Thursday, May 8th, 2008
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Thanks to those who let us know Tom Brokaw shouted us out during MSNBC’s election-night coverage on Tuesday! If you missed it, watch the video. Here’s a transcript of Brokaw’s remarks. You can learn more about us here and find out why we vote on Tuesday by clicking here. (more…) If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! |
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Many of you were in touch to let us know about Tom Brokaw mentioning our efforts on MSNBC last night during the election coverage. Here is the transcript of his conversation with Chris Matthews, from MSNBC:
MATTHEWS: Tom, you know, back in—we watched the movie that other night in that Washington showing of the film about the recount in 2000, and if you think about what happened after that vote, and the Supreme Court’s intervention, it was African-Americans in the Congress.
Remember how zealous they were in trying to get that rejected, that Supreme Court intervention? It was the strongest community in the country on the hottest issue and the hottest group—community of concern about that matter, the way that was decided in 2000.
BROKAW: Well, they continue to feel—Andy Young is—led a real crusade in this country to have more focus, once again, on the Voting Rights Act. He thinks they need to go to the next step now. “Why Tuesday?” is the name of his campaign, because so many African-American voters and people at the lower end of the socio-economic scale, whatever their color, can’t always get to a polling place on a Tuesday.
And then there’s the Supreme Court decision now which has caused some controversy in Indiana that you have to have a photo ID of some kind. I think that may be less important in the final analysis. But it’s worth examining how you can make it possible for working class Americans, especially African-Americans, many of whom work two jobs, that they can get to the polling place easily.
So Andy Young, who is an old soldier, of course, in Dr. King’s crusade, and then the other young black legislators who are coming up in the South, those who were already in office, people like Harold Ford, we’ll be hearing from tonight. They have a big stake in all of this in making sure that their vote counts and that they are a new kind of constituency, not just on autopilot for the Democratic Party anymore.
If you’re new here, you can learn more about Ambassador Andrew Young and other members of our team. Do you know why we vote on Tuesday? If not, find out here.
Screen grab of Brokaw, Brian Williams and Tim Russert from MSNBC.
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
I’m joining the roster of contributors to NPR Sunday Soapbox, a political blog from the folks at Weekend Edition Sunday. I’ll be vlogging, naturally, about the state of our voting system. Click the screen grab below to check out Sunday Soapbox.
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Why Tuesday? Board Member Norman J. Ornstein
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) is one of the good guys in Congress — smart, thoughtful, decent and hardworking. Now, fortunately, he is turning his attention and considerable energies to election reform, a broadly defined issue.
It is fortunate for two reasons: First, there are big issues out there and enough people distrustful of the electoral process or cynical about it to create a real crisis of governance the next time we have a very close election. Second, precious few lawmakers have decided to devote their time and attention to this topic.
Despite the emotions raised by problems with voting, this is not a slam-dunk winner of an issue politically. And those lawmakers who were instrumental in passing the Help America Vote Act in 2002 have either lost interest in the issue, are exhausted from it or believe we should wait awhile before acting again.
They are wrong. We do need to be careful about rushing to major reform without considering the costs and consequences; we are paying now for the rush to employ touch-screen devices known as DREs, or direct-recording electronic machines. And every major reform has to be absorbed by hapless election administrators who have neither the resources nor the trained personnel to make big changes on a frequent basis.
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
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Welcome to those of you who made your way here by way of the History Channel. Our founder William Wachtel is featured in Tom Brokaw’s KING documentary, a look at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy 40 years after his assassination. Watch John Legend perform U2’s Pride for the film, via YouTube. (more…) |
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
The 12th Annual Webby Awards today nominated us for the Best Political Blog of 2008! Winners will be announced on May 6, 2008 and honored at The 12th Annual Webby Awards in New York City on June 10th. The 12th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from over 60 countries and all 50 states!
Hailed as the “Oscars of the Internet” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video, and Mobile Websites. The awards are judged by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences, a global organization that includes David Bowie, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, AKQA Global Creative Director Rei Inamoto, “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, Real Networks CEO Rob Glaser, and The Weinstein Company’s Harvey Weinstein.
We are thrilled to be nominated for the Best Political Blog Webby. At a time when the majority of American citizens feel disenfranchised and do not participate in the democratic process, it is clear that our election system needs an upgrade. It is up to all of us to be a megaphone for this issue, and our Webby nomination validates that.
As a Webby nominee, we’re also eligible to win a People’s Voice Award. Voting is open to the public from April 8th to May 1st. All you have to do is register. Here’s where and how to vote:
http://pv.webbyawards.com/
Website>Society>Blog-Political>Why Tuesday?
Monday, April 7th, 2008
Why Tuesday? advisory board member Gideon Yago was on Air America radio Saturday discussing our efforts. Gideon appeared on the Ring of Fire program.
Have a listen to his appearance by clicking play below. Gideon’s segment starts at the 55:48 mark.
Photo of Gideon via kerrikol on flickr.
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
New here? Watch this report from producer John Carluccio for Current TV about our efforts, and for the answer to our favorite question: “why do we vote on Tuesday?” The piece is airing on TV now. For more on who we are, go check out some of our bios. To hear what 13 of the 16 presidential candidates think about what we’re doing, check out the Why Tuesday? Candidate Challenge.
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
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CNN reporter Carol Costello filed a piece this afternoon about election reform during the Situation Room with Wolf Blizter. The story pegs were Senator Bill Nelson’s election reform plan he announced today, and the efforts of our group. Take a look. * March 28th Update: Our advisory board member Jamie Carmichael notes an important point — that in the piece it is not extremely clear that a constitutional amendment is not required for early voting, to move voting day, or to enact many proposed election reforms, but rather to specifically abolish the Electoral College. So, while changing the way and day we vote isn’t exactly “simple,” we don’t necessarily have to amend the Constitution. |
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
Welcome to those of you who will be making your way here by way of the radio today. I’m scheduled be on the Pete Dominick show at 3PM EDT and the Rachel Maddow show between 8 and 9PM EDT to about our efforts. New here? We’re the recent winner of the MySpace IMPACT Award for Social Justice; check out the video. (more…)
Why Tuesday? is an effort to make America’s democracy stronger through increased voter participation. We work to make election reform an issue that our politicians cannot afford to avoid.
