Young Voter PAC

The next panel I attended was the one from our youth crew, From Online Engagement to Offline Activism. The panelists were Michael Connery, Jane Fleming, Tony Cani, Matt Browner Hamlin, Maria Teresa Petersen, Sam Dorman, and Andrew Villaneuve.

One of the concepts was that the online space is strengthening the capability for activism. One example is the click to call widget used recently on the FISA issue. Sam Dorman mentioned that online activism is in its infancy, and that not too long ago it purely consisted of sending emails.

Sam also mentioned that we should not seek to be setting trends but following them and figuring out how we can leverage them.

Tony Cani talked about how Millennials are the most advertised-to generation in the history of the world, and that one of those reasons was President Reagan removing the restrictions on advertising to children, which enabled companies to create cartoons that were essentially 30-minute infomercials for their toys: GI Joe, He-Man, Transformers, etc.

Maria Teresa Petersen had some great information about young latino(a) voters and ways to reach them. The fact the MySpace is still their most popular hang-out even with the rise of Facebook. Text messaging is the method that they use to organize themselves, as evident from the immigration protest in 2006. One of the most interesting things Maria said was that one of the most effective methods used to increase turnout was partnering up with local DJs to spread the information. I believe she said that effort resulted in a 9% increase.

Some of the online tools that came up for discussion in the question and answer period were Eventful, and the ability to get a certain number of people to pledge to attend in order to make an event happen, and Sprout widgets.

Someone asked what a Sprout widget was during the panel, so I thought I would create a real quick and basic one to give people an idea.

The widget enables you to include a number of different pages and media into a single widget space without having to have visitors leave and go to a bunch of external sites. One example of a widget being used for organizing purposes is the Rock the Vote registration widget.

Following the panel there was the Netroots Nation Keynote. I'm not going to lie. It was long and boring. The 10-minute long envelope fundraising shtick that they did was just about the final straw. The pertinent information from the keynote was that Gina Cooper will be stepping down as Executive Director of Netroots Nation and that next year's event will be held in Pittsburgh, PA.

The final event of the night was the Young Voter PAC/Future Majority/Living Liberally After-Party.

The turnout was actually really great. The celebrity bartenders served drinks and a lot of people got together to end the conference. The highlight of the event was probably one of the most meta things I have ever seen: Sarah Burris and Colin Delany concurrently video interviewing each other. I took a picture of it. Here is Colin's coverage, and here is Sarah's.

My next post will be my final thoughts about the entire conference.

I'm in the Jet Blue terminal at JFK waiting for my flight down to Austin for Netroots Nation. I hate flying, but I'm somewhat looking forward to the flight down - 4 hours with no internet will give me a lot of time to work on a few blog posts that have been rattling round in my head for the past week.

Living Liberally will post their usual Tues-Thurs blog later today, but the rest of the week will likely consist mostly of live blogs from Netroots Nation. If you're going to be down there, here's where you will find me. I'll be the guy with the fish logo on his credential.

Two more things before I head offline. First, thanks to everyone who has contributed to our little fundraiser for the Young Voter PAC. We're not at 50 donors yet, but we're inching our way up there. Please give a little bit if you can. Second, here's some reading to tide you over until I land and the live-blogging begins:

• Tremayne at Open Left reports on the massive increase in voter registration on the Democratic side. A lot of that is from Millennials.
• Anya Kamenetz has a new column about the new interest rate on student loans and strategies for getting rid of your student debt.
• She's also got a blog post up about how the economic downturn is affecting youth employment.
• If you care, Jib Jab has a new video up lampooning McCain and Obama and riffing off Bob Dylan. Personally, I never thought they were all that funny . . .
• Earlier this week, Bergerc84 posted a thoughtful piece about McCain's (lack of) youth outreach. Well the gossip rags are now reporting that the McCain Blogette had lunch with Heidi Montag from The Hills. I guess that's McCain's idea of ramping up the youth outreach???
• Finally, the National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights wants to know what Civil Rights 2.0 looks like and what Civil Rights means to Millennials. They're holding a YouTube competition to find out. They have a video, but the Jet Blue wifi doesn't seem to want to load YouTube so I'll have to embed it later.

I'd like to try a little experiment here . . .

Earlier this year, I joined the board of the Young Voter PAC, an organization that has long been an advocate for young people in politics and a great friend to Future Majority.

