Is it a coincidence that Presidential elections occur on leap years?

2015-12-27T14:37:58-05:00

Next year is a leap year which alos means it is a Presidential election year. I had taken it for granted that the two events coincided; but, I wasn't aware why.
Background: The first presidential election in the 18th century was held from Monday, December 15, 1788 to Saturday, January 10, 1789. It was the first presidential election in the United States of America under the new United States Constitution, which was adopted on September 17, 1787, and the only election ever to take place partially in a year that is not a multiple of four.
What you thoughts? Was the selection for leap year a coincidence or by design?

Response by MCPO Roger Collins made Dec 27 at 2015 2:39 PM

2015-12-27T14:39:39-05:00

Actually, April Fools day would be more appropriate.

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Dec 27 at 2015 2:42 PM

2015-12-27T14:42:34-05:00

I believe the founding fathers gave the nation one year to become aware of the requirements and responsibilities of an election since it was relatively new idea. The fact that it fell on a leap year initially wasn't as important since it took almost a month for everybody to vote. Even though the first election took a long time [without chads :-)] the starting point of the year before teh leap year was carried on to the present day when voting and counting is usually much quicker.

Response by LTC Bink Romanick made Dec 27 at 2015 2:56 PM

2015-12-27T14:56:13-05:00

LTC Stephen F. I think that the one year theory is the correct one. A year was an eon back in 1787.

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 27 at 2015 3:45 PM

2015-12-27T15:45:10-05:00

I'm convinced, with no real evidence, that the "Election/Leap Year" is partially Ben Franklin's doing. It seems like the sort of thing he'd consider a good idea. Somewhere between the design of New York City and Daylight Savings, so he had some good and bad ideas....

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Dec 27 at 2015 5:20 PM

2015-12-27T17:20:30-05:00

I'll offer up the Founding Fathers had no idea of the extra day of campaign season suffering we'd perpetually get put through. Besides that, an interesting piece of history. George Washington was going to get elected no matter what so the real shenanigans was with the vote for Vice President with Hamilton encouraging people not to vote for Adams lest Adams get the Presidency. Of the 13 colonies, two couldn't vote as they hadn't ratified the Constitution, and one didn't because the State Legislature was deadlocked. Four states had no popular vote. The first election was much more about getting a start. BTW the 12th Amendment made the process more uniform as the States were all over the board on who or how Electoral Votes were determined. Remember it was always about how male landowners retained control.

Response by LTC Kevin B. made Dec 27 at 2015 6:27 PM

2015-12-27T18:27:18-05:00

Here's an odd little factoid. Every leap year will have a Presidential election, but not every Presidential election will occur in a leap year. Technically, years equally divisible by four are leap years, except years that fall on the century and are not also equally divisible by 400. I had to write a program in college that took that little factoid into account (spoiler, it sucked having to code that). So, 1800 and 1900 were election years, but weren't leap years. The 2100 Presidential election year will be the same way.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 27 at 2015 10:13 PM

2015-12-27T22:13:18-05:00

An extra day of campaigning. Yay.

Response by SPC David S. made Dec 28 at 2015 3:47 AM

2015-12-28T03:47:49-05:00

While Delaware was the first to sign the Constitution on December 7, 1787, it wasn't until the 9th signature by New Hampshire on June 21, 1788 determined the ratification. Thus the Constitution provided by definition the Office of the President to head the Executive Branch of the US government. The election polls opened on December 15, 1788 and closed on January 10, 1789. George Washington was inaugurated April 30, 1789, and served until March 4, 1797, having been reelected to a second term in 1792. So from a casual observation this looks to just be a case of circumstance.

Now if you want to go down a freaky coincidence there is the number 4 that has special meaning in Free Masonry - without going into all the details its important. Now this is where it gets freaky - the year of light or Anno Lucis is the year that God created earth at least according to the Irish cleric, James Ussher who determined this be so based on his biblical research as the year 4004 B.C.. With out going into more detail it has since been modified to just 4000 B.C. Additionally Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 introduced the Gregorian calendar that made years divisible by both 100 and 400 leap years. The lodge that George Washington was a member of is the historical Fredericksburg Lodge No.4. You divide 1776 by 4 you get 444. So I would bet that at least the quadrennial elections are rooted in Masonic design.