National Journal: What’s So Special About Tuesday?
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
Jessica Taylor of the National Journal, the weekly on politics and government, takes a look at our efforts. I had a chance to talk with her yesterday afternoon. Check it out.
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November 8th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Good article.
>”This is something we should be talking about,”
>Soboroff said. “Who’s against voter participation?”
Playing devil’s advocate for a moment, there arguments against it. You’ve heard some yourself in your interviews. I am not espousing any of these views here - I’m just mentioning some of the arguments.
* some argue that election integrity is more important than ease of participation. From an integrity point of view, many advocates want a single election day with results counted per-precinct. Vote-by-internet and vote-by-mail and vote-over a longer period of time all have significant election integrity issues.
* Some argue that having small barriers to participation is a good thing and results in only voters who are informed and have a sufficiently strong view to show up and vote.
…and then there is he question of whether moving away from our current election-Tuesday system would increase participation:
* Some argue that the tradition of election Tuesday is worthwhile simply because it is a tradition.
* Some argue that turnout problems are not at all related to elections being on Tuesday but stem from other sources such as apathy or feelings that people cannot make a real difference. (In my view, WT? has a duty to research this question. Is there strong evidence that reforms like making Tuesday a holiday or weekend voting would significantly improve turnout?)
* Some argue that making election Tuesday a national holiday or having weekend voting would actually reduce turnout as people would take vacations.
November 16th, 2007 at 10:39 am
[…] 16, 2007 · No Comments The National Journal has posted an article about WhyTuesday?: any election watchers know that national elections are […]
November 16th, 2007 at 11:18 am
An example of a study showing increased voting access leading to reduced turnout:
Patricia Funk on Swiss elections
Some posited conclusions by Jeremy Clark of punchscan:
Maybe it is time to advocate for purple thumbs?
December 15th, 2007 at 8:39 am
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce