Early voting in Dayton

DSC_0161, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

3:50 p.m. – I am listening to NPR describe the diverse types of skinheads who live in America as I wait for two University of Dayton Students to finish voting early. It’s weirdly sunny right now given the dreadful weather of the last few days. I woke up this morning expecting blizzards and frozen streets. I haven’t done laundry in a week and I would rather be cold than smelly, so pulled on one of my few clean t-shirts and a pair of jeans. Then I thought better of it and added a pair of long underwear I bought last week to ward off the numbing cold. Now it’s sixty five degrees outside and I am sweating like a polar bear in Florida.

The kids voting, the ones I dropped off, have been in there for over an hour now. I walked in to check on them and they seem fine, if a little impatient. Ohioans know they might pick the president. They are voting early in astonishing numbers and the early vote centers are swamped. The woman at the front is giving out numbers and one of the kids is number 1247. So there have been at least that many voters by 2:00 p.m. on this idle Thursday. The kids I drove listened to Sheryl Crow and Ben Stiller and the Beastie Boys at the Rock the Vote rally this afternoon. The celebrities told them there were shuttles to the polls. I drove one of those shuttles.

Other members of the bus tour crew drove the celebrities back to wherever celebrities go after concerts. I harbor no bitterness. Sure, I imagine that the celebrity vans are probably going to some underground celebrity party with champaign fountains and elephant rides, but waiting by the early voting center and listening to Neal Conan describe skinheads on ‘Talk of the Nation’ is fun too.

4:40 p.m. – The voters are done. I hand them both ‘I rocked the vote’ stickers because nothing says ‘ROCK!’ like a sticker. They seem satisfied with themselves and the stickers and one says “I’m just glad that when I hear results on election day, my ballot will already be counted.”

The other kid gives me a look. “You said it would take twenty minutes,” he says. It’s true, I did. In my defense, the last time I was here it did take twenty minutes. I took an aspiring hip hopper named Swol to the polls and he registered and voted on the same day. He gave me a copy of his album.

“Sorry boss,” I tell him. “It took twenty minutes the last time I was here. I took an aspiring hip hoper named Swol. He gave me a copy of his album.”

The kid has lost interest. He’s already thinking about plans for the night. “Have you ever done a 9-hole?” he asks. It sounds either like something from golf or something unspeakably depraved. He doesn’t wait for an answer “it’s nine different kinds of shots from nine different houses. We’re celebrating tonight! Wanna come?”

I do a bit. An easy night wandering through strangers’ houses as they hand you booze sounds fun. But the bus is moving on. There are voters to bus to polls and celebrities to hear and, most immediately, a long drive to Minneapolis tomorrow. Five more days to election.

I drop them both back at the University of Dayton. “Call if you want to come hang out,” he yells as I pull away.

--Nick Brown

Richmond, VA

Wednesday, October 28th, 2008

Miles traveled today – about 300 so far
Days until election night – 6

1:07 a.m. – Between Richmond and Youngstown

There are fifteen hundred young people in front of the stage: some are students at Virginia Commonwealth University and some just there because they heard rumors. The stage is a mere 9’ x 9’ platform elevated three-and-a-half feet above the ground. People twenty feet back are jumping in the air or piggy-backing on boyfriends to catch glimpses of the musicians. Earlier we had to yell at a few tree-climbers who were crouched in the bows of an Oak because the police threatened to break up the whole affair if they didn’t get down. Santogold announces Sheryl Crow and she and two of her guitarists climb onto the stage and plug in.

“It’s so great to see so many young faces out here,” she says, amplified as loud as our noise permit allows. “Faces who vote... Do you believe in hope?”

There is a massive cheer. It’s like asking if you believe in happiness. Of course we do. But the guitars have started, so it sounds profound and moving.

“Do believe your voices are going to make a difference in the future of this country?”

A louder cheer. Six hundred of these kids signed a voter pledge. They are primed. And then the song starts.

Today — or technically yesterday — was our second day with Sheryl Crow and the Beastie Boys, our last day with Santogold and our first and last day with Jack Johnson, who is – and I say this as a confident heterosexual male – a total dreamboat. If you doubt my judgement here, you need only ask one of the girls who spent his set screaming in the front row.

