What is an Election?

This was due Monday, November 3, 2008. Sorry Mom

Election Day in the United States is the day set by law for the selection of public officials by popular ballot. Federal (or National) Elections always occur on the Tuesday following the first Monday of November of every even numbered year (the Tuesday between November 2 and November 8, inclusively).
In Federal Elections, all members of the House of Representatives are elected for two-year terms together with one-third of the Senate for six-year terms. In years with a Presidential Election (years that are evenly divisible by four), electors for President and Vice-president are also chosen according to the method determined by each state. Many state and local government offices are also elected on Election Day, but this varies according to state and local law.
Congress has mandated a uniform date for Presidential and Congressional elections, though early voting is nonetheless authorized in many states. In Oregon, where all elections are vote-by-mail, all ballots must be received by a set time on Election Day, as is common with absentee ballots in most states (except overseas military ballots which receive more time by Federal law). In the state of Washington, where most counties are vote-by-mail (and in the others most votes are cast by mail as permanent absentee ballots), ballots need only be postmarked by Election Day.
Election Day is a legal holiday in some states, including Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia. Some other states have laws that allow workers to take time off from employment without reprisal, and often without loss in pay. Democratic Representative John Conyers of Michigan recently introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would make Election Day a national holiday, Democracy Day.

History

By federal law since 1792, Congress permitted the states to conduct their presidential elections (or otherwise to choose their Electors) anytime in a 34 day period before the first Wednesday of December, which was the day set for the meeting of the Electors of the U.S. president and vice-president (the Electoral College), in their respective states. The problems borne of such an arrangement were obvious and were intensified by improved communications via train and telegraph: the states that voted later could swell, diminish, or be influenced by a candidate's victories in the states that voted earlier. In close elections, the states that voted last might well determine the outcome. A uniform date for choosing presidential Electors was instituted by the U.S. Congress in 1845. Many theories have been advanced as to why the Congress settled on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The actual reasons, as shown in records of Congressional debate on the bill in December 1844, were fairly prosaic. The bill initially set the national day for choosing presidential Electors on "the first Tuesday in November," in years divisible by four (1848, 1852, etc.). But it was pointed out that in some years the period between the first Tuesday in November and the first Wednesday in December (when the Electoral College met) would be more than 34 days, in violation of the existing Electoral College law. So, the bill was amended to move the national date for choosing presidential Electors forward to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, a date scheme already used in the state of New York.
As for the day of the week chosen, Sunday was ruled out because it was the Sabbath. An election on Monday might require travel on Sunday, and so was also ruled out. Tuesday had no problem.
One theory as to the choice of date is that November 5th is the day in 1605 on which terrorists tried to blow up the English Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot. The plot was stopped and therefore democracy survived. Choosing November for elections therefore celebrates the ending of a plot to kill democracy.


Reference: Click here to visit website.

Okay, that's something I got online. My thoughts on the Election is that you get to pick a new person for president and hope that they do a good job. Because if they don't the economy will suffer.