Why do we vote on Tuesdays?

in the country where i currently reside voting is always on sundays, participation levels reach 50% for purely municipal elections (which is often level of national elections in US), and people vote on paper with results known within 5-6 hours even though the electorate is highly split between 5 significant parties.

so let's not hear any excuses. fact is, both major parties have something at stake in (regionally variant) low participation.

will a grassroots movement arise to change this situation? unlikely.

Sent by tim in exile | 6:28 PM | 4-24-2008

I commend Jacob Soboroff for all efforts to stir interest in the confining nature of our voting system as currently set-up for Tuesdays. This is ludicrous and I must challenge the system to broaden the availability to voters in all upcoming elections. I'm embarrassed at the low voter turnout and at the fact we're still operating within these old and ridiculous confines.

Sent by Karen Davis | 6:33 PM | 4-24-2008

I think "I'm too busy" is most often an excuse that the nonvoting respondents used because they are embarrassed to say "I do not care enough to take 15-30 mins. of my time to go to the polls." It always amazes me how often people uncritically accept whatever people say to pollsters. In my life I've seen various reforms to make voting easier such as longer poll hours, easier absentee balloting, and motor-voter registration, but the participation continues to fall. I think many people do not believe it matters to their lives who is elected or continue their choices as the lesser of two or more evils.

I have no problem changing the voting day to Sunday but am willing to bet that it will not make more than a few percent change in the voting rate, at least after the first time where there might be a novelty bump.

Since Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are respectively the sabbath for different major religions, could selecting one of these for voting day be a violation of the First Amendment?

Sent by Kevin L. | 6:03 PM | 4-25-2008

I would like to see if the voter turnout is higher in Oregon where, as I understand it, they vote by mail. I recently switched to voting early by absentee ballot after being tired of hauling my preschoolers along with me to the polls--and I love it! I can sit at my computer and research canidates I am not familiar with as I fill in my ballot. There is also added bonus of no hanging chads AND avoiding the concerns with security of the new touch screens. I imagine you have fewer people to train as poll workers too. Yes, there would be other concerns about voter fraud or selling ballots but I imagine Oregon has taken some measures to face these challenges. I'd like to hear more states consider switching to all mail ballots.

Sent by Tania Duffin | 6:56 PM | 4-26-2008

We always talk about voting reform just before a big election, but once the politicians have been voted in under our current system, there's no impetus to reform it.
We need:
- Either voting on the weekend (all weekend)or, make the Tuesday voting day a national/state holiday.
- Free public transportation on voting day with increased route coverage, especially for low-income neighborhoods.
- Reform of the electoral college system, whereby the electoral votes of each state are split proportionally with the popular vote (each state needs to ratify this).
- More polling stations.
- Public voter awareness TV/radio campaigns.
- All voting systems must have a paper ballot or back-up system.

Sent by Shawn Goddard | 8:57 AM | 4-27-2008