About Why Tuesday?

Why Tuesday? is a 501c3 non-partisan organization founded in 2005 to find solutions to increase voter turnout and participation in elections in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. At the urging of Ambassador Andrew Young, Senator Bill Bradley and Congressman Jack Kemp joined together to ask a simple question: why do we vote on Tuesday? By asking a question that few knew the answer to and most, even our nation’s leaders, had never even thought of, Why Tuesday? set out to raise awareness about America’s low voter turnout and the broken state of our voting system.

Using social media, Why Tuesday? has for the past 6 years provided a platform for national dialogue about the current voting system, problems with our current voting system, and solutions that can directly improve the voting process, increase registration and drive turnout. The Why Tuesday? documentary video blog has been seen millions of times across online and traditional media channels, including national news outlets. Why Tuesday? was the recipient of the Film Your Issue Award as well as the only non-mainstream news outlet nominated for the 2008 Webby Award for Best Political Blog.

Why Tuesday? has inspired the introduction of the Weekend Voting Act in Congress. It has also prompted the passage of the Saturday Voting Act in San Francisco, and a study by the U.S. GAO about the feasibility of implementing Weekend Voting in the United States.

Board of Directors

William B. Wachtel, Founder

Mr. Wachtel is the founding partner of Wachtel & Masyr, a law firm comprised of approximately 30 attorneys specializing in domestic and international business transactions and litigations. He is also the founder of the progressive Drum Major Institute, originally the Drum Major Foundation, established by his father Harry Wachtel. He is a graduate of the University of Vermont (B.A. 1975, magna cum laude) and Columbia University (J.D., 1979); Phi Beta Kappa; Harlan Fiske Scholar. Mr. Wachtel was the legislative assistant to United States Senator P.J. Leahy from 1974-75. He is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the American Bar Association.

Ambassador Andrew Young, Chairman

Ambassador Young has held a wide range of leadership positions. He was a top aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the civil rights movement before being elected to three terms as Representative for the Fifth Congressional District of Georgia. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed him as the United States’ Ambassador to the United Nations. Mr. Young then served two terms as Mayor of the City of Atlanta and was a Co-Chairman of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. He is Chairman of the Southern Africa Enterprise development Fund, Co-Chairman of GoodWorks International, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Drum Major Institute. The U.S. Secretary of State recently appointed him as a member of the National Security Council Study Group.

Norman J. Ornstein, Resident Scholar

Mr. Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He also serves as an election analyst for CBS News and writes a weekly column called “Congress Inside Out” for Roll Call newspaper. His campaign finance working group of scholars and practitioners helped shape the major law, known as McCain/Feingold, that reformed the campaign financing system. He is also co-directing a multi-year effort, called the Transition to Governing Project, to create a better climate for governing in the era of the permanent campaign. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the Campaign Legal Center and of the Board of Trustees of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. Mr. Ornstein was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. His many books include The Permanent Campaign and Its Future; Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy, both with Thomas E. Mann; and Debt and Taxes: How America Got Into Its Budget Mess and What to Do About It, with John H. Makin. The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and What Can Be Done about It, co-authored by Thomas E. Mann, is published by Oxford University Press.

Our Team

Jacob Soboroff, Executive Director

Jacob joined Why Tuesday? in 2006. He is the AMC News correspondent, hosting specials and reporting from film festivals and other industry events for the award-winning network. Jacob also hosts SoCal Wanderer for KCET, an online video series about outdoor life in Southern California. In 2010, Jacob co-hosted the NBC series “School Pride” and executive produced and narrated the AMC original documentary “Committed,” directed by Oscar and Emmy nominee Morgan Spurlock. He has contributed reporting to CNN, NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” and the PBS/Wired Magazine series “Wired Science.” Jacob is a member of the associates board of City Year Los Angeles. During college, Jacob was an advance man to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and presidential candidate Howard Dean. A Los Angeles native, Jacob holds a B.A. in Politics and an M.A. in Political Theory and Philosophy from New York University. jacobsoboroff.com | @jacobsoboroff | Facebook

Barnett Zitron, Senior Advisor

Barnett works for VICE Media. Before that, he was part of the online team at Bloomberg for Mayor 2009, producing all of the online video content for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s reelection campaign. In 2008, Barnett created and ran The Ultimate College Bowl, an effort to register every college student to vote. When he joined Why Tuesday? in 2006, Barnett drove across country in seven days producing interviews with some of America’s most powerful elected leaders. Barnett has contributed to Huffington Post. He received a BA in Liberal Arts from NYU’s Gallatin School, where he studied City Planning and Architecture.

Thomas Rossmeissl, Senior Advisor

Tom is the Director of Joe Trippi & Associates where he has helped pioneer the use of new media technologies and strategies for a variety of domestic and international campaigns, non-profit organizations, and corporations. In 2007, Tom helped launch the Why Tuesday? video blog and the organization’s online strategy. Internationally, Tom has developed comprehensive mobile, text messaging, and communication strategies for advocacy organizations and political campaigns in Brazil, the EU, Nepal, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. Domestically, Tom directs campaign television ad production and online fundraising strategies for a number of political clients, most recently serving as a key member on the successful Jerry Brown for Governor (CA) campaign.

Advisory Board

Andrea Batista Schlesinger
Former Policy Advisor, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City

Jeff Berman
GM, NFL Digital Media

John Bonifaz
Founder, National Voting Rights Institute, and Legal Director, Voter Action

Jake Brewer
Chief Strategy Officer, Fission Strategy

Bill Bradley, Why Tuesday? Honorary Co-Chair
Former United States Senator

Jim Brayton
President, Long Trail Media

Lee Brenner
Publisher of HyperVocal and Founding Principal, FastFWD Group

James Carmichael

Wendy Cohen
Director of Digital Campaigns and Community, Participant Media

Tim Cullen

Rev. James Forbes
Founder and Chairman, Healing of the Nations Foundation

Steve Grove
Google

Leo Hindery, Jr.
InterMedia Partners, LLP

Harold Kaplan
Consultant

Martin L. King, III
CEO, Realizing the Dream

Mimi Murray Digby Marziani
Counsel, Democracy Program, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law

Meghan McCain
Columnist, Author, Blogger, and MSNBC Contributor

Kenneth B. Mehlman
Head of Global Public Affairs, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., and Former RNC Chairman

Nicco Mele
Partner, EchoDitto

Steven M. Pesner
Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer Feld LLP

Andrew Rasiej
Founder, Personal Democracy Forum

Liba Rubenstein
Corporate Social Responsibility, News Corporation

Steve Sugerman
President, Sugerman Communications Group

Sara Taylor
President, BlueFront Strategies, and Former White House Director of Political Affairs

Sean Treglia
President, The Treglia Group, and President, L.A. City Ethics Commission

Joe Trippi
President, Trippi and Associates

Madeline Wachtel

Tova Andrea Wang
Senior Democracy Fellow, Demos and Democracy Fellow, The Century Foundation

Gideon Yago
Former Correspondent, CBS and MTV News

Andrew Young III
President, Young Solutions