Washington: The voting process for the presidential election has started in America from 7 am today. There is a close contest between the two candidates of this election, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the thing to note is that why elections are always held on the first Tuesday of November in America?

In America, voting takes place on just one day for the presidential election. There is a tradition of voting on the first Tuesday of November every four years. But people have little knowledge about when and how this tradition started. Come, let us tell you today why the whole of America votes together on the first Tuesday of November.

There is a rule in America that the presidential election in America will be held on the first Tuesday of November, as stated in the American Constitution.

The tradition of voting on the first Tuesday after the Monday in November (the first week) is almost 180 years old. At that time, states had 34 days to hold elections and had to close by the first Wednesday in December. But this created problems.

What is the history of America's electoral system?

The US electoral process is not as centralized as India's. The Federal Election Commission oversees campaign finance laws, while state and local authorities manage the election process. Each state sets its own election rules, from voter eligibility to ballot design and vote-counting procedures. Because of this, voting and vote-counting processes can vary widely across the country. However, the date of the presidential election remains the same across the country—the first Tuesday in November.

Until the mid-19th century, each state in the US voted on a different day, provided that the vote was completed before the Electoral College met in December. In 1844, the presidential election was moved from early November to December. Some felt this system was not very efficient.

After this, in 1845, the US Congress passed an act. Through that law, the date for the election of the President and Vice President was fixed. The act states that this date should be 'the Tuesday following the first Monday of November'. But why was Tuesday chosen? And why the first Tuesday of November? This too has its own story.

Why are elections held only on Tuesday?

At that time, America was a new country, it had not even been in existence for 100 years. Most of the population was engaged in farming. The month of November was chosen because it did not fall during the busy spring sowing season or autumn harvest season. Also, it came before the cold arrived.

Most of the farmers lived in remote rural areas, which were far away from the polling centers in the cities. That is, they had to travel a long distance to cast their vote, which would take them a day. A lot of brainstorming was done to decide the day of election. Sunday could not be chosen because Christians go to church on that day. Markets were held on Wednesday, so farmers were busy selling crops and other goods on that day.

People are not able to travel on Sundays and Wednesdays, so the idea of ​​holding elections on Monday or Thursday was also discarded. Tuesday was a suitable day in every respect. Therefore, it was decided to hold the elections on the first Tuesday of November.