get out the vote

Tomorrow young voters across the country have the chance to be the margin of victory for Sen. Barack Obama and Democrats up-and-down the ballot.

Tomorrow our generation has the chance to silence the critics that have been promulgating the slander that young people do not care, will not vote, and are not worth the effort.

We have one more day to convince our friends to vote. It is time to leverage our social networks to make this final push.

In 2004 the Young Democrats of America had a lot of success building online visibility with the equivalent of a digital I Voted Today sticker as a profile picture. This year we have another. Change your Facebook and MySpace profile pictures to the image in this post. Tag your friends in the picture and encourage them to do the same.

You have friends on social networking sites that would vote for Democrats but just need that extra push to get them to the polls. Send messages to these friends. Leave comments on their profiles. Ask them if they have any questions or need a ride to the polls. If you can get them to assure you they will vote they are much more likely to do so.

John McCain and his fellow Republicans don't want you to vote and don't think you will vote. McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis had this to say about us:

"The whole premise of Barack Obama's campaign was, 'We're going to restructure the political dynamic in America.' There has not been a restructuring," he said. "Where's the youth vote? They come to his events. They wear nice shirts."

We are up against a campaign and a party that have no respect for our generation. They want our silence, not our voices, and have often engaged in tactics with the intent of suppressing them.

Tomorrow we can make our voices heard.

One more day.

One of the shortcomings of efforts aimed at young voters has been the reliance on celebrities. There's this assumption that if a famous person tells a young person to vote, he or she will vote. That's just not true.

Peer-to-peer contact is far more effective than celebrity directives. What famous people can do is help draw attention to a topic, create content that peers might forward around, and generally create some buzz.

Two weeks ago, I was critical of a "Vote" video that relied on star-power. I thought it was bland; they repeated the same quote multiple times; they had no irony nor absurdity; and they made no effort to give reasons for voting. They just kept saying platitudes, without suggesting any real connection to the issues that draw people to the polls.

I gave my prescription. And who knew: Steven Spielberg must read the comments thread on Open Left. Because he released this video that adds a new twist. The Hollywood faces are more self-effacing; they bring a level of self-awareness that makes them more human; and, in a surprisingly authentic segment, they actually tap into issues that would propel them -- and us -- to our precincts on November 4th.

It's a little long, but here it goes:

Right? Harrison Ford makes a good point. Tom Cruise comes off as not a jerk.

Compare it -- if you have a few minutes to burn -- with the other one...which got 75,000 views.

At least Hollywood learns from its mistakes. Better than we can say for many of the industries in the news these days.

Bumped. This post is by Sujatha Jahagirdar of Student PIRGs New Voters Project. —Mike

As registration deadlines pass across the country, the focus of young voter mobilization groups is shifting to ‘get out the vote’ . As with any grassroots mobilization effort, there is a science behind a successful effort to drive young voters to the polls. Below is a listing of various studies done over the past decade that point to the effectiveness of get out the vote tactics such as canvassing, phone banking and text messaging. The Student PIRGs New Voters Project will use these tactics in the largest non-partisan on-the- ground effort to turn out student voters – targeting students on 100 campuses in 17 states.

Pounding the Pavement

Studies conducted by a range of experts indicate that multiple peer-to-peer contacts through canvass, phone-banking and other traditional grassroots organizing methods can significantly increase young voter turnout.

Get out the Vote canvasses and phone banks work. A 2000 Yale University Study found that turnout by individuals canvassed by the Student PIRGs New Voters Project before Election Day was between 10.9 and 12.3 percentage points higher than the control group. A second 2000 Yale University study found that turnout among individuals called by a Student PIRG volunteer before Election Day were 5 percentage points higher than the control group.

Multiple peer-to-peer contact increases an individuals’ likelihood to vote. An additional study of the Student PIRGs New Voters Project by Polimetrix in 2004 found that contacting voters multiple times increases an individual’s likelihood of voting – for example, individuals who were contacted at least three times turned out at a rate of 83.4 percent, compared to a 76.4 percent rate among those contacted just once.

Contacts close to Election Day matter most. The Polimetrix study also found that individuals contacted in the 72 hours before the close of polls turned out at a rate of 81 to 85 percent (depending on the timing of contact) versus 79 percent for those individuals last contacted 4-8 days beforehand, and 69 percent for those last contacted nine or more days beforehand.

Wiring the Web

Technology can also increase young voter turnout. A study released by the Student PIRGs New Voters Project, Credo Mobile and researchers at Princeton University and the University of Michigan found that text message reminders sent the eve of an election can increase youth turnout by four percent.

With this in mind, the Student PIRGs are organizing ‘text out the vote’ tables across the country, where thousands of students will be urged to text their friends ‘get out the vote’ reminders.

A new Facebook application will allow students to send vote reminders to their friend list and set goals to get their friends out to vote.

Over the next twenty days, the Student PIRGs New Voters Project will merge the on-the-ground and on-line tactics described above on one hundred campuses across the country to maximize young voter turnout on Election Day. In the three remaining weeks before Election Day, we will establish 190,000 contacts with young voters, urging them to the polls. A detailed outline of our model is available at www.newvotersproject.org