The website Mental Floss suggests how Tuesday was chosen by our then mostly rural, farm-based nation.
Monday was out, because it would require people to travel to the polls by buggy on the Sunday Sabbath. Wednesday was also not an option, because it was market day, and farmers wouldn’t be able to make it to the polls. So it was decided that Tuesday would be the day that Americans would vote in elections, and in 1845, Congress passed a law that presidential elections would be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.I suppose farmers would leave home on Monday, a day early, vote on Tuesday, stay in town for market on Wednesday and head home Thursday. What a slow-moving age, imagine having that sort of schedule. We complain about TSA and taking a whole day to get to the other coast.
Many countries selecting their Election Day more recently, in a less religious time and with more urban populations, vote on Sunday. Presumably the idea is not to interfere with work.
