In late June I first had the opportunity to meet Lindsay Campbell and her colleagues from the CBS Interactive news vlog MobLogic.tv at Personal Democracy Forum 2008 in New York City. We chatted briefly about voter participation and it made it into the July 4th episode of MobLogic.

Later that week I headed from Midtown, NYC to the streets of NoLita, NYC to check out their base of operations and talk more with Lindsay about the state of our voting system, what we do here at Why Tuesday?, and how it’s making election reform an issue our elected officials cannot afford to avoid. Check it out, and follow them on Twitter. And follow us on Twitter while you’re at it!

And one more thing — if you’re new here, meet our latest correspondent, U.S. Representative Steve Israel, sponsor of the Weekend Voting Act in the House of Representatives. Well, two more things. Why do we vote on Tuesday? Here’s the answer.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Posted in Election Reform, MobLogic.tv, Why do we vote on Tuesday?, Election 2008, Friends of WT?, WT? in the news, Existing laws | No Comments »

CNN Internet reporter Abbi Tatton today featured the video of the newest Why Tuesday? Correspondent, U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, during the 4PM and 6PM eastern time editions of The Situation Room.

Host Wolf Blitzer sang weekend voting’s praises, agreeing with Jack Cafferty when he said that changing voting “to a weekend is the single best idea I’ve heard in a long time.”

We’ll work on tracking down the video; for now we have the full transcript for you. (more…)

Posted in Why do we vote on Tuesday?, WT? in the news | No Comments »

This month, Weekend Edition Sunday is exploring what it means to be an American by way of American history. I contributed an essay about why we vote on Tuesday for today’s program, and this is the blog post which goes along with my essay.

Posted in NPR, Election Reform, Why do we vote on Tuesday?, WT? in the news | No Comments »

Now we know Americans have been asking “why do we vote on Tuesday?” — as we do here — for almost 100 years!

In doing some research today I stumbled upon this letter to the editor of the New York Times, with a response, dated November 1, 1910! George Hegeman of Newark, New Jersey was curious, like we are today, about why Americans vote on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. He wrote:

Will you inform me why it is that election day in many Sates is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November? I have asked many of my friends, but nobody knows. Newspaper people are supposed to know everything, so I appeal to you and would thank you very heartily for the information.

What did the Times respond? (more…)

Posted in Why do we vote on Tuesday? | No Comments »

In the current edition of The Nation, editor/publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel writes about the state of democracy in the United States — and despite record voter participation during the primary election cycle, she says we’re still in trouble:

There are clear signs of the decline of our democracy: registration and voter turnout lag far behind other democracies; ever larger numbers of citizens are disenfranchised; the cost of running for office is spiraling out of control, excluding citizens of average means from participating in government; and our media, the forum for the healthy debate so essential to any democracy, are increasingly incapable of acting in the public interest.

In a companion piece to her feature, vanden Heuvel calls Why Tuesday? one of the “leading prodemocracy groups working to build a more perfect union,” and she publishes a link to our website on their list of such groups. The complete list, with descriptions of respective groups, follows. (more…)

Posted in Election Reform, Why do we vote on Tuesday?, WT? in the news | No Comments »

Why do we vote on Tuesday? You will not find the answer below, in the Declaration of Independence. Nor is it in our Constitution. Find out why here.

This Independence Day, join us in working to make America’s democracy stronger as many before us have done. Click on the image above for a close-up view of the document that started it all.

Posted in Independence Day, Why do we vote on Tuesday? | 1 Comment »

I’ve been getting many, many e-mails over the last few hours about CNN contributor Roland Martin’s opinion piece on CNN.com titled “We should vote on the first Saturday in November.” CNN is running a “quick vote” to see what viewers think about moving Election Day to increase voter turnout, and it looks like CNN viewers like the idea.

I just e-mailed Martin to see if he knows about our efforts. Will keep you posted and let you know if he gets back to me. To read his piece, click here.

Posted in Election Reform, Why do we vote on Tuesday?, WT? in the news | Comments Off

I accepted the Film Your Issue “Issue to Action” award on behalf of team Why Tuesday? last night at Sony Studios in Culver City. Here it is in front of the Why Tuesday? Twitter page on my desk.

Posted in Election Reform, Why do we vote on Tuesday? | Comments Off