Election Day in 2025 is Tuesday, Nov. 4. While this is not a presidential or midterm election year, voters in many states will have the opportunity to vote on a variety of ballot measures and candidates. 

But why Tuesday? For people who work a typical 40-hour week, Tuesdays aren’t particularly convenient. The rise in mail-in ballots and early voting has made this less of an issue for many voters, but some voters don’t have those options. 

The Debate Over Election Day Timing

The United States is relatively unusual among advanced democracies in holding weekday elections. According to Le Monde, in the 2024 election of the European Parliament, 25 out of the 27 member nations voted on a Saturday and/or Sunday. 

Some other nations, such as South Korea and Israel, hold weekday elections but declare election day a holiday to make it easier to vote.

According to the Pew Research Center, a 2024 proposal to make the U.S. Election Day a national holiday received 72% support. And over the years, various lawmakers, prominent political figures, and organizations have proposed either moving the U.S. Election Day to a weekend or making it a federal holiday. The following examples highlight some ideas. 

Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, R-PA, introduced bipartisan legislation in 2023 to make Election Day a holiday, stating, “Designating Election Day as a federal holiday will give all Americans more flexibility and accessibility to cast their votes.”

Citing the difficulty some workers have in making it to the polls on a weekday, then-President Joe Biden said in 2021, “If I had my way, and I think it is really important, every Election Day would be a day off.”

During her 2016 Presidential Campaign, Former Secretary of State and two-time presidential candidate Hillary Clinton expressed her support for weekend and evening voting, saying, “If families coming out of church on Sunday are inspired to go vote, they should be free to do just that.”

And Andrew Young, former ambassador to the United Nations and a founder of Why Tuesday?, an organization which questions the effectiveness of our current voting practices, had this to say: “If Congress can move President’s Day, Columbus Day and alas Martin Luther King’s Birthday celebration for the convenience of shoppers, shouldn’t they at least consider moving Election Day for the convenience of voters?”

But others argue that moving voting to a weekend or holiday wouldn’t necessarily increase turnout or benefit workers.

As Brandon Arnold, executive vice president for the National Taxpayers Union, warned in 2024, “Businesses that depend on tourism, vacation, restaurants, even retail could see an increase in activity. So they’re going to need to have workers there. They’re not going to be able to give workers off in order to go vote.”

A 2009 Princeton study found that “having an election holiday, by itself, is not an effective strategy to increase voter turnout.”

And in a 2012 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, most state and local election officers the researchers spoke to thought it might be difficult to find enough poll workers and polling locations on weekends. 

Some prefer to let the states make their own decisions.

Republican Utah Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson recently stated: “The constitutional right of individual states to choose the manner in which they conduct elections is a fundamental strength of our system.”

Can You Get Time Off Work to Vote?

As Newsweek points out, five states have already declared Election Day a public holiday and require employers to give workers paid time off to vote. Nine states have declared it a public holiday but don’t require paid leave.

Be aware that, holiday or not, a total of 28 states and the District of Columbia require employers to give their employees time off to vote (typically around two hours, and usually paid — but not always).

The History of Tuesday as Election Day

Though these days it’s often inconvenient, Tuesday was originally chosen as Election Day because it was convenient — for farmers. 

According to Congress.gov, there was no official, nationwide voting day in the U.S. prior to 1845 — states could choose their own date for federal elections, as long as it fell within 34 days of the electoral college meeting in early December to cast their votes for president and vice president. However, there was concern that results from states that voted early were impacting results in states who voted later. 

To avoid this, Congress passed a bill designating one specific day for federal elections. As the Congressional Research Service explains, the U.S. was still largely an agrarian society at the time, and many voters needed to travel significant distances by horse to their polling places. So, the date chosen needed to be one that made sense for farmers.

So, Why Tuesday?

According to Congress.gov, Sunday was out because it was a day of worship and rest for Christians. Wednesdays were typically market days when the farmers sold their goods in town. That left Tuesday for voting (with Monday being a travel day).

So, why November? It was considered an ideal time between the busy harvest season and the cold winter months, when rain, snow, and frozen, unpaved roads made travel difficult.

But why the Tuesday after the first Monday in November? Lawmakers wanted to prevent election day falling on November 1 (when merchants usually did their bookkeeping for the month of October).

Why Are Statewide and Local Elections Also Held on Tuesdays in November?

Though states still have the power to choose the dates of their own state and local elections, many hold federal and local elections on the same day for convenience and cost savings, according to the Congressional Research Service, or in the belief that it will improve turnout, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Other states choose to hold state and local elections on “off-cycle” or odd-numbered years or on dates separate from the federal election, in an effort to reduce partisanship and competition with federal races. 

However, many state and local elections are still held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, even in off years. This seems to be largely a matter of tradition — as the NCSL points out, U.S. citizens are accustomed to voting in November.