Ashton a BRAD BLOG Reader? And Yes, We're Happy to Endorse the Proposition and the Constitutional Amendment it Would Require...
By Brad Friedman on 11/17/2008, 5:05pm PT  

During a discussion on last Friday's Real Time w/ Bill Maher on HBO, the topic of electoral reform came up. There were the usual discussions of electoral college concerns, primaries vs. caucuses, and then Ashton Kutcher broke in with a point that may well signal he's a reader of The BRAD BLOG, as I believe we were the first (only?) to call for Wednesday as a national election/voting holiday, for the precise reasons that Kutcher points out in the following video clip (appx 1 minute)...


Hey, Ashton! Drop us a line! Given the above, as well as other comments you made on last Friday's show (one of them we posted earlier here), we'd be delighted to make you our first official BRAD BLOG Celebrity Ambassador At-Large! No, seriously. We could use one.

For the record, we most recently wrote about Wednesday as a national election holiday in our piece last week warning about the dangers of the increasing move towards the bad idea of "Vote-by-Mail" elections. Quoth yours truly at the time:

[M]aking Election Day a holiday would ease the crush of voters turning out at once (at poll opening before work, during work lunch hour, or after the work day). Though I'd recommend changing Election Day to a Wednesday when making it a holiday, so that a Tuesday holiday doesn't simply turn into a long out of town 4-day holiday weekend for many.

BTW, while we fully support making Wednesday an official national Election holiday, for the reasons Kutcher describes (and a few more), such a move would likely require a Constitutional amendment, unfortunately. But we could use one anyway for that electoral reform and a number of others (e.g., Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s amendment to ensure a Constitutional "right to vote," as well as making it a felony offense to deny even one voter that right, as originally advocated by the legendary Leon County, FL, Supervisor of Elections, Ion Sancho.)

Kutcher's quick comments on this topic are transcribed in full below...

KUTCHER: How about let's just start with one small thing, right? Let's just let people have the day off on the day that they vote. [applause] And with that, let's make it a Wednesday. Right? Because if you put it on Friday, people are gonna make it a three-day weekend, and you're just gonna have more absentee ballots. If you put it on Monday, people are gonna take the three...Make it a Wednesday. Call it Colombus Day or whatever you want to call it...

MAHER: Hump Day!

KUTCHER: ...or whatever, we invented a holiday for him...

MAHER: It's Hump Day already!

KUTCHER: Make it Hump Day, make it Election Wednesday, so people don't take the vacations and they aren't out of their election places on the day that we do the free election vote. [applause]

As long promised, The BRAD BLOG has covered your electoral system 2008, fiercely and independently, like no other media outlet in the nation. Please support our work with a donation to help us keep going. If you like, we'll send you some great, award-winning election integrity documentary films in return! Details on that right here...
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