Nov 6, 2018
Image: Our guaranteed right: VOTE! - clipartpanda.com
Why do we vote on a Tuesday? Learn about Election Day 2018 dates, history, quotes, trivia, and more from this Old Farmer's Almanac article. Why, there’s even an election cake sure to please all parties!
When Is Election Day?
National Election Day is always the 1st Tuesday following the 1st Monday in November.
Year Election Day
2018 Tuesday, November 6
2019 Tuesday, November 5
2020 Tuesday, November 3
Why do we vote on a Tuesday? Before 1845, we were more of an agricultural society and November was considered a good time for elections because the busy harvest season was coming to a close. Many country folks had to travel quite a long way to get to a polling station, so it made sense to hold elections on a Tuesday. This avoided religious holidays as well.
Election Day History
To-day, alike are great and small,
The nameless and the known;
My palace is the people’s hall,
The ballot-box, my throne!
–John Greenleaf Whittier, American poet (1807–92)
On January 7, 1789, the electors were chosen for the first U.S. presidential election. (George Washington was elected president on February 4.)
By an act of Congress on January 23, 1845, the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November was designated Election Day for future presidential elections.
The first such election took place on November 7, 1848. Whig Party candidate Zachary Taylor won out over Democrat Lewis Cass and Free-Soil candidate (and former president) Martin Van Buren. Taylor’s running mate was Millard Fillmore, who became the nation’s 13th president on July 10, 1850, upon Taylor’s untimely death.
The freeman, casting with unpurchased hand
The vote that shakes the turrets of the land.
–Oliver Wendell Holmes, American poet (1809–94)
Election Day Weather
What weather’s in store for you as you go to the polling stations?
A week before elections, you should have checked your 7-day forecast!
Election Day Cake!
Did you know that there is a such thing as an Election Day Cake? Often yeasted fruit cakes, Election Day cakes started in the 1600s and were especially popular around the time of American independence. Try making it this year with our Election Day Cake recipe!
Like the Almanac, an Election Day cake is an American institution. The tradition dates from the 1600’s, but the cakes became more elaborate after colonial independence. Week-long celebrations often accompanied certifying the election results, and women baked these yeast cakes for out-town-guests.
This recipe was printed in The 2009 Old Farmer’s Almanac. It’s adapted from Lydia Maria Child’s recipe for Election Cake, which appears in the 1833 edition of The American Frugal Housewife, published in Boston. We have reduced Mrs. Child’s recipe and added a little spice, which was, and is, typical in election cake.
This Election Cake recipe is always sure to please! Vote for cake!
Cake
Ingredients
• 2 packages active dry yeast (2-1/4 teaspoons each)
• 1-1/2 cups warm water (110 to 115 degrees F)
• 1 cup plus 2 teaspoons sugar
• 4-1/2 cups sifted flour, divided.
• 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) margarine or butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground mace
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup raisins
• 2/3 cup currants
• 1/4 cup chopped candied citron
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions For cake:
1. In a large bowl, sprinkle the yeast on the warm water; stir to dissolve.
2. Add 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1-1?2 cups of flour and beat well by hand, or for 2 minutes with an electric mixer at medium speed.
3. Cover and let rise in a warm place until bubbly, about 30 minutes.
4. In a separate bowl, cream the margarine and 1 cup of sugar until light and fluffy. Set aside.
5. Sift the remaining 3 cups of flour with the salt, cinnamon, cloves, mace, and nutmeg.
6. When the yeast mixture is bubbly, add the eggs to the creamed margarine and sugar and beat well.
7. Combine with the yeast mixture.
8. Add the flour mixture, a little at a time, beating with a spoon after each addition. Beat until smooth.
9. Stir in the raisins, currants, citron, and nuts.
10. Pour into a well-greased and -floured 10-inch tube pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1-1?2 hours.
11. Bake at 375°F for about 1 hour.
12. Remove the cake from the oven and cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn onto a rack to finish cooling.
13. While slightly warm, spread with confectioners’ sugar icing.
Icing:
Ingredients
• 1 cup sifted confections' sugar
• milk or cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• dash of salt
Instructions For Icing
1. In a medium bowl, combine the confectioners’ sugar with enough milk to make a glaze.
2. Add the vanilla and salt and stir until smooth.
YIELD: Makes 12 to 16 servings.