***

Meanwhile, the bus tour crew have not quite adjusted to dealing with celebrity. We wander between star struck and star dazzled on these recent stops. We fumble over basic phrases, tiptoe past the Beastie Boys secretly hoping they ask what we thought of Paul’s Boutique, and stand staring at a spot near-but-not-too-near to Sheryl Crow as she does nothing in particular. As one of our two Chads said “What? I’ve accepted they’re better than me. Now I just want a picture.”

Yesterday, one member of our crew drove the Beastie Boys to lunch. He sat outside the restaurant while they ate. But no one told him they already had a ride home from their manager so he just kept sitting in his parked van outside the restaurant. They are terribly famous individuals. We wouldn’t want to disturb their famous lunch. And our anonymous crew member assumed that maybe famous lunches take longer than everyday lunches. So he waited for three hours before we called to tell him that the band had left.

This is how our brains have deteriorated. Our basic logic functions are melted away by the presence of big musicians. So questions that would have seemed simple to us if we were in, say, a third grade math class leave us befuddled and gibbering.

But we are acclimatizing slowly. And it’s getting late. So I’ll end suddenly here.

--Nick Brown

Beastie Boys, Santogold, and Sheryl Crow in Charlotte

DSC_0303, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Miles traveled today – 70 so far
Days left until election day – 8

8:08 p.m. – Three fans people! That’s right, not one, not two, but three people have now told me they read this blog. It’s a movement, a groundswell, an uprising of the people!

But wait, there’s more! Apart from the impossibly exciting news that at least three people are reading this blog, there’s the impossibly exciting news that we are traveling with the Beastie Boys for the next eight days, Sheryl Crow for the next four days, and Santogold for another day. They stopped in with us at Central Piedmont Community College in Charleston, North Carolina today and urged a swarm of young voters out to the polling place on campus to vote early.

And here’s something: you remember Simon? That pushy character who makes you do things like touch your nose or jump up and down. That jerk who is so insistent that he be in charge that if a statement isn’t preceded by ‘Simon says’ then he punishes you for doing it? Well, for anyone sick of that stuck up prig, try this new kids’ game: Santogold says. And what does Santogold say to North Carolina? This: “You’re in one of those states where you can early vote... so, you know... do that.”

***

Our crew has come a long way in the 45 days we have been on the road. And nowhere is it more measurable than in our waistlines. We have, to put it gently, become a touch portly. We are pleasantly rounded or festively plump. We have, in short, gained some weight. This isn’t surprising. With some few exceptions, we don’t really eat classy food. We usually stop in restaurants where you have to request silverware; the toast choice is between ‘white’ and ‘Texas;’ ranch dressing is served with your soup; and they would be happy to fry your salad.

Between stops, we keep ourselves well nourished with that classic combination of jerky, soda, snack chips, and candy that has turned long-haul drivers everywhere into such elite physical specimens. I have personally begun to consume Combos ‘Zesty Salsa’ brand snacks in diabetes-inducing quantities. At 840 calories a bag, this actually isn’t all that much. To mix things up, I’ll occasionally throw in an ice cream sandwich for some dairy.

To supplement this diet, we encourage a strict regimen of no exercise. I myself do not do pushups every morning and I know that my sister and the other members of the crew have made it a habit to get up every morning in order not to jog, bike, or swim. It’s difficult to maintain such total indolence with a schedule as full as ours, but somehow we manage.

There is a benefit to our steadily deteriorating health though. Because our husky new frames don’t deal as well with cardiovascular strain, we have managed to streamline all our physical labor. Where setting up our stage took forty minutes six weeks ago, we have managed, through increased efficiency/inability to lift, to reduce our set up time to a mere fifteen minutes.

And I am anticipating new advances. Soon my fingers may reach a level of corpulence where I can speed type by means of hitting multiple keys with a single fingertip. The potential is unlimited, as any of my three (3) readers can now attest.

