Highlights from NEW HAMPSHIRE!
We thought you might enjoy some of the highlights of what Rock the Vote has been up to here in New Hampshire these past days! Here are some of the best items:

** Rock the Vote teamed up with New Hampshire for Health Care to raise the issue of health care for young voters. We released a report showing how the candidate plans for health care would improve coverage for the new generation. MTV News covered our report on-air and on mtv.com---a tremendous fulfillment of Rock the Vote's mission to educate young people about the issues that affect their lives!

MTV News stream and MTVNews.com story using the candidate comparison:

** Working with NH for Health Care, our street teams went out to canvass voters on campus and in neighborhoods to pass out literature and talk to young people about the importance of health care and voting. Outlets including NH Public Television, Boston's ABC News affiliate, Portsmouth Herald, the Utica Observer Dispatch, PoliticsNH, and the UNH campus paper did stories about it.

** We have also used the NH primary to launch the new Ben & Jerry's Rock the Vote ice cream, Primary Berry Graham. As part of our grassroots outreach, we made students take an "oath to vote" to get free ice cream. They were putting it down NH style.

New York Times story:

The Oath to Vote:
On January 27th
I will Rock the Vote
I will not be too busy
I will not get caught up with other things
I will not "just forget"
I affirm this oath
With each delicious bite
On January 27th --- I, _______, will vote!

** As the candidates prepared to debate on January 22, we worked with WMUR to get a debate question about health care for young adults. Here's the transcript:

"GRIFFITH: This one came to me and has reputed to come to me from rockthevote.com. We hear about health care coverage issues involving older voters, particularly prescription drugs, but young people also have serious challenges getting adequate health coverage. How would your plan improve health insurance coverage for this new generation?"

** As part of the effort, we asked the campaigns to release statements about their plans for health care affecting young people in order to help highlight the issue and prepare groundwork for the future. So far, we have candidate statements from Dean, Edwards, Kerry and Kucinich (these will go up on our website shortly).

** We stormed The Daily Show's event and gave out free Rock the Vote ice cream to the audience of reporters. Jon Stewart, if you're reading this, thanks for the memories! CNN got a real kick out of it, and wrote a story including the following quote:

CNN Report:
It's hard to go to any event in New Hampshire without having a scoop of Ben & Jerry's Primary Berry Graham ice cream handed to you by Rock the Vote, the youth-oriented voter education group. Dressed as a cow, RTV volunteer Aaron Taylor, 24, said his goal is "getting people off their ass to vote. People forget it's 18 to vote, not 30."

So, now, we are on the trail of the campaigns, attending the major events with our Rock the Vote Street Team and waving the flag for all to see. The candidates have been giving us shout-outs from the stage and encouraging young voters to turnout on Election Day.

Just last week in Iowa, while the caucus turnout overall doubled from the 2000 election, 17-29 year olds nearly quadrupled their turnout. As a result, they doubled their percent of the overall caucus vote, from 9% to 17%.

We're all hoping for a big turnout of young voters on January 27th---the start of something big!