Before we headed to Iowa to ask the 2012 GOP candidates how they’d protect our right to vote, I stopped by the Current TV studio of The Young Turks to talk about why we were hitting the road. Host Michael Shure asked me about how new restrictions on the franchise this election cycle play into our work. I told him they go hand in hand:

Enough is enough with some of these laws in some of these states. People are trying to roll back the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which said we’re going to take a good hard look at any proposed changes in states with a history of discrimination… from Texas to Florida, wherever. Any attempt to restrict the franchise. Whether it’s voter ID or taking back early voting is terrible, and it’s very closely connected with what we’re doing at Why Tuesday.

Watch our entire conversation. (more…)

Posted in Election 2012, WT? in the news | 1 Comment »

Happy Iowa Caucus day! It seems like ages ago we set out to get all of the 2012 presidential candidates on the record about how they’d protect your right to vote. Tonight we’ll find out who will win the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucus. But why vote today, a Tuesday? That’s exactly the question I answer in an op-ed on CNN.com:

The short answer: We vote on Tuesday for absolutely no good reason. This is true especially when you consider the United States, arguably the world’s most famous democracy, has ranked near the bottom of all nations in voter participation for more than half a century. And that’s not because, as Mitt Romney suggested to me last month, we need great candidates to increase voter turnout. Heard of JFK? Reagan? (more…)

Posted in Election 2012, Why do we vote on Tuesday? | 5 Comments »

Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum don’t know why we vote on Tuesday. Mitt Romney thinks good candidates will increase voter turnout. And Michele Bachmann stands on an apple box when speaking at the podium. Those are a few things I learned after three days on the ground in Iowa, home of our first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucuses.

On January 3rd, voters in Iowa will start the nominating process for the Republican presidential nominee and in all likelihood, voter participation will not be good. It hasn’t been for the last fifty-plus years, and all indications are that isn’t going to be any better this time around.

Making matters worse, new obstacles to casting a ballot across the nation are so bad Attorney General Eric Holder spoke up last week with a major address at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin, Texas. His message: nearly half a century after LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act, our right to vote is in jeopardy.

How will our presidential candidates protect our right to vote? Now seemed as good a time as ever to bring this vital question to the 2012 candidates campaigning in Iowa, so we teamed up with Participant Media’s TakePart, and that’s exactly what we did. (more…)

Posted in Election 2012 | 1 Comment »

Our co-founder and resident scholar Norman J. Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute appeared with legendary political journalist Jeff Greenfield on the PBS series Need To Know last week to discuss “Making Congress Work.” They were joined by Mickey Edwards, the former Republican Congressman from Oklahoma and Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper of Tennessee.

Laura LeBlanc at PBS provides context for this conversation:

Congress has never been very popular, but its public image is currently at a historic low. Recent approval ratings for the first branch of government range from only 9 to 13 percent, depending on whom you ask, and frustration is coming from both sides of the political aisle… As a body, Congress is more polarized than ever.

Amongst all of the topics discussed in their nearly 20-minute chat was how to raise voter participation. Norm suggested mandatory voting and also Weekend Voting, as you might suspect. The discussion of voter participation starts at the 8-minute mark. (more…)

Posted in Election 2012, Election Reform | 1 Comment »

Yes, indeed, I did quote Chris Rock yesterday on MSNBC when talking about our efforts to making voting as accessible, convenient and reliable for all Americans. I spoke with host Thomas Roberts about the Weekend Voting Act and ways the franchise is being restricted this election cycle.

Thomas kicked off our chat with an important question:

Why have the rules around this vote not changed and stuck around so long as modern day society has obviously advanced from having to worry about our harvest and leaving from home on a Sunday night to get somewhere by Tuesday?

To find out my answer, watch the video. (more…)

Posted in Chris Rock, Election 2012, Weekend voting | 1 Comment »

Less than a month ago I was in Phoenix talking about the work we do to make voting easier for all Americans at TEDxPhoenix. Yesterday I made a return engagement, via satellite, to talk with Pat McReynolds on Phoenix’s CBS 5 all about our movement. I couldn’t have introduced the segment any better than Pat did:

Have you ever wondered why we vote on the first Tuesday in November? Well, the answer may be an interesting historical fact but it doesn’t make a lot of sense in modern day society.

Pat asked me about why elected officials haven’t been receptive to moving Election Day to the weekend, the role apathy plays in low voter turnout, and more. Watch the video to check out our complete conversation. (more…)

Posted in Arizona | No Comments »