Americans vote on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, an oddly precise formula, and every piece of it was a deliberate answer to the conditions of 1845. This is an essay about the day itself: why November, why Tuesday, why the strange wrinkle, and why a date built to make voting easy for a rural nation now often makes it harder.

Field Notes on the Republic was written and read by Michael Fowler. It was produced for Quorum (Supply Co.), an American civic purveyor. Music is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band, West Point.