The Young Voter PAC works to make sure that politicians pay attention to the youth vote and that young voters have a voice in the process. In non-PR-speak, that means that they teach candidates and campaigns best practices for reaching out to young voters, work with state parties on young voter outreach, and reward candidates who demonstrate a commitment to young voters. In the past, they have supported Scott Kleeb, Jon Tester, Patrick Murphy, Darcy Burner, Lois Murphy, Harry Mitchell, Patricia Madrid and many others.

The Young Voter PAC does more than just cut checks to candidates. They also work tirelessly behind the scenes to advocate for young people in the Democratic Party. This year alone, YVP supported Iowa students through scholarships to cover travel costs for college students returning to Iowa to participate in the caucuses, and they pushed back hard against the Clinton campaign for suggesting that Iowa students be disenfranchised. They've helped bring big-name candidates like Jared Polis and Scott Kleeb here to Future Majority, for our live-blogging sessions, and in partnership with Future Majority, Living Liberally and others, YVP is organizing young voter events at Netroots Nation and the Democratic Convention.

I've set a personal goal of finding 50 people to support the work of Young Voter PAC. I don't care how much we raise - that's not really important. Most youth organizing is supported by large checks cut by a very small cadre of donors. That is hugely problematic, and it's a situation disliked by both organizers, who fear their funding may disappear on a whim, and the donors, who would like youth organizations to become self sustaining.

The only way out of this bind is for youth organizations to cultivate small and mid-level donor bases. That's why the number of donors - not the amount raised - is so important. It will show major donors that the Young Voter PAC can attract small donors, making it more attractive as an investment for them and hopefully move it on the path to self-sustainability. So please, give whatever you can, no matter how small. Your voice, and your participation, are more important than the amount you can contribute.

We want politicians to pay attention to young people, and we want young people to have a voice in campaigns. Young Voter PAC is one way to change the faces of elections: who participates and who wins. Your support can help do that. It's time we make an investment in the people who represent us in Democratic politics.

Netroots Nation, the blogger-spawned progressive conference formerly known as Yearly Kos, will be in Austin this week from Thursday through Sunday and Future Majority will be there in force.

If you're a young person, young at heart, or curious about the youth vote, here's where you'll find us:

Thursday
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Youth Caucus: 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM; Caucus, Room 18B

My flight gets in at 12:30 and I hope to make it to the latter half of the caucus, but look for Bondelli, Sarah, Jane or other FM contributors mixing with the crowd.

Friday
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Youth to Power Book Signing: 11:30 AM - 12PM; Exhibit Hall Ballroom D, IG Publishing booth #315.

I'll be signing books alongside fellow IG author and blogger Jeffrey Feldman. We also have a Facebook event for this - go RSVP and invite others.

What's Next for the Next Generation? 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM, Workshop, Room 18D.

Jane Fleming Kleeb of the Young Voter PAC joins Gina Glantz and others to discuss how to move a youth policy agenda after the elections.

Saturday
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Online Engagement to Offline Activism: 4:30 PM - 5:45 PM; Panel, Ballroom F

Myself, Jane Fleming Kleeb of the Young Voter PAC, Tony Cani of the Young Democrats, Sam Dorman of The League, Hans Riemer of the Obama Campaign, Maria Teresa Peterson of Voto Latino and Andrew Villaneuve of the Northwest Progressive Institute will lead a concrete discussion on tactics to engage young voters online and move that support offline into the field. Bring your own ideas and be prepared to share.

For those of you who are curious, you can view video of the youth vote panel from last year here.

Celebrity Bartender After Party: Cedar Door’s Biergarten, 2nd and Brazos. 10pm - Midnight.

Once the day is done, we're teaming up with Living Liberally and the Young Voter PAC for a big throw-down celebrity bartender event. From 10pm to Midnight, Markos of Daily Kos, Matt Stoller of Open Left, candidates Scott Kleeb and Darcy Burner and more will serve you drinks. All food and drinks will be free for the first hour. You can buy tix, which go to support the Young Voter PAC, here.

This will be a great way to start your final night in Austin, and if previous years are any indicator, we'll all take the party elsewhere until the wee hours of the morning.

More details below. Hope to see you in Austin.

