The Weekend Voting Act, which would move Election Day from the Tuesday after the first Monday in November to Saturday and Sunday, was reintroduced to Congress this week. Here are the details:

Washington, D.C.— Today, Reps. Steve Israel (D-NY) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY) announced legislation to move 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.” (more…)

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Major shout out to our advisory board member Meghan McCain who converted Larry King to a weekend voting supporter while appearing on his presidential debate after show on ORA TV. Meghan, who joined our effort at our re-launch in November 2011, broke it down for King.

I have no problem with the Electoral College. I actually have a bigger problem with the day we chose to vote. There’s actually this great orgainzation I’m a part of called Why Tuesday? That’s trying to change voting.

Meghan goes on to explain the antiquated reason America votes on Tuesdays to King and Margaret Cho and why it makes more sense for America to vote on the weekend. King responded by saying “I support that.” (more…)

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This election cycle we’ve partnered with Academy Award-winning Participant Media to produce Take Part on Tuesday. There you’ll find stories that bring the issues the candidates are talking about to life.

As part of the initiative, I’m hosing a new video series called Civics in a Minute in which we… you got it… explain U.S. civics lessons like the Electoral College or who picks the Vice President in about a minute.

Today’s topic: why we vote on Tuesdays.

The video contains a fact we don’t highlight enough, and is perhaps the most important statistic in the fight to move Election Day from Tuesday to the weekend:

15 states and tens of millions of Americans have Tuesday-ONLY voting, with no option for early or absentee voting.

Watch the video to find out which states will only let you vote on Tuesday. (more…)

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Two of the most hotly-contested primary states this year, South Carolina and Louisiana, produced their highest-ever voter turnout for a Republican presidential primary election while voting on Saturdays. Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary with the majority of the record-setting 21% of GOP primary voters who showed up on a Saturday in January. And over the weekend Rick Santorum took home the W in Louisiana when a record-breaking 917,046 people showed up to vote, according to this tweet from Trip Gabriel at the New York Times.

Though turnout at first seemed low in LA primary, it actually set a record: 186,400, up 25,000 from 2008. Motivated Santo voters?

— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) March 25, 2012

All of this points to what Cook County, Illinois Clerk wrote on The Huffington Post last week, that the time for weekend voting, and for congress to pass The Weekend Voting Act, has come. (more…)

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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. (more…)

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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…)

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