Brow Beat

John Oliver Looks Into Why Tuesday Voting Is Still a Thing; Blames Dead Farmers

John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight has released a video tackling that eternal election season question: Why do we still vote on Tuesdays? To find out, the show sent a camera crew to Times Square to ask a man in a giant pickle costume. (He didn’t know.) The answer, it turns out, was to accommodate the needs of American farmers of the 1840s. Religious American farmers. Sunday was right out, and Monday was no good either, because people needed a full day to travel by horse to their polling stations, which could be quite a distance. So Tuesday it was, and Tuesday it remains. (Wednesday wouldn’t work because it was usually market day, and Thursday through Saturday were reserved for drinking and cursing being born too early in history to enjoy Twitter.)

Oliver doesn’t get into it, but farmers are also the reason we vote in November: after the harvest but before winter storms. So when you’re waiting in a long line on Tuesday, anxious about getting back to work on time, just remember who you have to thank for it: long dead farmers. Add it to the list right after overalls, Shays’ Rebellion, and the tragic events of Two Thousand Maniacs!

Now that we’re not ruled by 19th-century farmers, why do we still hold elections on such an inconvenient day? It’s another thing Oliver doesn’t address, but the answer’s a lot less obscure: It turns out Republican white supremacists don’t much like it when some people vote.