On the Op-Ed page today, the New York Times is running a surprisingly information-free look back at "what went wrong" with the Clinton campaign. How bad is it? Apparently, Clinton lost because she is too much like Hermione Granger. Seriously. How bad is it? So bad that Mark Penn and Michael Kinsley offer the best of slim pickings. There was one bright light though.

Buried in the 10th paragraph of an 11 graph piece (the most column inches of any contributor), in which he argues that it's not his fault, Mark Penn says this:

Are there a lot of other things the campaign could have done differently? Of course. We should have taken on Mr. Obama more directly and much earlier, and we needed a different kind of operation to win caucuses and to retain the support of superdelegates. From more aggressively courting young people earlier to mobilizing the full power of women, there are things that could have been done differently.

Emphasis is mine. This is a far cry from Mark Penn at the Iowa Jefferson-Jackson dinner:

At least two of Hillary Clinton’s upper-echelon advisers, Mandy Grunwald and Mark Penn, were decidedly unimpressed .

“Our people look like caucus-goers,” Grunwald said, “and his people look like they are 18. Penn said they look like Facebook.”

Penn added, “Only a few of their people look like they could vote in any state.”

While the importance of young voters as a Democratic constituency is far from the only lesson to be gleaned from this primary campaign, it is an important one. Young Voters in Iowa were subjected to major outreach from the Obama campaign and from outside partisan and nonpartisan organizations including (but not limited to) the Young Voter PAC, Rock the Vote, the Young Democrats, and the Student PIRGs. As a result, they overperformed their share of the electorate and came out in equal numbers to the "reliable" senior demographic. That was the beginning of the end for Clinton.

Here's to hoping that other Democratic candidates down the ballot learn that lesson. And here's to hoping that they know that there are many resources available to their campaigns to help learn how to reach that audience. From live-blogging here at Future Majority, to working with organizations like Young Voter PAC and Rock the Vote, or local youth orgs that may be organizing in their state. Reaching young voters is not rocket science, and there are many folks willing to help you do it.

We all know the importance of targeting and engaging young voters. In addition to well-established approaches – you know, like actually talking to young voters about issues we care about and using peer-to-peer outreach to do that – we have seen a number of successful non-traditional outreach methods. One of those tools is community service.

Young people volunteer for community service at much higher rates than they volunteer for traditional political activities. There is a culture of service in the Millennial generation that is rooted in the belief that community service is an effective way to solve important issues, locally and nationally. Our friends at Democrats Work are harnessing that passion for service and linking it to politics.

As many of you know, Democrats Work connects grassroots Democrats to community service projects. Through this service-based approach, Democrats Work is moving politics onto the turf of young voters, making community service an integral part of political activism. Their latest efforts to build the “politics of service” movement is an innovative contest with General Wesley Clark.

The “Serve with the General" contest will send General Clark to a competitive Congressional district to do a Democrats Work community service event helping returned veterans, painting a public school that needs it, supporting our troops, cleaning up a neglected part of town. We have a chance to send Clark to a district where a youth-friendly candidate is running for Congress.

You can vote to send General Clark to a Congressional district where the candidates are already making young voters a priority. I want to point out a few: Darcy Burner (WA-08), Bob Lord (AZ-03), Ashwin Madia (MN-06 MN-03), Gary Peters (MI-09), Dan Seals (IL-10), and Gary Trauner (WY-AL).

Take a look at these districts when deciding where to send General Clark. You can cast your vote here: www.democratswork.org.

P.S. We hope to have a candidate or two here in the next few days talking about how his or her campaign is targeting young voters. Stay tuned.

Jane Fleming Kleeb is the Executive Director of the Young Voter PAC which helps Democratic candidates and State Parties win with the 18-35 year-old vote through endorsements, on-the-ground support, training, strategy and money. She is a regular on Fox and is part of MTV’s Street Team ‘08 representing Nebraska. She is married to Democratic candidate for US Senate Scott Kleeb.

The Young Voter PAC has put together a resource guide for young people looking to run as delegates to the convention. A valuable resource for those struggling to navigate the process, especially amid all the cuts by the campaigns.

Navigating the Last Stages of the Delegate Process:
A resources guide from the Young Voter PAC and Young Super Delegates

The Young Voter PAC and Young Super Delegates want all young people to be able to run in their state’s delegate races. While we understand the rules affirm campaigns can cut their lists to the minimum amount required by the rules (which we post below), we still believe it is critical, in order to continue to build the Democratic Party and secure the youth voting bloc, that young people be given the opportunity to run and that young people be considered for “At-Large” or “PLEO” delegate spots.

