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  Election Day is the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

1845

  For much of our history America was mostly an agrarian society.  Law makers realized that November was the best month for farmers and rural workers to be able to travel to the polls.  The fall harvest was over. (Spring was planting time and summer was taken up with working the fields and tending the crops.) Also, in most of the country the weather was still mild enough for people to travel over the roads, which were certainly not like the roads of today.

      Agrarian means:
of, relating to, or characteristic of farmers or their way of life

  Most people who lived in rural America had to travel a great distance to vote. Therefore, voting on a Monday was no good because voters would have to start their trip on Sunday--a holy day for so many people who would be attending church services.

Lawmakers did not want Election Day to be on the first of November. First, that is All Saints Day--a holy day for Roman Catholics. Next, merchants and other  business people usually did their books for the previous month on the first day of the next month. Congress was worried that if these businessmen had a bad month, that would affect their voting.