U.S. Reps. Introduce Bill to Move Election Day

March 9th, 2012

Fantastic news! This morning United States Representatives Steve Israel and John Larson announced they have reintroduced the Weekend Voting Act, which would move federal Election Day to the weekend so more people can vote, into Congress. For the past seven years we have worked to make election reform, in particular the absurd and antiquated reason we vote on Tuesday an issue our elected officials cannot afford to avoid, and this legislation takes our movement one step closer to our goal.

Literally millions of people have been made aware of the backwards reason Americas vote on Tuesday by watching our videos at WhyTuesday.org. With the reintroduction of the Weekend Voting Act, now 535 members of Congress will have the opportunity to add their names to that list by supporting a bill that will make voting accessible for all Americans.

William J. Wachtel, the founder of Why Tuesday? said today: “I founded Why Tuesday? in 2005 in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to shine a light on America’s broken voting system, and to make election reform an issue our elected officials could not avoid. With the reintroduction of the Weekend Voting Act the onus is now on the members of Congress, all whom were elected on a Tuesday, to show they are more concerned with the health of our democracy than their own job security.

The complete press release from the Congress of the United States is below.

U.S. REPS. ISREAL AND LARSON ANNOUNCE LEGISLATION TO MOVE ELECTION DAY TO WEEKEND
Voting at more convenient time will increase voter turnout

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Congressmen Steve Israel (D-NY) and John Larson (D-CT) announced legislation to change Election Day from the first Tuesday in November to the first full weekend, thereby making it more convenient for voters and increasing voter turnout.

Rep. Israel said, “Voting should be easy and accessible. This is why, in 1845, Congress decided that voting on a Tuesday made sense. It was the easiest day for farmers in our agrarian society to get to the polls. But times have changed, and Tuesday voting just doesn’t make sense anymore. By moving Election Day from a single day in the middle of the work week to a full weekend, we are encouraging more working Americans to participate. Our democracy will be best served when our leaders are elected by as many Americans as possible.”

Rep. Larson said, “As a representative democracy, voting is a fundamental responsibility for all Americans and the system should be as accessible as possible for as many as possible. Unfortunately, the system we have now was designed to meet our country’s needs over 160 years ago and it no longer makes any sense. It’s time we stop making people choose between exercising their responsibility to vote, and meeting their everyday obligations.”

The Weekend Voting Act would allow for national polls to be open from 10 a.m. (Eastern Time) Saturday to 6 p.m. (ET) Sunday in the 48 contiguous states. Election officials would be permitted to close polls during the overnight hours if they determine it would be inefficient to keep them open.

The long-standing tradition of holding federal elections on the first Tuesday of November began with an act of Congress in 1845. Tuesday was selected for its comparative convenience because it was a designated “court day” and the day in which land-owners would typically be in town to conduct business. The tradition was based on the then-agrarian American society.

Currently, most polls are open only 12 hours (from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.) for one day. As seen in the 2008 and 2004 elections and primaries, long lines in many polling places kept voters waiting longer than one or two hours. Voter turnout in the United States has long lagged behind similar democracies around the world. Only 47 percent of eligible voters actually voted in the United States. In Italy, where voting takes place on the weekends, 92 percent of eligible voters voted.

Ambassador Andrew Young, Chairman of the Board of Why Tuesday?, a 501c3 non-partisan organization founded in 2005 to find solutions to increase voter turnout and participation in elections , said, “I want to commend Reps. Israel and Larson for their steadfast commitment to the issue of voting rights and protecting the right to vote. Through the challenging times of the sixties I worked alongside our nation’s leaders on both side the aisle, and of course Dr. King, to remove barriers to the franchise. Moving Election Day from Tuesday to Saturday and Sunday would be an extraordinary step to make sure all Americans have the opportunity to make their voices heard.”

Norman J. Ornstein, Why Tuesday? Board Member and Resident Scholar said, “Americans vote at a rate far behind most nations in the world — we rank 138th of 172 countries. Of the G8 nations, we rank dead last in voter turnout and five of the seven nations that vote ahead of us vote on a weekend or national holiday. Despite convenience voting options for Americans in 35 states, in 15 states voting is Tuesday-or-bust. It’s time to make this common-sense change to our voting system.”

Posted by Jacob Soboroff

Weekend Voting Takes TED’s Main Stage

March 3rd, 2012

Attendees at the TED conference, “the place for glimpses into the future,” according to the Wall Street Journal, got an up close and personal look at the work we do here to increase American voter turnout when my talk was played on the main stage yesterday in Long Beach. It was quite a journey to make it happen, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a dream come true for me and my colleagues here to get our message out to some of the brightest thinkers on the planet.

Here’s how it happened: for the second year in a row I was lucky enough to attend TED Active, the Palm Springs satellite feed of the TED conference, and this year I was invited to give a talk about Why Tuesday. So I did — when else — on Tuesday, the opening day of the conference. And yesterday, on the final day of the conference, Chris Anderson introduced my talk — selected by his team — to the audience in Long Beach. Take a look at some of the tweets and photos from my talk.