Since this is the first time so many young people are running as delegates, making sure young people know the rules so they have the best possible shot at getting elected to represent their candidates as a delegate in an important role for everyone involved in the Democratic family.

There are some things you can do as a young person in order to get elected in your state to be a “pledged delegate” for your candidates of choice in Denver, CO at the DNC’s National Convention.

It should be noted, that we are talking about pledged delegates. There is no room (this time around) for you to become an “unpledged delegate” at this point in the process because those slots are given to your State Party leaders, state DNC Members, Democratic Congressional Members and Distinguished Party leaders. But, if you are looking ahead to 4 years from now—you can and should try to become a DNC member in your state.

If you have any questions, please email info@youngvoterpac.org or visit www.youngvoterpac.org.

General Tip

Get known by all the decision makers and opinion leaders. Being known is critical. Do NOT be humble in this process. Create a Facebook or MySpace page making the case for your delegate status, talk to the campaign, write letters to your DNC members especially the Chair (and share a copy of the letter in the resources section), write letters to your elected officials…reach out to folks and make the case.

If You Were Cut or Think You Might be Cut

If your state has NOT gone through the “cutting” process yet, now is the time to make your case to opinion leaders (e.g. vocal youth voting advocates in your state, young staff at the State Party level who might be able to help you make the case, young elected officials, etc.) as well—and most important-- as the campaign you are supporting that you are one of the best people to represent the candidate as well as young people. You should locate the Regional or State Director of the campaign you want to serve as a delegate for and reach out to that person.

State Party staff does NOT decide who or if someone is cut, that is a decision by the campaign. State The reality is, often times the “cutting” process is staff in a room looking at the list and doing their best to figure out who their top supporters are—and since this is often young people’s first time running as a delegate, the staff might not know who you are, so you have to make that happen.

If you state has gone through the “cutting” process and you got the rejection email, now is the time start to Plan B. If you happen to be a young elected official or a Party leader, you might be able to get to serve as a delegate in the role of a “PLEO” which means you are in the category of "Party Leaders and Elected Officials." Even if you are not an elected official or Party leader, the DNC’s Youth Council and the Association of State Party Chairs, Mike Brewer, sent a letter to all State Party Chairs encouraging them to appoint young people as PLEOs, so you can and definitely should, try that strategy in order to become a delegate.

Otherwise, you could also try to get one of the “At-Large” delegate slots that your Party has control over. These are positions that go to people for various reasons—some to reach diversity goals, some to reach gender balance, and there is no reason you can’t make the case to your State Party that young people are critical this election cycle and that you want to serve as a leader in the Party to help secure that voting bloc.

Other Resources

The Democratic National Convention Committee has a great resource up that walks you through the process of becoming a delegate, the definition of the various types of delegates and an interactive map of your state that shows the number of delegates pledge and unpledged your state is allotted.

The DNC’s Youth Council and the Association of State Parties sent a letter (pdf) to each State Party Chair encouraging them to appoint young people as PLEOs, use this letter to help make your case for a PLEO delegate spot.

The DNC’s Youth Council is holding conference calls to help people navigate the process in your state, check out their Facebook page to see when one is happening in your state.

Jane Fleming Kleeb wrote a piece on MTV’s chooseorlose.com site that she tailored for her state. You can take her blog post and simply edit the state section and post on your blog or Facebook or MySpace page.

Delegate Selection Rules

The full document of rules is on the Democratic National Convention Committee’s website. Below are a few pertinent rules.

According to Rule 12.D in the 2008 Delegate Selection Rules for the Democratic National Convention, state parties are required to supply to each presidential candidate a list of all persons who have filed for a delegate or alternate position pledged to that candidate. Candidates and their campaigns have the right to remove from the list those individuals that are not considered bona fide supporters of that candidate.

According to Rule 12.E, those individuals that have been removed from the list of bona fide supporters are not at all eligible to run for a position as delegate or alternate.

According to Rule.12.E(1), presidential candidates may only remove individuals from the list of bona fide supporters if at a minimum, there will be three (3) names for every one position in which that presidential candidate is entitled.

