AUSTIN, TEXAS — I got into NN08 late last night to speak on the Creating Political Community Around Film panel, and to do some vlogging for NPR Sunday Soapbox.

Al Gore just got here. And P.S. — I have no idea why the picture is backwards. I tried to flip it.

* UPDATE 2:15PM CDT: Check out this picture of my panel mates, Wendy Cohen and Tracy Fleischman (not pictured: Jim Gilliam). The panel is in progress right now. Just showed the video of U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, the newest Why Tuesday? Correspondent.

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

U.S. Representative Steve Israel (D-NY) and I sat down yesterday in Washington, D.C., and he soon thereafter became the first member of Congress to report as a Why Tuesday? correspondent! Watch the video for our chat, and his report. Read the rest of this entry »

Will you be at Netroots Nation in Austin, Texas on Saturday? If so, come say hey at the “Creating Political Community Around Film” panel, I’ll be showing some Why Tuesday? vids and sharing our nonpartisan message: our voting system is broken and our elected leaders must do something to fix it.

Here’s the info about my panel.

Here’s the blurb from Netroots about Netroots:

Netroots Nation amplifies progressive voices by providing an online and in-person campus for exchanging ideas and learning how to be more effective in using technology to influence the public debate. Within that campus, we strengthen community, inspire action and serve as an incubator for progressive ideas that challenge the status quo and ultimately affect change in the public sphere.

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.

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? Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law is circulating a draft policy paper about universal voter registration, and it’s pretty interesting. This system would place the onus of registering to vote on the government, not the individual, by requiring municipalities, states and perhaps even Washington to reach out to all eligible voters with a way to register — rather than the other way around. Read the rest of this entry »