Efforts made in the u. S. To adopt a similar model of voting on the weekends rather than on a tuesday. We want to hear from you in the first hour what you think about that, changing the voting election day from tuesday to the weekend. You may support it, opposed it, you can tell us why. Democrats, 2027488000. Epublicans, 2027488001. Nd independents, 2027488002 you can also post on our facebook page. And the boston globe from yesterday, a column taking a look at the French Election, but also the idea of the weekend voting and participation that took place. The writer says although turnout was lower than usual, it was well above u. S. Elections, fueling the longrunning debate whether American Election should be held on the weekend and effort to make it easier and more convenient. Voting sundays are always a popular day, you can feel it when you walk the streets. That was a harvard professor talking about the French Election, adding that there is a republican ceremony taking place, you see families voting together which would be harder to do on a workday. Michael levinson says, suppo rters of weekend elections would vote in greater numbers if they did not have to wait in line before and after work and worry about everyday pressures. The goal would be making voting a pleasant experience. Oft is from the cofounder wide tuesday, a nonprofit that advocates for weekend voting. We will redo more of the piece. We want your thoughts on weekend elections, instead of the normal tuesday we have in the u. S. You may appreciate that position, that was put out by Michael Levinsohn, you may oppose it, but call and tell us why. The number, democrats, 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. And independents, 2027488002. A bit more from the mike levinsohn piece. Others question whether americans are really shunning polling places because it is inconvenient. Putting elections on the week and will not solve the turnout if you do not have interesting elections. I was the massachusetts secretary of state who went on if it is an exciting election, people will vote, but if not they will not come out. Will be onnumbers the screen. As far as participation, the piece from the boston globe this morning highlights a couple of things as far as voter turnout. By pews a survey done Research Center last year, talking about other countries and in their precipitation rates are different from many United States. 89. 4 of participation rates taking place in the election in france. 2012, france, going to 71 for 71. 2 . And in the u. S. , they go back to 2012, with the percentage of the voting population participating 53. 6 . Followed by places like estonia, poland, japan. We get your thoughts this morning on weekend voting. , detroit,wen michigan. You are up. Caller good morning. I agree that foti should be as easy as possible and the weekend should be good voting should be as easy as possible and the weekend should be good. Instead of going on a weekday, where it is hard to park, people are working, things like that. You can take your family with you. And i believe we should have a paper trail, in case there is a recall. I think it would make it a lot cheaper. If we have to have a recall. Host the Michael Levinsohn piece talks about the interest of people in elections, people involved and really getting participation out there. Do you think changing it to the weekend would change how many people participate if it is a social election or midterm, rather than a president ial election . Caller actually. I think it should be for both. Midterm and the general election. Host dons next for republicans. Dawn, go ahead. Caller i think this is a slap in the face to christianity. Host why is that . Caller saturday is the day of rest and sunday is a holy day, unless you are jewish. Then you have shabbat. It is just not going to work in america. We were founded on religious principles. Host for the short amount of time, you think that would affect people drastically enough, religious people to services . E, and caller i think we have the freedom to participate and will vote even stronger. Whense it is frustrating we were founded on certain principles and we are moving strongly into multiculturalism and ideals that we do not necessarily agree with. And i feel like christians and even the jews are being spent on today. Giving heris dawn thoughts. Npr took a look at the idea, voting on tuesday, in a piece published last year. Some of the elements they included, when did this begin . 1845, the tuesday after the first monday in november was established for the president ial election. 1875, adopted. Applied to senators in the direct elections. They also ask, why tuesday . And in november . In order to understand the date chosen, you need to understand 19thcentury americans, most were farmers and needed time to travel. The polling locations were not widespread. Sunday was out because of church. Were not anles option and not a factor until the early 20th century. The highway system was not authorized until the mid1950s. Why november . Spring was planting season. They were attending the crops, but by november the harvest was over and most of the country, the weather was still ok to permit travel. The idea of the weekend election. What you think about it. We go to the republican line. Jose . Caller thank you for taking my call. I agree with voting on sunday. And the other thing i want to bring up, we should do away with the electoral vote. It takes power away from the people. Host back to the idea of saturday or sunday, do you think it would prove or increase voter turnout . Caller it will. Thepoint is, you have to people with families, they have to find people to watch children, they have work in jobs. Host you think these are considerable factors, say if it was a tuesday or a workday for most people. It is a big factor. Many people cannot afford to lose wages. We are on the democrats line. Tyrone, go ahead. Caller i think, good morning, thank you for taking my call. I think it would be a step in the right direction. Like having a National Holiday. Voting is something people do not realize, the politicians and it is notficials, just