According to Rule.12.E(2), presidential candidates, in consultation with the state party, may remove any candidate for at-large and pledged party leader and elected official delegate or alternate position if at a minimum, one (1) name remains for every delegate position that candidate is entitled.

According to Regulation 4.23.A, when removing bona fide supporters, presidential candidates shall use their best efforts to make sure that delegate candidates meet the equal division goals and the affirmative action goals.

According to Regulation 4.23.C, delegate candidates removed from the list of bona fide supporters by a presidential candidate may file to run for another level as delegate, such as PLEO or at-large, and may also pledge to another candidate.

Each State Party Democratic Chair is required to certify to the Co-Chairs of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee that each presidential candidate used their best efforts to ensure that their district-level delegate candidates meet the affirmative action and inclusion goals of the Affirmative Action plan for each state.

Many of you might already know about this - or at least some of it - but the last five days have seen something of an uproar in the youth community as young political activists and candidate supporters found themselves cut out of the state-level Democratic National Convention delegate selection process, first in California, and now apparently in other states as well.

I've refrained from commenting on it as youth advocates worked behind the scenes to rectify the situation, but now I think it's time to present a summary of what has happened, what is at issue, and where we stand.

What Happened
Young people running for delegate positions on behalf of their candidate at the Democratic National Convention in California were informed earlier this week that they had been cut from the process. This happened within both the Clinton and Obama campaigns, but the issue became particularly focused on the actions of the Obama campaign, which cut far more potential delegates and which relied heavily on young voters to secure victory in the primary contests held thus far.

To be clear, it is within the rights of the campaigns to make these cuts. I believe the technical term is that the campaigns are exercising their "right of refusal." Campaigns are granted this right in order to ensure that those delegates attending the convention are indeed hard core supporters of their candidate.

The Issues:

Nevertheless, this was problematic for several reasons:

• First, the criteria for being cut was (and continues to be) non-transparent and arbitrary. The campaign stated that it's purpose was to weed out potential Clinton supporters or all but the most hard-core Obama supporters, but a quick glance at the names of some of the youth who were cut put the lie to that claim rather quickly. Many were not only leaders in youth organizing, but solid Obama supporters as well. A second explanation that the campaign was concerned with the logistics of the nominating process and the sheer number of applicants was more reasonable, if still less than satisfactory.
• Second, the cuts showed a startling lack of recognition for the support that young voters gave to the Senator in his many victories and reinforced the worst tendencies of the Democratic Party in discouraging young people from participating within the party structure as a vehicle for change.
• Third, the move undercut the work of many youth groups, including the DNC Youth Council, which has actively run a campaign to encourage young people to run for delegate slots to the convention within their states.
• Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, the Obama campaign made promises to a number of youth leaders that the right of refusal would not be exercised against young supporters.

There is also another angle to this as well, having less to do with the Obama campaign than with how the DNC treats young people at the state and national level.

In 2006, the Young Democrats fought the DNC over affirmative action language in the DNC charter and mandatory goals for young people in each state delegation to the convention. You can read a write-up of that fight here, but in short it boiled down to this. YDA claimed that language in the DNC charter requires mandatory affirmative action goals for youth in each state delegation. The language in the charter mandates that young people be represented within the state delegations commensurate with the level at which they participated in the prior election (eg, if youth were 15% of a state's Democratic electorate in 2004, they should make up 15% of a state's delegation to the convention in 2008).

The DNC claimed that a rule issued at a later convention made those goals advisory/voluntary, and elected to ignore the language in the charter, which should supercede any committee rule. This has resulted in a hodge-podge or commitments/goals for youth delegates at the state level. Some states like California do have mandatory goals for youth in their delegation. Other's don't, creating the chance for young people to be underrepresented at the convetntion. And here's the rub. Whether states do or don't have mandatory affirmative action goals for youth, striking young people from the delegate lists can exacerbate the problem of unequal and nondemocratic representation for young people at the convention.

If too many young people are struck, it can make it difficult for the state party to meet its targets for youth delegates. The only way for the party to overcome that deficit is to use PLEO (Party Leader and Elected Official) and at-large delegate slots. Youth, particularly unconnected party activits, tend to get screwed over in this situation. Young people are are not, for the most part, Party Leaders or Elected Officials (though the latter is changing). And at-large delegate slots are more likely to go to the children of party leaders or donors than to Joe Activist who put in 1000 hours on the campaign trail.

