By St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes
This December, I would like to take the opportunity to wish the residents of St. Johns County a warm, happy holiday season. I hope you enjoy this time with your loved ones and have a safe New Year. January will bring excitement as the 2024 election cycle speedily approaches. Residents can expect to hear more from the Elections Office regarding the Presidential Preference Primary Election, deadlines, potential polling place changes, and more.
For our trivia lovers, I have included some election fun facts to wow your families with during the holidays:
- Election Day was established in 1845. Congress passed a federal law designating the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November as Election Day.
- Did you know Congress chose a date in November for Election Day to accommodate farming? Spring and early summer would interfere with the planting season, and late summer and early fall elections overlapped with the harvest. November was the perfect time — after the harvest was complete, but before winter.
- Voting on Tuesday was also chosen to accommodate farming. In the 1800s, most citizens worked as farmers and lived far from their polling place, which meant lawmakers needed to consider a day’s travel. Most attended church on Sundays, so a Tuesday election would give voters all day Monday to travel.
- In the 1700s and 1800s, votes were often counted by raising hands or speaking out loud. It wasn’t until 1890 that secret ballots were widely used.
- Rather than receiving an “I Voted” sticker, in the time of the American Revolution, it was tradition that each voter would receive a slice of Election Cake while waiting for results and for those who traveled long distances to vote. The first recipe for American Election Cake appears in 1796 in the first U.S. cookbook, Amelia Simmons’ “American Cookery.” Recipes for the cake are easily found on the internet.
