whole ballot

"It’s not just the Presidency, stupid." This phrase carries as much importance today as its economic counterpart did 16 years ago.

In the thrilling environment of the national election, the nation is reveling in the wave of new voters. Yet at least two questions linger: (1) Can we leverage this involvement for big participation in state and local elections today?; and (2) Can we keep the historic energy from evaporating tomorrow morning? If we cannot meet these challenges, we will miss perhaps the largest civic opportunity of a generation.

We know that the electorate is excited this year, and that youth in particular are finding new entry points into the system—from colossal voter registration numbers to iPhone-app organizing phenomena. We’ve already seen encouraging signs: for instance, youth turn-out for the primary hit multiples of 2004 levels. Still, the central challenge of democracy is not whether a citizenry can make a few binary choices once every four years. The challenge of democracy is whether a populace of divergent interests can come together to accomplish common goals. How can we be sure that this organizing power and creativity can be funneled beyond a single (admittedly critical) race in 2008? How can we encourage the millions of new young voters to become life-long political participants?

We write not to add to the myth of youth ineffectiveness on the political process. We won't add to the chorus of "sure, they'll register … but will they vote?" with an equally curmudgeonly, "okay, they'll vote, but will they vote the whole ballot and stay involved after the election?" Without doubt, an engaged Millennial Generation will change the face of American politics for the better.

They were awakened by 9-11, by Katrina, by Iraq, and by the collapse of our economic house of cards. They will grapple with global warming, the redesign of governmental mechanisms, education policy for this century, foreign policy in an interconnected world, and the glories and excesses of global turbo-capitalism – and these are just the challenges we can predict.

We can meet these challenges if we funnel this energy into a new activist generation.

The opportunity in considering the whole ballot does not lie in winning or losing any particular races, although the impact would be undeniable. The true virtue of this project is the chance to build a culture of participation. An individual has a greater impact on a local race than national one. Indeed, a single person can be decisive on a local race, a race that have direct impact on an average young voter’s daily life. An example, to pick a state: the current Oregon Legislature voted to approve renewable energy standards, domestic partnerships, land use reform, a rainy day fund, substantial increases in school funding, and early voter registration for eligible 17-year-olds. Passing these bills was contingent on a one-seat majority in the State House. One of those seats is occupied by Jeff Barker, who won it by forty votes. Groups like the Oregon Bus Project sent hundreds of young people to walk in his district, each knocking on more doors than Barker’s margin of victory. The end result? Those young people got to go home and say, “Look Ma, I helped change history.”

And you can be sure many came back to participate again.

It’s time to begin building a lasting constituency for the public interest, and the best engagement we can have is at the local level. We are stronger together than we are apart, and to ever get public policy to yield to public interest, we’ll have to move not just to the left or to the right, but forward.

Jefferson Smith, Bus Project Executive Director
Garrett Downen, Bus Project Political Director

• Campus Politico notes that there is a large drop-off of voting among young people in down-ballot races. Matt Stoller at Open Left lets us know that the Obama campaign is hoping to change that. He posts a copyof an Obama campaign email reminding him to vote down ballot.
• Pew Research provides a preview of how exit polling will be conducted on Tuesday, and how early voting and an influx of new voters will be factored into those polls. Good reading for those who will be looking at the numbers on E-Day.
• The website for The Youngest Candidate, an excellent film that follows four 18 year-olds as they run for public office, is now live. It's got some great design work done by Shepard Fairey
• Tim Fernholz at Tapped thinks that campgain widgets like the Obama tax calculator are the future of issue campaigning.
• The folks at Overdetermined, a new blog about data analysis, have some pre-election gallows humor:

• The whack jobs at Human Events detail the "pernicious effects" of voter registration drives on American civic life. Ooh scary.
• Obama's in-game X Box ads cost $44,000. Chump change when you raise $150m in one month.
• Mobilize.org spotlights a new report on college affordability.
• Here's a late entry - Al Gore's address to the Power Vote coalition. My gut says this was probably very motivating to the diehards in the coalition who are doing GOTV and signing people up to take the Power Vote pledge. I found it a little dry coming after Obama's program last night, but I was glad to see Gore speak positively about youth involvement rather than advocating for ineffective strategies from his youth:

I get more emails . . .

Emily's List just sent this out - they are going to target young voters to vote down ballot in 10 congressional districts. In most races, there is significant drop-off in participation below the Presidential line and other high profile races like Governor or US Senate. Making sure that Obama's youth support pulls the lever not just at the top, but all the way down the ticket, is going to determine just how big a wave we see in Congress and state legislative races.

Dear Friend,

Support EMILY's List TodayYoung people will be key to electing Barack Obama president. At EMILY's List, we want to make sure they elect our progressive down-ballot candidates as well. So, we’re going online -- because that is where the young people are.

We just got the results from our exclusive Don't Stop at the Top research -- and it shows us how to harness the enthusiasm for change among young voters and make it reach down the ballot to progressive candidates for governor, Congress, and state office.

With enough resources, this program will work. That's why we want to roll it out to 10 congressional districts where young voters can make the winning difference for our progressive women candidates. But we need to raise $73,997 by October 22 to expand this vital program in the final days of the 2008 campaign.

Click here to help us raise $73,997 by October 22 for Don’t Stop at the Top, our web-based strategy for making sure young voters vote the entire ballot November 4.

Young people told us they're excited about voting for Barack Obama. And they understand that he needs strong allies in Congress and the states to make his progressive agenda come alive. But they want easy access on the web to credible information about their choices -- or they'll simply leave the rest of their ballots blank.

EMILY's List is launching a comprehensive Don’t Stop at the Top online effort in North Carolina, using social networking and search engine strategies to reach over one million young voters and make sure they vote for Democrats Kay Hagan for U.S. Senate and Bev Perdue for governor.

Click here to help us expand Don't Stop at the Top across the country and boost progressive Democratic candidates to victory along with Barack Obama and Joe Biden!

With your support we can use the power of the Internet to deliver information about the issues young voters care about -- like gas prices, student loans, and the war in Iraq -- and make sure they have what they need to make educated choices.

This program is so vital that a generous group of EMILY's List donors has agreed to match every contribution two-to-one -- turning your $50 into $150. . . $150 into $450. . . and $250 into $750.

We've never done anything quite like this before. But time is running out. Click here and make sure young voters Don't Stop at the Top.

Warmest regards,
Ellen Malcolm

Ellen R. Malcolm
President