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Should America Postpone Election Day?
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On July 30th, President Trump suggested Election Day be postponed, a measure never taken before even in times of crisis. Americans today are living in circumstances that none of us has faced before, and President Trump’s suggestion raises questions.
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Unprecedented times have called for unexpected measures in the past, so why has Election Day stood the test of time? Should a federal election be delayed under extreme circumstances?
An 1845 law fixes election day on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November - this year it falls on November 3rd. Legally, the President does not have the authority to change Election Day. Congress has the power to change the law, but many representatives have spoken out against it.
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In desperate times in American history, postponing the election was discussed, but never considered a viable option. Midterm and general elections were held on time during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II.
Ben Kleinerman (Baylor University professor and JMC Board member) notes that during the Civil War, Lincoln believed the election was essential to the American project and delaying it would "destroy the principle that makes the Union worth saving" in the first place.
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A situation similar to what we find ourselves in today is the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. State governments struggled to contain the virus, and health officials recommended against large gatherings. Election Day, however, was not changed.
Hamline Law professor Jason Marisam contends that the primary reason for there being little discussion about election postponement in 1918 was the intense civic pride inspired by World War I.
Because of the flu outbreak, some officials around the country looked for new voting procedures: "In Idaho, the governor mandated that all voters queue single file in their polling places to avoid crowds that the flu liked to feed on. In San Francisco, all poll workers and voters had to wear face masks."
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Concerns about Voter Turnout
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Despite lower turnout than the two prior elections, the 1918 election's legitimacy was not questioned. A compounding factor of the low turnout was that millions of eligible voters were abroad, fighting in World War I.
Absentee voting, once a temporary measure, addressed the inability to go to the polls. The earliest known instance of absentee voting in America occurred in December 1775, during the Revolution.
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A group of soldiers in the Continental Army sent a letter to their town asking to vote in a local election.The town responded that the votes would be counted "as if the men were present themselves."
The first major effort to coordinate absentee voting in America was during the Civil War. Beginning in 1862, states across the Union began passing laws allowing for soldiers to vote by mail, and, by 1864, 19 Northern states had legislation supporting absentee voting for soldiers.
"Between 1911 and 1924, 45 of the 48 states adopted some kind of absentee voting." And today, all 50 states allow registered voters to vote absentee.
In light of COVID-19, many states are taking additional steps to ensure voters can safely and securely cast their ballots by mail in the fall.
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Absentee voting is not, however, synonymous with vote-by-mail or "no-excuse" absentee voting. Traditional absentee voting requires that a citizen request an absentee ballot for a specific reason. In contrast, states with universal vote-by-mail provide a mail-in ballot to every registered voter, regardless of request.
Vote-by-mail presents new challenges to consider. For a presidential election, such a process would require systems for fraud prevention, counting, accuracy, postmarking, and timely delivery of mailed ballots at a scale states and the country have never previously faced.
While there is a clear and important distinction between mail-in and absentee ballots, our past experiences with absentee voting may provide guidance in addressing the current situation. We certainly can gain insight from how we handled elections in general during times of crisis.
History suggests that unless Congress chooses otherwise, Election Day must go on, and that even in the most trying times Americans have always found ways to preserve the democratic process.
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History can always teach us something about the present, but only if it remains a priority. Without knowledge of our predecessors' struggles, we have no basis to make important decisions about our country's future.
JMC supports those teachers who are championing education in America's history and its founding principles. Our growing network of more than 900 dedicated professors are making a difference on hundreds of campuses across the country. So far, they have taught more than one million students. Will you help us reach more?
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About the Jack Miller Center
The Jack Miller Center is a 501(c)(3) public charity with the mission to reinvigorate education in America's founding principles and history. We work to advance the teaching and study of America's history, its political and economic institutions, and the central principles, ideas and issues arising from the American and Western traditions—all of which continue to animate our national life.
We support professors and educators through programs, resources, fellowships and more to help them teach our nation's students.
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