voting for fun. And now our country is being run people who dos, not want to do with main issues. So when they do deal with it, they want to be host so the idea of a national election, you mean is set aside day like any other holiday we would have to make it set aside for the purposes of voting . Caller absolutely. It should not be a thing whereas, for people you know, this whole crosschecking where you are knocked off the roll and cannot vote, and they give you a provisional ballot that is never counted. That is horrible. You are taking people out of the election, because he feelings you will not win if you allowed to many people to vote. And the thing is, democrats have a bigger turnout than republicans and they do not want that to happen, so they devise all these plans to knock people ive the election. It is not good. Host in all my magazine takes a look at the idea of a National Holiday for elections. You can see it online when you go to the website. They added this to the idea, saying low turnout in the complicated problem and at some of the more obvious remedies have not worked, including elections on the weekend, which would remove work. An optical for obstacle for many an analysis of voter turnout in democracies determined that those with weakened voting to have higher turnout, adopted weekend voting has not increased turnout for those that have it. 56. 2 erican turnout rate, in 2000 and it was roughly the same or higher than the recent rates in a few countries with the weekend voting, including poland. In 2014. , 52 that was fleet magazine. We will hear from sharon in fairfax, virginia. Republican line. What do you think about weekend voting . Caller i would say it is three steps in the right direction. For those that have religious, you know, worship on saturday. Nd sunday, early voting that is available. And over all, for those people that are working, they need to work and it saturday and sunday would be a good thing. We can have a National Holiday for election day. I think it is a step in the right direction. Thank you. Host from our twitter folks who follow us, if you have not done so, follow us today. This is steve saying, lets encourage broad citizen participation. Lets learn from other nations. And Karen Buchanan adding, how about making election day july 4 . It is already a National Holiday. We have cecelia from connecticut. Caller good morning. Host hi. Caller mi on . Host yes. Go ahead. Caller i have been thinking about this idea for a long time. And i am really surprised about ing thatday rul started in 1914. I am in favor of changing it saturday, so that the religious people can do their service on sunday. And i think this would definitely improve the voting rate and i thank you for giving me the chance to talk. Host before you go, we had a caller tell us that religious people who have services on saturday and sunday would be affected by such a move, rather than on tuesday for voting. What do you think . Caller i think i can only talk about general people. That is always an inconvenience to some people, but people can get up early and stay late. Host the former legislator steve israel made an effort legislatively to change the day. 3019, itwas his bill, says weekend voting act as it is known, the bill resends the statue to establish the for saturday and sunday after the first friday in november as the days for elections in each state and territory, for members of congress. The first saturday and sunday after the first friday of november shall be the days of the president ial elections and Vice President ial elections. A. M. T would be from 10 00 on saturday until 6 00 p. M. Sunday evening. The polls would close between the hours of 10 00 and 6 00 p. M. , provided by the law of the state in which the polling places are located. Washington state, this is our line for democrats. David, hello. Caller hello. I think it would be a good idea to have voting on the weekend. In washington, we vote by mail. That is good too. You have three weeks to get the ballot in. It is easy. You do not have to wait in line. Shove it in the mail. It works for us. Host so as far as year in and year out, voting by mail works, no issues from that . Caller uh, i do not think it would be a problem for people to vote on sunday. I think it would be a lot better than on a workday. A workday you have a hard time getting off early enough. Host do you think it would change the turnout, to think more people would participate . Some of these stories reference that are participation rates are stable at 53 or Something Like that, do you think it would change that . Caller host he is gone. We will hear from james in san antonio. Go ahead. Caller yes, i am for the australian system. Voting for three days. Making it compulsory. Include on the ballot, abstain, so if you do not like the candidates you can mark that. You can vote from anywhere in the world. Ballotsget your local on a computer. You do not vote the first year, fine. Do not vote the second time, a bigger fine. Third time in a row is a 7,000 fine. Voting every year that way, by computer, we gather census data. We save about 10 billion every 10 year cycle. And we do not have to do the ruling census every 10 years. And we have an uptodate accurate census. That is my thing. Host a viewer on twitter says election day should be a paid holiday. The only ones that would get paid is with proof of voting in the election. And then the man across the water, elections should be held on the weekend. No need to close the schools or take off from work. Nobrainer. You may agree or disagree with him. Let us know what you think. 2027488000 for democrats. