This week the long-awaited national memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opens in Washington. Our group was founded to honor the memory and continue the struggle for voting rights that Dr. King started, by some of the very people he knew and worked with.

The memorial project has been nearly 30 years in the making. The Washington Post is running a special report this week, and as part of it there is a timeline that shows the steps it took to get the monument built.

Our co-founders William Wachtel and Ambassador Andrew Young will be in Washington for the dedication this weekend, and we hope you’ll check back here for updates.

Update: This just in from @MLKMemorial on Twitter — the ceremony has been postponed due to Hurricane Irene.

Dedication Ceremony will be moved to a date not yet determined – Sept. or Oct. 2011. Will announce details as soon as avail. #DedicateMLK

Photo of MLK Memorial via Jacquelyn Martin/AP

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Recently Stephen Colbert took an an issue we’ve covered here before, voter ID. In the words of Colbert’s website:

To safeguard against voter fraud and ensure that only the “right people” get elected, Republicans pass laws requiring voters to show government-issued photo IDs.

To watch my vlog about how long it would take to get a voter ID card in my hometown, click here.

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Our friends at YouTube’s Citizentube have posted this video of a pro-democracy rally in Malaysia.

The Guardian breaks down why the rally is taking place:

Tensions have mounted in this normally staid state, often called “Moderate Malaysia”, after a group of 62 non-governmental organisations known locally as Bersih 2.0 proposed a peaceful protest, dubbed the “Walk for Democracy”, against alleged vote-rigging and other electoral abuses in a recent state election.

While our nation could a pro-democracy rally (or many) to spur changes in our voting system, with such terribly low voter participation, these types of gatherings are not something we see here in the United States.

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Earlier this week Ralph Nader hosted a forum, as part of his Debating Taboos series, between our co-founder Norm Ornstein and Fred Smith about mandatory voting. In this clip, Norm discusses Why Tuesday? and weekend voting. He makes clear he thinks, as we do, the reason we vote on Tuesday is a bit… outdated.

Why do we vote on Tuesdays? It’s not because it’s written in the Constitution or it came down from the framers. It has to do with market day back in the 19th century. I’d like to move our elections to the weekend. Have a 24-hour voting period from noon Saturday to noon Sunday. Maybe have a couple of days of early voting. You need to make it easier for people to vote, you need to make it easier for people to register, you need to move away from the notions that there are incentives for parties to keep this limited to a fringe or small group of activists and open up a process and make it less difficult for people to vote.

To watch the full debate, click here.

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According to the Pew Foundation case study The Real Cost of Voter Registration, it costs the State of Oregon between $4.11 – $7.67 per voter registration transaction. Therein lies another crazy statistic about our election system.

Canada, for example, uses existing government data to auto-register eligible voters. This system costs roughly $0.26 per voter.

Something closer to home? Arizona allows residents to register online. One voter registration paper card in Arizona costs the State $0.83, however online registration costs $0.03 per voter.

If we cut wasteful spending out of our election system, moving election day to the weekend would be a piece of cake and voter turnout would increase.

Photo of money toilet paper via sabtheartist.com.

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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. (more…)

Posted in Election 2012, Election Reform | 1 Comment »