On multiple levels, the system weeds out young people, particularly unconnected young people. The Obama campaign potentially made that situation worse by cutting so many young people from the prospective delegate pool.

Resolution?
Late last week, these concerns were all made known to the campaign privately by youth leaders, and publicly by Young Voter PAC , which released a statement echoing the concerns listed above. Not long after, the campaign relented and agreed to reinstate the cut youth candidates in California. At the time, they issued this statement:

There has been an extraordinary outpouring of grassroots support for Senator Obama among Democrats and Independents in all 53 California Congressional districts.

In recognition of this tremendous enthusiasm, our campaign has asked the California Democratic Party to allow all persons who have filed to be a district delegate candidate for Senator Obama at the Democratic National Convention to participate in the caucuses this Sunday, April 13, 2008.

We are confident that delegates elected from this pool will reflect the Senator's commitment to a diverse and unified delegation at the National Convention.

An overwhelming number of supporters have signed up to run for delegate, so there will likely be lines and tight space at the caucus locations. We ask for everyone's patience and cooperation.

Most of all, please enjoy this opportunity to meet other Obama supporters and elect delegate candidates to the Convention in Denver.

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager

The statement was bizarre in that it seemed to lay blame for the situation at the feet of the California Democratic Party, but it was a welcome move by the Obama campaign to rectify the situation, and it was applauded by the youth vote community. Unfortunately, it didn't end there. On Saturday, Kevin Bondelli, the YDA Southwest Regional Director, received this letter from the Obama campaign:

Dear Kevin Bondelli:

Thank you very much for applying to be an Obama At Large Delegate to the Democratic National Convention. When we started this campaign, we knew that our only path to victory was to inspire grassroots activism across our state, and we know you have made that possible. We are thrilled to have so much interest among Arizonans to represent the Obama campaign in Denver.

In compliance with the rules of the DNC, the campaign has opted to limit the list of candidates that have filed to run as an at-large delegate. The campaign understands the desire of all of our supporters to participate in this process, but to fully achieve the DNC’s goals of a diverse pool of delegates, and to accommodate the time this selection process will take, we have trimmed the list. Please know that we value every single Obama supporter and all of the hard work and energy that you have shown in working to make Senator Obama the Democratic nominee.

Our campaign understands and appreciates all of your tireless enthusiasm and commitment to Senator Obama. We thank you for your time and efforts on behalf of our campaign and we look forward to working with you in the upcoming months to elect Senator Barack Obama as President of the United States.

Sincerely,
(Staffer Name)

Kevin was gunning for one of those at-large delegate positions, different from those which were cut in California, but the letter raised the prospect that the campaign's reinstatement of youth delegates in California was not being replicated in other states. Which is where we are now.

Kevin wrote an open letter to the Obama campaign and the DNC in response to these cuts. He's knee-deep in this situation, as a rejected at-large delegate from Arizona, and he's been doing a play-by-play of his own situation as it unfolds.

To my knowledge, the Obama campaign has yet to issue a statement about the process and the status of youth delegates in other states. The DNC Youth Council is working to put together a guide for potential youth delegates to help maximize their chances of navigating the selection (and right of refusal) process. That guide should be ready later today pending DNC approval, and I will post it here after it is approved for distribution.

Today is Super Tuesday, but it is also Fat Tuesday, the peak of Mardi Gras. Fully cognizant of the fact that these should not at all conflict, the folks at Living Liberally, Young Voter PAC, Forward Montana, New Era Colorado, Democrats Work, and Traction are throwing election watching parties all over the country tonight.

From the Super Fat Tuesday website:

Super Fat Tuesday. Because election day should be celebrated. Because people want to experience politics together. Because New Orleans needs to be remembered. Because these campaigns have been so excessive, they are super fat...

So far there are over 27 parties scheduled in 19 states.

As for myself, this morning I schlepped over to the Municipal building in Downtown Brooklyn and cast my ballot for Sen. Obama. Tonight I'll probably stop by the Drinking Liberally party at the Tank in lower Manhattan before heading home to cover the results late into the night. Maybe I'll see some of you there.

Throughout the day I'm going to try to do short interviews with a number of youth vote folks working in Iowa to see what they're doing and what their expectations are for the evening. Here's the first with Jane Kleeb of Young Voter PAC.