John Oliver explains the outdated reason we still vote on Tuesdays
Host John Oliver dispatched his team to find out. And the answer isn't really that surprising. Voting on Tuesdays comes from a law passed in 1845 that ensured Americans could go to church on Sundays and still travel to their voting locations.
"Weekends were no good, because of the Sabbath," the narrator said. "So take Monday as a travel day and, voila, vote on Tuesday."
As the segment then points out, the law doesn't quite fit the modern lives of Americans. Most people no longer need a travel day to get to their voting location, plus mail-in votes and early voting are available in the majority of states. But in the 13 states that don't have early voting, life can be a pain on Tuesday voting days.
The show then played news clips of the hours-long lines to vote in several states, which hold up many people from getting to work and otherwise carrying on with their lives. In fact, the show pointed out, the biggest reason people gave in a Washington Post poll for not voting was they were "too busy."
"All the wait times of Disney World," the narrator said. "All the fun of the DMV."
What to do? The show suggested expanding early voting, making Election Day a national holiday, or moving it to the weekend.
"But until we do that," the narrator said, "we're going to be forced to squeeze in voting in between work, doctors' appointments... just so farmers who have been dead for more than a century won't have an excuse to miss church."
Watch the video below: