As I just Tweeted, Newsday is running this article today about U.S. Rep. Steve Israel’s gig as a Why Tuesday? Correspondent and his work to push the Weekend Voting Act, which he introduced. On that note, Doug Chapin of ElectionLine.org says in the article he doesn’t think changing Election Day is going to help voter participation.

“Tuesday has history and inertia on its side,” said Chapin. “Changing it is more trouble than leaving it where it is.”

With the article, Newsday is running some exclusive video we provided them of Rep. Israel’s interview with Rep. Gary Ackerman, of New York, like Israel.

* UPDATE: Please see the comment from Doug Chapin of electionline.org for a clarification.

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I’m in the Allen Room panel discussion called Mastering the New World of Online Political Video. Steve Grove of YouTube and the Why Tuesday? advisory board is moderating. NewsBusters, Brave New Films and TPM TV are the panelists. I’m speaking in the Idea Market during the next session. My bit is called Using Online Video for Grassroots Organizing.

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Barnett Zitron, Why Tuesday? Managing Director, and I at Personal Democracy Forum 2008, the conference about how technology is changing politics. Follow along via Why Tuesday? on Twitter.

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I’ll be at Personal Democracy Forum 2008 in New York next week, both for Why Tuesday? as a participant in the Idea Market, and in my role as vlogger for NPR Sunday Soapbox. I’ll be there alongside Weekend Edition Sunday Senior Supervisory Producer Davar Ardalan to bring you the best of the conference, including, perhaps, some interviews with web, political and other bigshots.

Here’s the info straight from the PDF folks:

Technology and the Internet are changing politics — now more than ever. Over the last five years, Personal Democracy Forum (PdF) has become the seminal gathering place for the growing community of people who understand the effects underway, and want to make sure they stay on top of what’s coming next.

This year PdF will be bigger and better than before–we’re expanding to two full days at a spectacular new venue overlooking Central Park, at Frederick P. Rose Hall, the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Photo of Personal Democracy Forum 2007 via Ed Falk on Flickr.

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On April 18th of this year at an event I attended at the Friar’s Club in New York City, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani was asked the following question:

“Do you know why Election Day is on Tuesday and would you consider moving it to make it more convenient for people to vote?”

He answered: “I don’t know why it’s on Tuesday but I wouldn’t change it. I am a traditionalist. I don’t even like the designated hitter rule.” (more…)

Posted in Election Reform, New York | 1 Comment »

We like to think that what we’re doing here is as much a journalism project, an open and honest look into the state of the American voting system, as it is a push for a national dialogue about election reform.

To that effect, Barnett and I are working furiously to get into the Networked Journalism Summit this week at the City Univeristy of New York. The summit is organized by Jeff Jarvis, CUNY professor and editor of both the Buzzmachine and PrezVid blogs. We’ve been trying to get into the summit since late September. We’re told it’s overbooked, but we happen to be in New York this week and will do everything we can, up until the last minute, to get in and learn about/share best practices with other like-minded folks. It promises to be a great event, and if you take a look at the attendees, many friends of Why Tuesday? will be there.

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In the last few days there’s been talk of abandoning touch-screen voting in New York, Brad Friedman retraced his summer election reform journey around the country, and there was discussion (transcript, via electionline.org) of a new regional primary plan in the Senate. That Senate plan drew a harsh response from both political parties, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

[The] plan faces opposition and skepticism, notably from the Democratic and Republican national committees, which both registered their opposition, and said the parties should control the nominating process.

“The responsibility for establishing the rules, procedures and dates for selecting delegates to national presidential nominating conventions lies, as it always has, with the national parties, not Congress,” GOP Chairman Robert Duncan wrote Alexander.

We’ll stay on top of it. Look for a vlog about our primary election calendar and why its important to the health of our elections in the weeks ahead.

Posted in New York, Election Reform, Roundups, Friends of WT?, Primary schedule, Electronic voting | Comments Off