--Nick Brown

Rock the Vote's Response

Make sure you check your voter registration status at http://www.canivote.org, and sign up to volunteer on Election Day at http://www.rockthevote.com/rockyourrights.

NY Times Gets it Very, Very Wrong

Today's New York Times article was dead wrong.

You may have seen the article today accusing Rock the Vote of giving New Yorkers the wrong address to mail voter registration forms. This is not true - don't let this sloppy journalism scare you. See our press statement correcting the story here.

Rock the Vote’s online registration form, when printed, gives New Yorkers the address for the New York State Board of Elections. According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, this is the correct address.

But because we always confirm information like this, we also checked with the New York State Board of Elections. Twice in writing the Board of Elections confirmed that Rock the Vote gives registrants the correct mailing address. See the emails here. And today, the EAC again confirmed that our system is "current and correct."

However, this doesn’t make the problem go away - it’s just a different problem. It appears that the New York State Board of Elections is not processing some voter registration forms. Rumor has it there’s a 35-40,000 application backlog in New York state.

The Times did uncover a story, it just got the story wrong.

We’re taking action on this immediately. We’re correcting the story, but more importantly we’re working with attorneys, impacted young people, election experts, and the Board of Elections to make sure every single eligible person who mailed a registration application to the NYS Board of Elections is properly registered and able to vote on Tuesday November 4th.

Record numbers of people are registering to vote this year. That is an incredibly wonderful thing for our democracy. Politicians should be praising this, but instead they seem to be shirking responsibility. Sadly, this appears to be yet another example of our broken election administration system.

Together we can fix this. Together we can call out the real culprits. Together we can make sure every eligible voter is able to cast a ballot on Election Day.

And together we can take action to make sure problems like these don’t happen in the future.

If you downloaded and mailed in a registration form from New York, check your registration status TODAY and report problems to vote@rockthevote.com. Please spread the word.

And remember - anyone in any state can find out how to check their registration at www.CanIVote.org. Encourage everyone you know to do so and to report any problems to us or by calling 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Stay tuned - we'll be in touch in the next 48 hours with additional actions we’ll be taking.

For more information, see our press statement here.

Diplo in Detroit

DSC_0092, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

Miles travelled today – 230 so far

5:04 p.m. – somewhere between Detroit and Philadelphia

My ears are still ringing. Or not ringing really. No, it’s more of an ache, like two screws pushed through your eardrums and just a touch into the brain. Of course, the brain doesn’t have nerves, so there’s very little chance that I would feel the screws. So let’s stick with ‘my ears are ringing.’

Why are they ringing? Well, last night was loud. Volcano eruption loud. Explosive device loud. Loud like the the contained screams of a hundred teenage girls released in a single burst: chest-vibrating, floor-rumbling, banshee-wailing loud. The four of us who stayed for the entirety of the concert came downstairs this morning and spoke like octogenarians.

“Who’s driving?”

“What?!”

“Who’s driving today?”

“I keep hearing ‘thriving.’ Are you saying ‘thriving?’”

“Yes, driving. Who’s driving?”

“Oh. I will.”

“What?!”

“I said ‘I will.’”

“That’s lovely, but who’s driving?”

It was loud enough to persuade me I need to start wearing earplugs at these things, loud enough that now, nearly 24 hours later, I can still feel the dull throb of speakers blasting full force.

Diplo sets up his DJ booth with an array of lights that make it seem like you are staring into the windshield of a starship at light speed. You look forward over the crowd and the lights pulse from purple to blue to green to nothing and then back to blue. It’s like watching a Lite Brite operated by a speed freak. Except more awesome. I have never been to Ibiza and I’m not on short lists for the New York clubs, but now I want to be.

Obviously, this being Rock the Vote, we had a quick chat with Diplo about his thoughts on voting before the show. If you want to catch that, we’ll have it up here (http://www.youtube.com/user/RocktheVote2008) in a couple days. If you want to catch him in concert his schedule is here (http://www.myspace.com/diplo). Bring something to protect your ears.

