The GOTW Road Team caught up with Russ Feingold at his 999th Listening and Learning session in his home state of Wisconsin. Elected to the Senate in 1992, Senator Feingold has made a name for himself as an outspoken representative whose conscience guides his policy decisions.

That didn’t help him answer the question, though; it flummoxed the amiable Senator completely. Check out the clip to get the whole deal.

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Road Team: At an event touting Indiana’s newest biodiesel fueling station, we had a chance to catch up with Senator Richard Lugar. Senator Lugar has held his office for thirty years, and serves as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In other words, he knows his stuff. But again, even though he’d clearly given thought to the idea of making Election Day a holiday, he didn’t know why we vote on Tuesdays- although he seemed glad when Jake could fill him in.

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Another installment from the GOTW Road Team. Congressman Tim Ryan was generous enough to give us a few minutes of time; the Congressman’s had a long career in public service, and has been an up-and-coming Member of the House since 2003. He thinks that a national holiday might be the way to go, and wants to preserve the collective ritual of everyone voting together. When we asked him the question, he seemed to have some idea- check out the clip for his answer.

We don’t generally travel by horse and buggy (or wagon, or carriage) anymore, of course. Most of us travel with 160 horses under the hoods of our cars, or by public transport. Makes us wonder: does the reasoning behind Tuesday voting still hold up?

The search continues…

Posted in Election Reform, Election 2006, Get Out The Why?, Ohio | Comments Off

Introducing Jake Soboroff and Barnett Zitron, the GOTW road team. While you good people out there in Internet-ville explore Why Tuesday’s home site and go about getting and posting your own clips, they’ll be traveling around the country, talking to leaders about election reform and asking the question. Check back here for regular updates.

And now, from Jake:

For our first stop, we caught up with Arlen Specter at an open house at Drexel University. Senator Specter is a 26-year veteran in the Senate and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee; he’s a leading voice in his Party and the Senate. The Senator was a total gentleman, and clearly cares about election reform and voter engagement. But even he didn’t really know the reason we vote on Tuesdays; actually, he thinks that moving Election Day to the weekend might improve turnout.

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Welcome, and thanks for checking out Get Out the Why. We’re hoping and betting that this post will be buried beneath video submissions in the coming weeks, but for now it’s a nice chance to tell you a little bit about why we’re doing this.

We’re concerned about voter turnout in America. Lots of people are- if you’re reading this, you may well be. And we appreciate that it’s a very complex debate. But we think one area that’s often overlooked is simple and structural: why do we hold Election Day, the most widely publicized and best known opportunity to exercise the franchise, on a single day in the middle of the work/school week?

When Why Tuesday? got started, about a year ago, we started asking everyone this question- do you know why we vote on Tuesdays? And no one did. Really, no one; we asked people whose professional lives depend on Tuesday elections- politicians, commentators, and journalists- and no one knew. The historical reason is interesting (you can read about it at www.whytuesday.org), but it also relates to a serious question in the present: Tuesday voting was selected for the way American voters lived 160 years ago; shouldn’t we at least consider whether it’s time to update our system for how we live in the 21st century?

GOTW is a fun way to get everyone involved in this debate. We’re not advocating a particular solution, and we welcome a discussion on this blog of anything geared to helping more Americans vote. We’re also not out to “get” any politicians here- our goal is to get the question out there, putting it in people’s minds in an engaging way. We’re hoping that GOTW will encourage many Americans- both elected officials and private citizens- to consider the merits and drawbacks of Tuesday voting, and how reform in this and other areas might help all Americans exercise our most fundamental right and responsibility.

Posted in Election Reform, Get Out The Why? | 8 Comments »