Why Tuesday? in Newsday *
Friday, July 18th, 2008
As I just Tweeted, Newsday is running this article today about U.S. Rep. Steve Israel’s gig as a Why Tuesday? Correspondent and his work to push the Weekend Voting Act, which he introduced. On that note, Doug Chapin of ElectionLine.org says in the article he doesn’t think changing Election Day is going to help voter participation.
“Tuesday has history and inertia on its side,” said Chapin. “Changing it is more trouble than leaving it where it is.”
With the article, Newsday is running some exclusive video we provided them of Rep. Israel’s interview with Rep. Gary Ackerman, of New York, like Israel.
* UPDATE: Please see the comment from Doug Chapin of electionline.org for a clarification.
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July 18th, 2008 at 11:24 am
An important clarification - neither I nor electionline.org take positions on issues, including weekend voting.
Consequently, my “history and inertia” quote was in response to the reporter’s question asking why I thought weekend voting proposals hadn’t been successful in the past - not a statement of my own position on the issue.
Lots of voters across the country are already “time-shifting” their ballots to the weekend through early and absentee voting - and thus it isn’t surprising that the debate over weekend voting has been revived.
Electionline.org and I will be following that debate - but we will not (and do not) take sides.