OneVote Initiative

Not quite old enough to vote on Nov. 4th? That's ok, you can still cast your ballot with our partner OneVote, from Channel One News. They are hosting the largest national youth mock election in history and you can register your opinion at on the candidates and political issues at OneVote.com from now until Friday.

Don't wait! (oh, and tell your parents, siblings and anyone you know who's 18+ to vote on Nov. 4th)

Line for the Bus

DSC_0105, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Miles traveled today – 35

7:24 p.m. – Detroit

We are in Motown, home of the big three automakers, some of the most crippling poverty in the nation as well as some of the most beautiful buildings.

This morning over one hundred voters pledged to get out to the polls on Election day at Wayne State University. This evening we are headed to a concert with DJ extraordinaire Diplo.

Our hotel here is a bizarre monstrosity of a building. It’s painted pink outside and has a small wooden gnome in the lobby. The facade reveals nothing of the interior though. Going through the front door is like walking through a portal to some alternate universe. There is a courtyard with a gazebo. The hallways are covered with paintings and photographs from an earlier era and are filled with antique furniture. The building is a labyrinth: it took my sister and I a full five minutes to walk from our room in the far recesses of the third floor to the lobby. It’s an extraordinarily comfortable place, but you can feel the ghosts and faeries of an earlier time wandering past.

I joked with my sister that every night the Erlkonig captures guests and forces them to dance with his ghastly hordes in an all-night ball and then found myself tossing about in a fitful sleep, too old for nightmares, but still hunted by this inherently spooky place.

In all, it’s not a bad fit for the city. Downtown Detroit can feel like a ghost town. The vast American industries that once anchored this city’s economy have downsized and you can walk past the skyscrapers downtown and feel the spirits of the working men and women who once bustled through streets that are now largely empty. The lone exception to this sense of antiquity is the GM building, which rises like Oz from the shores of the Detroit river. But GM too is facing difficulties as the economy nosedives.

Detroit is a city that emphasizes the challenges facing the millennial generation. The American market has taken a fall and we will have to face the burden of finding our first or second jobs in an economy that stubbornly refuses to produce them. The policies of the next president, not to mention those of the next congress, the next city councils, and the hundreds of other newly elected officials that will come into office after November 4th will determine how hard our job search is going to be. We’d be foolish to ignore our chance to make some difference in those policies.

--Nick Brown

Storming the Cayahoga County Board of Elections

DSC_0227, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday – 28,046
Miles traveled today – 97 so far

10:38 pm – 2.5 million. Now let's spell it for emphasis: two point five million. Now let's put upside down exclamation marks around it because nobody does emphasis like the Spanish: ¡TWO MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND VOTES! That's the mark Rock the Vote broke last night. We have registered two-and-a-half million voters online and in person. Amazing. The mail-in registration deadlines have mostly past by now.

But if you haven't registered yet, check out the Rock the Vote Election Center (http://www.rockthevote.com/electioncenter/) to see if your state will let you register in person or at the polls.

Two-and-a-half million new registrations mean that a whole lot of young new voters will make it to the polls. And given the recent tradition of absurdly close elections, it could well mean young voters making the difference in this election.

There's no better way to scream 'Youth Power!' than Bow Wow (http://www.bowwow87.com/) leading a swarm of young voters to the polls in Ohio, which, coincidentally, is what he did with us today. The officials at the Cayahoga county election center were remarkably polite and organized given the circumstances. From their perspective a swarm of screaming youth showed up led by a young hip hop giant and three preposterously huge bodyguards. (Bow Wow's security detail weighs more than our bus.)

But honestly, truly, the single most-exciting event of the day came this afternoon. If you live in the Cleveland area, you may have heard reports of our concert outside the Rock and Roll hall of fame with Bow Wow, Jazmine, and White Tie Affair. You did? Fantastic. Then you probably heard the really really exciting news. Yes, that's right. The really terribly exciting news. Ready for it? Someone asked who the Rock the Vote bus tour blogger was. And without prompting!

The conversation went like this:

Stranger: So you are the Rock the Vote blogger?

Me: I write the bus tour blogs, yeah.

Stranger: I read your thing yesterday. I thought I would talk to you so you have something to write about.

