A tangle of rules: Why the U.S. election confuses so many

U.S. elections are among the most watched around the world. Yet, every four years, people around the globe gaze at the spectacle of presidential elections and try to make sense of how they work. And given the number of websites, videos and news reports that seek to clarify the process in the run-up to election day, quite a few U.S. citizens are similarly confused. 

So here is a look at some of the quirks of U.S. presidential elections.

Why is election day always on a Tuesday?

In many countries, elections can be called at any time during the year. They are also often held on a Saturday or Sunday, when people have the day off and have time to vote. Not so in the U.S.

An 1844 statute set the presidential election "on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November" — meaning any Tuesday between November 2 and 8.

At the time, this made sense as it enabled farmers, who made up a large part of the population and often lived far from their polling station, to vote on their way to town for market day on Wednesday.

But in recent years, with Tuesday now a working day, there have been concerns that some people are unable to make it to their polling station. Civil rights advocates have called for election day to be made a federal holiday so that people have the day off to vote.

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