The politicians who are fighting for the chance to take on President Obama in the 2012 general election have started to officially declare their candidacies. Well, we’re re-declaring our mission to start a conversation about increasing America’s lousy voter turnout. This time, we’re kicking it off using @WhyTuesday on Twitter. Friday, I sent out this tweet and an e-mail blast asking to hear from our supporters about how best to increase voter participation in 2012:

As you can see above, this was retweeted by our friends and supporters including Joe Trippi, the CAA Foundation, MTV Act and Participant Media’s TakePart, instantly reaching millions of people on Twitter. The responses started coming in immediately, and they were fantastic.

The first tweet came in from @jaquanaa and was about making sure people were informed:

This tweet was similar to one that came in from @adolphogordo who suggested each state does a better job of explaining their electoral processes to their voters:

Twitter user @hdiwan sent a few suggestions including voting by mail, having the polls stay open later…

… simplifying ballots, and one we fully understand… voting on weekends:

Along the same lines, @manofwow suggested weekend voting or making Election Day a national holiday:

Daniel Lanclos, or @danlanclos, put the onus on first-time voters in saying young people needed to realize the power they now have:

Scott Urbanowski, or @scottyurb, also spoke about young voters when he suggested opt-out voter registration:

Another proponent of changing registration was @EALESLIE who suggested online and automatic registration for college students, and the process easier for non-English speakers:

Some states require voter ID so Benjamin Childers, or @ben_childers, suggested making state-issued IDs free:

Early voting and using social media to organize and turn out voters was encouraged by @lyonmike:

Helping turn out voters was also encouraged by @davidual in a series of tweets:

Both @TameeraCorporal and @TinaSchmitt made a similar point, in asking that our elected officials are held accountable and in so doing voter turnout would increase:

Finally, @mandywarhol started a discussion that both @ben_childers and @djwinfo were compelled to respond to about compulsory, or mandatory, voting:

We couldn’t be more thrilled about the passionate responses about how best to increase American voter participation. We are just getting geared up for the 2012 election cycle, and we’re looking forward to lots more discussion between now and November 2012. Please keep sharing your thoughts with us, especially if you didn’t see an answer you liked. We’ll be sure to keep you posted on our plans for making sure election reform is an issue our elected officials cannot afford to avoid.