Me: Hey, you read my blog! (pointing) THIS GUY READ MY BLOG!

Stranger: Yeah... well anyway...

Me: I wrote other ones than the one yesterday. There are others, too. Did you read those?

Stranger: Um... now and then.

Me: NOW AND THEN! AMAZING!

Stranger: So... The show's probably going to start soon. I really ought to...

Me: DID EVERYONE HERE THIS GUY READ MY BLOG!?

Stranger: I am going to leave.

(exit stranger)

It turns out he never actually mentioned liking the blog. He just mentioned reading it, which is like someone saying 'hey, I saw you in the grocery store.' It's not an opinion, it's just something that happened.

Still, I am claiming him as a fan. So take note news seekers and vote-rockers: I HAVE A FAN! A FAN!! NO NEWS COULD POSSIBLY BE BIGGER!



(And, yes, also: we registered our 2.5 millionth voter yesterday.)


--Nick Brown

Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash's new clip is cut from a never before released audio track called "I AM THE NATION," which was recorded by Cash in Hendersonville, Tennessee. In the spoken word track ­ which was found in the iconic singer's personal belongings after his death in 2003 at the age of 71 ­ Cash speaks poetically about America's diversity and the fundamentals of freedom. Rock the Vote urges you to VOTE on November 4th.

On the way to Cleveland

Monday, October 20, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday – 8,866

Miles traveled today – 400 so far

8:03 pm – Between Bloomington and Cleveland

And we're back! We left Ohio for a week and a few days, but we just can't seem to stay away. Ohio and an election year go together like bacon and eggs, pork and beans, prosciutto and melon balls... pigs and... blankets?... I am saying they go together well. And I am really hankering for something with pork in it.

The Buckeye State has that vital combination of being a huge swing state and bordering on no fewer than three other big swing states (Michigan, Indiana, and Pennsylvania). Cleveland also has the Rock and Roll hall of fame, which fits pretty well with our whole motif.

The one and only downside of these repeat visits is that a person can run out of new things to write. If it wasn't obvious by the series of pig-based similes, I have reached such a point this afternoon. Here we are humming along I-70 past farms and foliage, past one of the great breadbaskets of our nation and towards one of the early cities of the expansion period of American history and I am pretty much running on empty in terms of anything to write about the place before we get there.

We have reached that point in a road trip where our daily routine no longer astonishes us. We get out of bed at whatever wretched hotel is housing us for the evening, meet in the lobby for straight-from-the-plastic-wrap danishes and ten-day-old hard-boiled eggs, then split into one of two vans or the bus. The highway between places is beginning to look the same and even some of the places have started to meld together in my memory.

It's not altogether dissimilar from what the national press corps feel covering a presidential campaign. The reporters get on the plane. They check the schedule to see where they are headed next. They get off and are herded into a press area for an event that looks awfully similar to the last event they saw. The candidate repeats his stump speech almost word for word. The reporters struggle to find something that distinguishes this speech from the last. And then they send a piece to their editors and hop on the plane to do it all over again.

I knew reporters on John Edwards' plane in 2004 who made chalk marks on the front wheel of the plane and then put $5 a piece into a cash pool. Whoever had the mark closest to the tarmac upon landing at the next stop won the pool. Finding the winner of the plane wheel roulette was the most exciting moment of most stops they made.

So thank god for rock stars and young people. As opposed to those campaign stops, we see new bands and locals at each stop. Tomorrow we are pledging voters at the Coldplay concert in Cincinnati after a daytime concert with Bow Wow. While the trips between these stops can get to be routine, the stops themselves always have something worth writing about.

--Nick Brown

Mail-in Voting begins

Voting early by mail has reached unprecedented levels this year. More and more, day after day, weeks before Election Day, the vote tallies are going up and up.

More than 1.4 million of Colorado’s 3.2 million registered voters have requested mail-in ballots. That’s more than twice the number of Coloradans who requested mail-in ballots in 2004. This is a pretty big development for Colorado, especially because many polls regard the state as a toss-up in this year’s general election.