Election Day “Did You Know?”
Question: Who is credited with saying, “Americans will go across an ocean to fight a war, but not across the street to vote”?
Answer: The full quote is, “A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won’t cross the street to vote in a national election.” It is credited to William E. (‘Bill’) Vaughan, a 20th-century author and columnist.
Question: Which U.S. president has received the greatest number of electoral votes?
Answer: Ronald Reagan, in the 1984 election, won a whopping 525 out of 538 available electoral votes.
Question: Which U.S. president has received the greatest number of popular votes?
Answer: That distinction goes to Barack Obama, who received 69.5 million votes in the 2008 election.
Question: Can you explain the electoral college?
Answer: The U.S. Constitution decrees that a “body of electors” will choose the president and vice president of the country. These electors are appointed by each state, through varying methods depending upon the state, as decided by each state’s legislature. The number of electoral votes allotted to each state depends on the number of Senators and Representatives to which each state is entitled; Congress has 100 Senators and 435 Representatives. Each state is allotted 1 electoral vote for each Senator (for a total of 2) and 1 electoral vote for each Representative. The number of Representatives each state has is based on its population. The District of Columbia is allotted 3 electoral votes. This yields a total of 538 electoral votes. Electors vote in their respective states in December. Most vote according to popular vote or to their pledge to their party (although in some states, they are not required to do so). In 48 states, the presidential candidate who receives a majority of the vote takes all of the state’s electoral votes. However, in Nebraska and Maine, the setup is different, and electoral votes can be split between candidates. Congress counts the electoral votes, now merely a formality, on January 6. The presidential candidate who receives a majority (270) of the 538 Electoral College votes wins the election.
Question: What were the symbols for the Republicans and Democrats before they were an elephant and a donkey?
Answer: Although Thomas Nast, a caricaturist and illustrator for Harper’s Weekly, created and made famous our current symbols for the parties—the Democratic donkey in 1870 and the Republican elephant in 1874—there was an earlier symbol for Democrats. During the election of 1840, between the Democrats and the Whigs (the Republican party as we know it didn’t exist until 1854), the Whigs derided a Democratic candidate for Congress in Indiana, Joseph Chapman, with the slogan “Crow, Chapman, Crow!” However, Chapman crowed so successfully that he won the seat (though the Whigs were triumphant elsewhere). In Chapman’s honor, the Democrats adopted the rooster as their symbol.
More Election History
November 7, 1893: The state of Colorado granted women residents the right to vote.
October 23, 1915: 25,000 women marched in NYC demanding the right to vote.
August 26, 1920: The Nineteenth Amendment was adopted, granting women the right to vote. It was nicknamed the “Anthony” amendment in recognition of the lobbying efforts of suffragette Susan B. Anthony.
July 2, 1946: As a result of two decisions handed down by the Supreme Court in 1944, both upholding the right of Blacks to vote in primary elections, blacks in Mississippi vote for the first time in that state’s Democratic primary.
March 29, 1961: Ratification of the 23rd amendment to the Constitution gave residents of Washington, D.C., right to vote in presidential elections.
May 20, 1993: The “motor-voter” bill was signed by President Bill Clinton, allowing citizens to register to vote when applying for a driver’s license.
August 26: Women’s Equality Day
Formerly known as Woman Suffrage Day, this day marks the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1920), granting women the right to vote. Ratification came in Tennessee, where suffragist (Anitia) Lili Pollitzer, age 25, persuaded Tennessee state legislator Harry T. Burn, age 24, to cast the deciding vote. “I know that a mother’s advice is always safest for a boy to follow,” he said, “and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification.” The country’s 26 million voting-age women were enfranchised by this change in the Constitution. Longtime suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt summed up her experiences in the battle this way: “Never in the history of politics has there been such a nefarious lobby as labored to block the ratification.” Upon ratification, Catt founded the League of Women Voters, an organization now dedicated to providing impartial, in-depth information about candidates, platforms, and ballot issues.
Election Day Palindrome
Here is an election-day palindrome for your amusement (4 words, 13 letters).
Rise to vote, sir.
(In a palindrome, the phrase reads the same backward as forward.)
Now, ever wonder why elections are in the fall? The timing of present-day rituals evolved from our ancient calendars. Read more about Quarter-Days.
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