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. Richard, good morning from west virginia. Independent line. Caller hi. I do not see where we need voting on weekends. Weeks of early voting. And we have all of the servicemen voting from overseas, so there is plenty of time for voting. Go ahead,think, so why do you think not to put it on the weekend . Do you think that the Current System limits people . You talked about early voting, but how do you improve participation levels . Except i have no idea, the people, if they want to vote there is plenty of time. Matter of fact, on early voting you also vote on saturdays. Host some of the analysis that is being done is because of the French Election that took place on a weekend. This is the wall street journal, saying, when it comes to emmanuel macron, the new president , saying he will need help a national security, which was his weakest pitch to voters. Fight le pens ballot to Border Control appeal to voters that witnessed massacres across the country. The self isolation of too many muslim citizens, french voters understand that the immigration crackdowns would do little to stop radicalization among the native french muslims. Encourage those muslims to seek integration is a twoway street. In north carolina, hello. Caller good morning. Spouse an army spouse. My husband serves at fort bragg. Voting on sunday will allow the military men and women to vote, just because in the u. S. Army, normal not have the 9 005 00. And early voting is limited in north carolina, so i think it is patriotic to do it on sunday. Host thank you for your thoughts. If you want to continue with the idea of the French Election and, sorry, election day on a weekend as the french citizens data over, leading up to their president ial election, go ahead and call. 2027488000, for democrats. For republicans, 2027488001. And independents, 2027488002. Stay on, we want to talk about the French Election. It was macron that one over Marine Le Pen yesterday. In his speech, declaring victory and hoping to lay out what he hopes to do as president. He talked about that to those citizens gathered to listen to him. And across france as well. Here is a bit from his victory speech yesterday. This is the place for france stands and the world is looking upon us, upon france, because tonight it is europe and the world that is looking at france. [applause] world areand the waiting. Are waiting for us to defend everywhere the spirit of the enlightenment that has been come under threat in so many different places. They are expecting us to defend freedom, they are expecting us to protect the oppressed. They are expecting us to Carry Forward a new form of hope and humanism, a safer world. A world where freedoms are defended, a world of growth, of greater justice, of moral ecology. Us, finallyecting us, to be what we are. Host that was video showing that speech and telling us more about the day after and what goes on from here, Jonathan Redmond of channel 4 news. Thank you for joining us. It is a pleasure. Host tell us what faces president elect macron, what are the challenges, or at the top of his list Going Forward as president . The biggest challenge he faces is unemployment, which is 10 , that is double the rate it is in germany or the u. K. , for example. If you are a young person in france, 25 of french youth are unemployed, so that is by far the biggest problem. I think the second problem is so full scocial integration, france has the biggest Muslim Population in europe. As you know well, it has suffered a series of terrorist attacks in which some 250 people have been killed. But i think these are the two biggest issues. And i think that they are enormous issues, they will not go away with his victory. Although there is a great deal of goodwill at the moment, i wonder whether the honeymoon will be shortlived. Of course, his rivals in the far national, the national front, are waiting to see if he will fail. Host we will take those two issues and expand on them. One issue during the debate was the idea of a 35 hour work week in france, what does the president elect think on that . What does he propose . It is the socialists that introduce the 35 hour work week which has proved impractical. Macron is not proposing to get rid of it, he proposes more work around it. He is also trying to free up the labor market, he wants to shrink the size of the public budget. He wants to get rid of 120,000 civil servants. He takes ideas from both the left and right. I think france is desperately trying to become more competitive, but the problem is, up inou stop freeing economy, unemployment might go up before it goes down. The french have a tendency to stop everything they have just voted for from actually happening, it has happened again and again. I wonder if there will be opposition on the streets potentially, but also in parliament where as we speak the president does not have one single mp, he does not even have a party, he calls it the movement. He is waiting to see if he can transform the revolution from last night into another revolution in parliament, and the parliamentary elections next month. Without mps, he cannot actually get anything done. Host the idea of integration, especially among the muslim communities in france, as far as proposals, is there any thinking from the president elect on how to unify people . I think there is a way of looking at both issues i have raised, unemployment and integration and bringing them together, because the jihadi is diism, and unemployment, they happen in the big cities where people feel trapped. I think if you will have job creating, that is where he needs to target it. He is certainly not going to do opponent was proposing, which is close friendss borders frances borders, get rid of the open border system operates across much of europe. I think it is an issue that fee on this that she focused and was able to get 11 million votes in the process, double what the party got in 2002. And i think she will carry on making the arguments. With every terrorist attack that occurs, the more nationalist strain of politics will be stronger. Host when does the president elect take office . Weeksakes office in a time. There was a big ceremony this morning. Where the current president , and the incoming president s, went up for the ceremony marking me allied victory for the ceremony marking the allied victory from 1945. Delighted that mcarcon is taking over for him and a huge amount of relief that france is sending the message that the far right has not won here. There was potential for and normas embarrassments, because the party has a racist past. And the french did not wan