- Why do we vote on a Tuesday in November?

- I'm not entirely sure, honestly.

- I don't know the answer.

- Hard to say.

- I'm pretty sure it has something to do with farming, or there is something farming related.

- Oh my God.

Voting in America is complicated.

There isn't one shared process for all of us.

When and how we cast a ballot is different, depending on where we live.

On one hand, this makes our elections harder to hack.

On the other, it makes 'em confusing.

So who runs our elections?

How do they work?

And why is election day a Tuesday in November?

By the end of this, I promise you'll have a better understanding of why we vote the way we do.

And if you don't, I don't know what to tell you.

That's on you.

I'm Ben Sheehan, and this is "Civics Made Easy."

Who runs our elections?

To start, the federal government does not run our elections.

It can help fund them through the Election Assistance Commission, an independent bipartisan agency, but the federal government does not oversee our elections at all.

So who does?

Per our Constitution, the times, places, and manner of elections for Congress are up to your state's legislature.

That's the people who write your state's laws.

These state legislators decide if you can vote by mail, or use a drop box.

They pick the date your ballot has to arrive by to be counted.

They determine if and when you're allowed to vote early, if you need an excuse to vote early, which is called absentee voting.

They decide if you can register to vote online, by mail, or in person.

In some states, you have to register a month before the election if you wanna vote.

In 20 others, you can go to the polls on election day, register right there, and vote.

And in North Dakota, there's no voter registration at all.

You just go to the polls with a valid form of ID and cast a ballot.

Clearly this process is all over the place, but something that is true for all states is that today, only American citizens are allowed to vote in either federal or state elections.

Some cities and towns let non-citizens vote in local elections, like City Council or School Board, but any non-citizens voting in presidential, congressional, or state level elections is illegal.

And while states are the ones that make most of our election laws, Congress gets some say in our elections.

It can make or alter the times, places, and manner of elections for Congress, and it gets to pick the time of choosing the electors, meaning the members of the electoral college, you know, the people who vote directly for president and vice president.

Congress has chosen election day the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

This has been the day for presidential elections since 1848 and congressional elections since 1876.

But why?

Why is election day a Tuesday in November?

Prior to 1848, states could hold their presidential elections anytime during a 34 day window, leading up to the first Wednesday in December.

But as communication methods improved, this five week period made it possible for states with early elections to affect states with later ones.

Someone could see how Virginia voted, tell Georgia, and create a problem.

Congress responded to this by establishing a single day for presidential elections nationwide.

But why November and why Tuesday?

In the 1840s, most Americans were farmers.

We planted crops in March and harvested them in October.

Congress didn't want to interrupt our work schedule, which left November, December, January, and February as potential options.

But in most states, December through February was too cold.

And because it sometimes took a day to get to the polls, that could mean death with no heated cars and seat warmers.

This left November as the best option, and the earlier the better for maximum warmth.

But why the Tuesday after the first Monday?

Well, back then, farmer's markets were on Wednesday, and most Americans being Christian, had church on Sunday.

With the long travel time to many polling places, Congress didn't want to interrupt our weekend.

How nice of them.

So they picked Tuesday.

We could leave Monday, vote Tuesday, and then get back for the farmer's market by Wednesday.

And by making it the Tuesday after the first Monday of the month, that ensured election day would never be on November 1st, the day when many farmers did their bookkeeping for the previous month.

Fast forward 180 years, and we're still using this day for elections, even though 99% of Americans are no longer farmers.

I'm here at the South Pasadena Farmer's Market to see if today's farmers have any preference on whether or not to keep election day on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

You know, I usually have an opinion on things, but this one, I couldn't tell you.

- I don't think it makes that much difference in this day and age, so.

- Change the date, obviously to a weekend.

- Well, I think Thursdays works best.

I mean, for us personally, we have a market on Tuesday already.

- I don't think it has to be a set date, you know, maybe it can be a full weekend- - Can move it around, take turns, maybe switch it up.

- Yeah.

- Congress can change this whenever it wants, and it has tried, unsuccessfully.

But again, Congress doesn't run our elections.

And while state legislatures make our election laws, they actually don't run them either.

So who does?

You may not know this, but your state has a CEO, a Chief Elections Official.

In most states, this is the Secretary of State.

Sometimes it's your lieutenant governor or an elections board, and this person or commission, oversees everything from voter registration to maintaining voter rolls.

These are lists of registered voters, to tracking and certifying the election results.

In fact, here's a map that shows the Chief Elections Official in your state.

But while that person or group does a lot, they can't oversee every polling place, which is why our elections are really run, and funded, by counties.

The county clerk, sometimes called an auditor or commissioner, is the person mostly responsible for running elections in each of America's 3069 counties.

They oversee the printing and designing of ballots.

They obtain and maintain voting machines in voting booths.

They count the votes and post the tallies on county websites, which our news media tracks to report live results on election night.

Counties also train poll workers.

Think about it, there are more than 100,000 polling places in America, which are run by more than 600,000 volunteer poll workers, and counties are also responsible for election security.

Sometimes they even set the locations and hours of polling places.