Me giving the talk in Palm Springs on Tuesday:

Some Twitter reaction:

Why do we vote on Tuesday? “Absolutely no good reason whatsoever.” -@jacobsoboroff #TEDActive #TEDYou

— TEDActive (@TEDActive) February 28, 2012

Why do we vote on Tuesday’s?A dumb law that should be changed. Join in get involved. It’s a bill! #TEDActive

— Lisa VanRosendale (@lvanrosendale) February 28, 2012

Photos from yesterday’s rebroadcast of the speech on the main stage in Long Beach, with audience reaction shot:

And tweets about the talk:

Dude just did #TED talk about moving voting day from Tuesday to Saturday to increase ridiculously low US voter turn-out. I’m a huge fan!

— Paul Rieckhoff (@PaulRieckhoff) March 2, 2012

Just learned there’s a movement to move voting day from Tuesday to the weekend so more people can vote – @WhyTuesday #TED

— Adam Ostrow (@adamostrow) March 2, 2012

@jacobsoboroff Great job on @whytuesdayIt was received well here in Long Beach. Voting on weekend is a no brainer. #TED

— Stephen DeBerry (@stephendeberry) March 2, 2012

OMG go go go @jacobsoboroff!! BRILLIANT!! RT @benedictnelson: @WhyTuesday got the upgrade to the #TED Long Beach stage. Right on! #TEDActive

— rachelsklar (@rachelsklar) March 2, 2012

Hopefully we’ll have video to share with you soon. In the mean time, if you haven’t yet, please sign our petition to get involved in our movement. And thank you to Chris Anderson, Kelly Stoetzel, Nick Weinberg and the entire TED team for making the talk possible.

Posted by Jacob Soboroff

Romney Is Stumped, Too

February 27th, 2012

Mitt Romney doesn’t know why we vote on Tuesday — joining fellow 2012 presidential candidates Santorum, Gingrich and Paul in being stumped by a question that is crucial to the day they live for: Election Day.

We ask the question because American voter turnout ranks near the bottom of all nations in the world, and we hope that when the candidates learn the absurd and antiquated answer it will get them and others thinking about ways to best increase America’s horrendous voter turnout — including voting on the weekend.

Here’s the exchange between Romney and Michigan journalist Brody O’Connell:

O’CONNEL: Do you know why historically elections are held on Tuesdays?

ROMNEY: I have no idea.

Romney was asked by O’Connell, a multimedia journalist at Michigan’s WPBN-WTOM TV 7&4, as part of a larger interview. O’Connell had filed a report about our movement last week, and his question to Romney was a follow-up. Watch their complete exchange yourself.

With Romney’s response, we can officially say the 2012 Why Tuesday? Candidate Challenge is now complete, with all of the 2012 candidates on the record about what they’d do to get American voter participation out of the basement. I personally spoke with Santorum and Gingrich last December in Iowa, and Ron Paul four years ago in that state.

In case you missed it, here’s Gingrich being stumped:

And Santorum:

And Paul, back in 2008:

You can support our effort to move Election Day to the weekend by signing our petition.

Posted by Jacob Soboroff

Why Tuesday? on FOX News

February 23rd, 2012

Earlier this morning I joined host Jonathan Hunt on his FOX News “On The Hunt” program to talk about Why Tuesday? and the work we’re doing to try and increase American voter participation.

We spent nearly ten minutes talking about how absurd it is that the United States still, 167 years after Tuesday Election Day was picked to make voting convenient for an agrarian society traveling by horse-and-buggy, that we vote in the middle of the work week. We had a laugh when I said this to the host:

I do not often travel by horse and buggy in 2012, Jonathan, and I’d imagine you don’t either.

Throughout the conversation Jonathan read viewer questions and feedback from the FOXNews.com online audience, including comments about voting online, voter ID and more. You can watch our complete conversation here.

Posted by Jacob Soboroff

Bill Maher Asks: Why Vote Tuesday?

February 20th, 2012

After HBO’s Bill Maher wraps up his on-air show he shifts into “Overtime,” an online extra where he continues the conversation with his panelist. This week one of the questions he posed was one familiar to us here: “how much would voter turnout be affected if elections were held on Saturdays?” Maher answered his own question:

Oh, I think a lot. I think a lot more people would vote — and this is what most countries have — it’s a holiday — it should be a holiday — you shouldn’t have to like leave work or maybe not be able to vote at all because you have to work.

Watch the complete conversation, with former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, reporter Erin McPike and author Stephen Moore at the 2:40 mark.

Are you with us… and Maher? If so, sign our petition to move Election Day to the weekend.

Curious why the heck we vote on Tuesday anyway? Click here for the silly answer.

Thanks to our supporter Daniel Lippman for brining this to our attention.

Posted by Jacob Soboroff