Why Tuesday? A Voting Story…

James Carmichael

Why Tuesday? A Voting Story…

Let me tell you about my day today. I am going to wake up a bit before 6am to try to complete an assignment for work and still make it in for a 9 o'clock meeting. The morning will be fairly packed- it's a big day, after all- but by 4:30 or so things will have hopefully settled enough that I can attend to outstanding emails and phonecalls on upcoming projects. My new Macbook has started to turn itself off of its own capricious accord, so after work I need to swing by the Apple store. And at 7:30pm I've promised to meet my parents and discuss some family business. Somewhere in there- I'm counting on the Mac not taking too long- I'll find time to vote. This is the best I can do.

And I work for an Election Reform organization.

Many of us will go to the polls with questions today, but one simple one may go unasked: Why am I voting today? Why do we vote in the middle of the workweek, when people have work, childcare, and chores to look after? Why Tuesday?

Why Tuesday? is a non-partisan election reform organization focused on asking that question (the name sorta tips our hand). I'm not going to tell you the answer- for that you'll need to check the site or this Op-Ed in today's Daily News- but I will say that the reason is basically a piece of trivia having nothing to do with the way we live today. Common sense and Census data indicate that, for many Americans, voting on a workday may not be the most convenient solution. Given the challenges that our participatory democracy is facing, we believe that a conversation about structural and procedural election reforms, reforms designed to get more Americans into the voting booths, is one of our country's most pressing needs.

It's received wisdom- mostly because it's received numerical fact- that American voter turnout is a problem. Since World War II, about 50% of the voting age population has participated in the average election. The number dips below 40% if you only count midterms. The cause is less universally accepted, but it seems very reasonable to assert that the way we vote- how and when- might be as much if not more to blame than the apathy about which we hear so much.

The question it comes down to is simple: how can we assess specific election reform proposals and then change the procedures of voting- when we vote, how we vote- to do the best we can for the greatest number of Americans?

Am I writing to argue with certainty that Tuesday voting isn't what's best, and that "fixing" it is necessary? No- we don't have enough information to make that claim. But that's part of the problem: the question of moving Election Day or making it a holiday, as well as others questions that are equally important, is not being asked often or seriously enough. Some states have turned themselves into laboratories of reform, and the results are edifying. This is what we mean by "seriously" asking the question: a push on the part of elected leaders to assess different solutions on the basis of where they've been tried or data and expertise solicited by legislatures themselves. This process could happen at any level- the States are already leading the way, while Federal legislation could quickly make whatever reform(s) emerged from the analysis on top universal.

We recently launched a competition called Get Out the Why. If you visit the site, you'll see clips of elected officials being asked if they know why we vote on Tuesdays (and generally not knowing the answer). But what's also very interesting about these clips is that many of these officials- including members of both parties- are willing to express, on camera, a commitment to election reform. Many do so in more than a general way, suggesting specific initiatives- weekend voting, multi-day voting, making Election Day a holiday- that they feel would be particularly helpful.

If we can succeed in pressuring our leadership to turn the rhetoric of reform and inclusion into action and quantified analysis, maybe in two years we won't just be questioning how we run elections and worrying about who may be be excluded, but also celebrating new steps that have been taken towards assuring that no one is.

James Carmichael: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 1:15 AM, Nov 07, 2006 in
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Comments

I've been working on election day stuff since the very wee hours this morning and so may be more bleery-eyed and sleep-deprived than is suitable -- but -- I don't quite understand what your post, your website or your organization is about.

While I've been involved in election practice from time to time, I do not understand what reform you are proposing. To me, it seems there are a forest fill of reform organizations, the plans and proposals of which seem attractive but hard to evaluate. Have you considered being more specific? I'm called back to work.

Daniel-
Thanks for your post. The first thing I should say is that I wrote the post in a somewhat bleary-eyed state, and so you're right to point out that it's not the clearest piece of prose.

I appreciate your comments about the org as well- let me see if I can clarify our basic positions:

* America has a voter turnout problem
* any and all barriers to legitimate voters exercising the franchise need to be abolished
* we think that significantly altering the day on which we vote (Tuesday)- either by moving it, making the day a holiday, or instituting multi-day voting (either in-person or by mail)- could have a meaningful positive effect on turnout. So we are, basically, the day-of-the-week folks. But that's right next door to being the multi-day-voting folks, since if you advocate opening the polls early on Saturday you're functionally proposing both reforms; the issues bleed into each other.
* we want our leadership on board with an election reform agenda- meaning that it becomes a top issue for which a solution is considered and then proposed in legislative form.

You're right that there are a bunch of things we're not proscriptive about. I don't personally know which of the three options above would be best- I think any of them would constitute an improvement. We're also open about strategy- reform at both the State and the Federal level are of value. What we're about is finding ways (like the GOTW competition) to drive attention and urgency to this issue, through fun ideas like the competition and direct outreach to legislators, until legislation is put forward. I think what you're understandably responding to is the fact that there's something of a basket of issues here. We embrace the basket- since most of these reform measures aren't mutually exclusive- and are reaching out to other organizations (both more and less specialized than us) to try to see how we can be mutually beneficial in pushing our respective issues.