Yesterday President Barack Obama held a first-of-its-kind Presidential Google+ Hangout from the Roosevelt Room in the White House, answering questions from everyday Americans submitted through YouTube and posed live to him in a cool back-and-forth video chat.

We submitted a question, asking President Obama if he’d support moving Election Day to the weekend to increase America’s historically terrible voter participation. Our submission was endorsed by, amongst hundreds of others, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, U.S. Representative Steve Israel, and Why Tuesday? advisory board member Meghan McCain.

As the forum began a short clip from the question we recorded came on screen during the intro video, and you saw and heard me ask:

Why do we vote on Tuesday?

It was an exciting start to the forum, and some online noticed this, and tweeted as much. (more…)

Posted in Barack Obama, Election 2012, YouTube | No Comments »

UPDATE — 1/30/12: The Google+ Hangout with President Obama will take place today at 5:30ET. Our question (both the combined video question and text question) received hundreds of votes, and scores of similar questions were submitted. Incidentally, a question about making Election Day a national holiday to increase American voter turnout is one of the top voted questions on the White House’s very own petition site We The People, with over 11,000 votes as of this posting.

January 30th President Obama will be a part of a first-of-its-kind online forum where he’ll answer questions, live in a Google+ Hangout, from everyday Americans. We’ve submitted a question, asking the President to support moving Election Day to the weekend to increase America’s historically terrible voter turnout. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Why Tuesday? advisory board member Meghan McCain and U.S. Representative Steve Israel, the sponsor of the Weekend Voting Act, have tweeted their support for our question, and we want you to join them. (more…)

Posted in Barack Obama, Election 2012, Weekend voting | 1 Comment »

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – As with so many people across the globe, today is very near and dear to Why Tuesday?’s heart. This organization was founded in the spirit of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by William B. Wachtel whose father, Harry, was a close friend and advisor Dr. King. So today, we also salute the accomplishments of Why Tuesday? Board members Andrew Young and Martin Luther King, III. (more…)

Posted in Barack Obama, Civil Rights, D.C., Election administration, Election Reform, Martin Luther King, Jr., President Obama, WT? Advisory Board | 1 Comment »

This past week, Senator Herb Kohl (WI) and Representative Steve Israel (NY) introduced the Weekend Voting Act in Congress in an attempt to increase America’s voter participation. Despite unparalleled enthusiasm about the 2008 campaign, nearly 40% of Americans sat idle, at home, away from the voting booth, and American voter participation ranks near the bottom of all countries in the world!

So what might President-Elect Obama say about the idea of a Weekend Voting Act? Below, in his own words, is the President-Elect on the state of America’s voting system. I spoke with the President-Elect when he was still Senator Obama, in 2007, at the MTV/MySpace Presidential Dialogue at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Well, couple things. Number one, I think we have to make it easier to vote. And I’m assuming that “Why Tuesday?” is for in favor of, for example, having it one weekends so that more people can vote. Same-day registration I think in a lot of states has shown to make sense. You know, early voting is another way to encourage people and make it more convenient for them to vote. But I think that, more than that, we also have to change what people are voting for. And if we don’t have serious campaign finance reform legislation, if we are not restricting the power of lobbyists and special interests to determine what the agenda is in Washington then people are going to get discouraged and no matter how easy you make it for them to participate they won’t participate.

To watch the video of my interview with President-Elect Obama, click here.

Still don’t know why we vote on Tuesday? Here’s the answer.

Photo of Democratic Presidential Nominee, Senator Barack Obama and his wife Michelle voting in Chicago, IL on election day by David Katz of Obama for America via Flickr.

Posted in Barack Obama, Election 2008, Election Reform, Existing laws, Herb Kohl, New York, Steve Israel, Weekend voting, Why do we vote on Tuesday?, Wisconsin | Comments Off