One Week Until Election Day: Why Tuesday?

One week from election day, today's Los Angeles Times has an interesting story on the question "Why do we vote on Tuesdays"? Apparently there's an organization called Why Tuesday, which is a bipartisan grassroots campaign to change election day from the "first Tuesday after the first Monday in November" to a weekend day.

The interesting part of the article is the report of the contest that Why Tuesday is sponsoring to have video of politicians answering the question "Why do we vote on Tuesday?" to the ubiquitous YouTube website.

The first person to post a clip of a particular official onto YouTube or another video-sharing website cashes in.

The bounty hunting is lucrative: For a current U.S. House member, the payoff is $300, while a sitting U.S. senator or governor is worth $500. A vice president, either sitting or not, brings $2,500; President Bush or a predecessor commands $5,000.

What is interesting about the campaign is the education about the history of why Americans vote on Tuesday. It is not in the Constitution, it is an 1845 federal law (3 U.S.C. 1). It can be changed by another vote of Congress. However, since Republicans really don't want more people to vote, it is unlikely such legislation would survive a Presidential veto.