It's for historic reasons tied to the US being a farming society:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_Day_%28United_States%2...

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepoliticalsystem/a/whenwevot...

I point this out to anyone who complains about how archaic some things in the UK or Europe appear to be.

Because we need enough time to travel to town overnight via horse. We vote in November because the harvest is over. I believe this is correct, I've heard it several places, but here is one citation: http://www.whytuesday.org/answer/

It's written in the Constitution as to when voting should occur. Remember, this was written for the late 18th century, so doing anything on Sundays was generally frowned upon. Plus, changing something like this would be far more difficult than just giving everyone the day off.

However, in this country there is a constant struggle between trying to let more people vote versus trying to restrict voting. Hence why a lot of people are up in arms about potential voter fraud. The traditional wisdom is that more voters helps one party, fewer helps another. With this as a factor, you can see how it would be very difficult to change the day of voting to make it more convenient for people.

It’s not in the Constitution as far as I can see. Election day seems to be determined by an ordinary law.

And this is why I'm glad that we don't have to pass a test to vote. I'd fail that question. I blame my third grade social studies teacher. :).

The date is set by an act of Congress from 1845.

http://memory.loc.gov/ll/llsl/005/0700/07590721.tif

I think my other arguments still stand though...