In 2020, the Harris County Clerk in Texas kept some polling places open all night so that people who couldn't take time off from work, or childcare, could cast a ballot, which is another thing you might be surprised by.

We don't all get time off to vote.

Whether we get time off to vote, paid or unpaid, is up to our state legislators, and because many states have no laws on this, that means it's really up to our employers.

As of this filming, only 21 states require employers to give their workers paid time off to vote, which means in most states, if you go to the polls, you could miss out on wages, or risk getting in trouble with your boss.

And when we do get paid time off to vote, it's usually an hour or two, which may not be enough if your polling place has a line, or is far away.

Many states offer early voting on weekends, but that's not always possible either, especially if it's just one weekend, or if you have work then too.

So is there anyone out there trying to make voting more convenient for people other than farmers without cars?

Meet Ben Hovland, Commissioner of the US Election Assistance Commission.

Commissioner, welcome.

Thank you so much.

It's twice right?

- Up to you.

- Now we formally have to start.

- That's right.

- I understand, from my research, that states and counties run our elections.

- That's absolutely right.

- What do you do?

- So Congress created the Election Assistance Commission with the Help America Vote Act of 2002, and it set us up to be an assistance commission, and to support those state and local election officials who run elections.

- This is not a federal election year, so what does the next six to 12 months look like?

- I guess number one, it's not an off year.

We've got federal elections every two years, and federal general elections every two years, but we have municipal elections.

You also have the ongoing work, things like voter registration, list maintenance, which is cleaning up the list.

You also use those off years to look back at what you learned from the previous election and implement new programs.

- This brings us to, can we reform our elections?

Congress has tried.

It recently proposed a bill that would require employers to offer two hours of paid time off to vote.

Congress has also proposed making election day a federal holiday, something supported by 72% of Americans, because let's face it, who doesn't want another holiday?

But as of now, those bills have not passed, so it's up to states and counties.

Do you think that we should make election day a federal holiday?

Do you have a personal opinion?

- Well, if you make it a holiday, then you know, some people have off work, but some people don't.

Public transit schedules are different.

For the election administrators, now it's overtime for all their staff that are working that day, and so there are consequences to that.

- Today, five states, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and West Virginia have made election day a state holiday, and require employers to give you paid time off to vote.

And while these 17 states haven't made election day a state holiday, they do require employers to offer paid time off to vote, while all other states I haven't mentioned do not.

On the bright side, many states have expanded early voting.

In 2020, partly in response to the pandemic, a historic number of Americans, over a hundred million people voted early, either in person or by mail, and 76% of Americans do support early in-person voting, which is available now in some form in 47 states and DC.

The only three that don't offer it, Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire also haven't made election day a state holiday, and don't require employers to give any time off to vote, paid or unpaid.

In those 47 states in DC with early voting, election day isn't when elections happen, it's when they end, it's the last day to vote.

In a way, this kind of comes full circle with how elections used to be, before 1848, when states had a month to hold their presidential elections.

But unlike back then, today's polling places don't serve whiskey and have fewer fist fights.

But that might depend where you cast your ballot.

Also, in the early 1800s, voters had to bring their own paper to the polls to write their votes on.

So we've come a long way, especially when it comes to voting by mail, which is now available in every state, but you'll need an excuse in some, like you'll be out of the state on election day, or you have a health condition that prevents you from going to the polls.

On the other hand, there's these states, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington, which mail a ballot to every registered voter.

You can return it by mail, bring it to a drop box, or take it to your polling place.

And if you'd rather vote in person, you can still do that if you like.

I've heard from a lot of friends about voting by phone.

They would rather do that than have to go to a polling place.

What are your thoughts on that?

- The reality is it is harder than banking because secrecy of the ballot is a big deal.

There's some stuff that your viewers will get really excited about, called end-to-end cryptographic standards.

- That does sound exciting.

- But the reality is, you know, I think we still have a ways to go before we get there.

- Lastly, when it comes to voter registration, most states let you register online, but these ones do not.

You'll have to register by mail or in person at your county Elections office.

I realize this is a lot, but the point is that voting laws and rules vary greatly by state and county.

So check your county elections website and your state elections website for up-to-date info, especially because so many different people run our elections, including you.

If you're interested in helping with our elections, you can go to a site like powerthepolls.org, a non-partisan, non-profit website, which helps you sign up to be a poll worker so the elections in your state and county can run more smoothly.

And finally, if you're a farmer, I'd love to hear in the comments if the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November really still is, after 180 years, the most convenient time for you to vote.

The rest of us want to know.

I'm Ben Sheehan, and I hope you learned something.

Last question, can I keep this?

- Ah, sure.

- Not a no.

Yeah, what are you selling?

- We have these dried persimmon over here.

- Oh, nice.

- Which are massaged for, I believe, six weeks, rotated- - Massaged persimmons?

- Yes, yes.

It's the most incredible thing.

- For six weeks?

- Yeah.

- How long did it take you to figure out that six weeks was the optimal time to massage?

- Oh, it's a Japanese technique.

- Of course it is.

- Yeah, yes.