Setting and Passing Parameter to Select Events on a date

I'm trying to modify a module for the Eventlist component to show only events on a specific date. I've cloned a highlight module and created an alternate select statement, but it's not returning anything. I assume I'm got something set up wrong, but I can't see what.

$seldt      = $params->get('select_date');
...
//Select Date option
		if ($params->get( 'type' ) == 4) {
			$where  = ' WHERE a.dates >= '.$seldt;
			$where .= ' AND a.published = 1';
			$order  = ' ORDER BY a.dates, a.times, l.venue';
		}

Code (markup):

With the '>=', all of the events come up. An equal returns nothing. The select_date param echos as a string with the correct value. What am I missing? Thanks, Brian