A few folks at debate parties across the state Wednesday evening were so excited after McCain and Obama duked it out that they took out their absentee ballots and filled them out on the spot.

You can check out our Election Center to find out more information about voting in your state and to see if your state offers early voting.

As Susan B. Anthony said, “Suffrage is the pivotal right.”

You’ve got that right, and you’ve got the ability to make a difference.

Flobots and Des Moines

DSC_0031, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Friday, October 17th, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday – 10,595
Miles travelled today – 120 so far

9:20 pm – Between Des Moines and Iowa City

The Flobots - above - were with us tonight in Des Moines and we will have what they said in an online video in a couple of days. In the meantime, here’s today:


Des Moines, IA has the second largest skywalk in the United States. For those unfamiliar, a skywalk is a series of above ground passages leading from building to building. You use it to get around in the winter and to get terribly terribly lost at any time of year.

We were very good at getting lost. The goal of our afternoon was to walk around this massive above-ground passageway registering anyone we found. It worked. We registered lots of people. But finding our cars was completely impossible.

Or rather, finding them was fairly simple. Getting back to them was impossible. Our DJ, Aaron James, and I were in charge of retrieving one of the vans and we spotted it almost immediately from a glass corridor twenty feet above Locust street. If we could have jumped down we would might have landed on the van. But we couldn’t, so we had to wander through buildings until we found a street exit. Aaron was convinced he knew where he was going, which, of course, he didn’t. I was convinced he had no idea where he was going, which, of course, he didn’t.

The scene reminded me of my parents. I drove through this state many times with them when I was much younger. Both grew up here, so I came to associate Iowa with family legends and long fights about whether we are lost. These trips taught me a valuable lesson: if you are fighting about whether you are lost, then you are lost. And so it was today.

“Aaron, do you know where we are?”

“Yeah, I recognize this. We’re coming up on something.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s behind us. We ought to ask someone.”

“Let’s just keep going, I think I recognize this.”

“It won’t take a second to just stop at one of these stores.”

“Just trust me, alright.”

We were a twisted stereotype of husband and wife. But how could we not be? As of today we have been traveling for five weeks without time apart or rest. As a group, our choices were to develop into a hostile infighting mess or to bond into a family unit. So we now have eleven quasi-siblings and two rotating semi-parents. Tonight, I played Mom and Aaron was dad. Everyone else played the kids waiting for us to find the goddamned car.

“I’m pretty sure this is the wrong way.”

“Look, there’s no reason you shouldn’t trust me. I parked the car.”

“I’m just saying.”

After twists, turns, an emergency exit and a twenty-minute walk through the cold grey weather, we found the car. Aaron grudgingly admitted we had been lost and I mostly refrained from gloating. We picked up the kids, drove to a concert with the Flobots for some voter registration, and then hopped back on the bus to drive to the Iowa city. I am hoping we can stop on the way to see the world’s largest strawberry.

University of Iowa

DSC02885, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday – 14,549
Miles traveled today – 214

7:46 pm – Ames, Iowa

Registering voters is essentially street promoting a product. The big differences being that a) you are not wearing a sandwich board, a foam rubber costume, or some other absurd outfit and b) your ‘product’ is voter registration forms, which is really more of a public service. Both street promos and voter registration involve a megaphone though.

“HAVE YOU VOTED YET?!” is our clarion call and it is usually followed by surprised jumps, rapidly turning heads, and even the occasional startled squawks. Nobody expects a megaphone.

Ebenezer, our tour manager, is the designated megaphoner. He is an excellent person-startler. The downside of a megaphone is that once you use it, it’s hard to stop. So you get conversations like these.

“HEY THERE!”

“Oh! Hi...”

“WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?!”

“Uh... it’s my mom on the phone.”

“CAN SHE HEAR ME!!!!!?”

“Probably. Mom, can you hear him?... Yes, he’s right next to me... I don’t know why... She says your very loud.”

“HAVE THE TWO OF YOU VOTED YET?! THERE IS AN EARLY VOTING LOCATION RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!!”

“I did. Yeah.”

“GREAT!! HEY EVERYONE SHE VOTED!!!”

At this point passersby quietly nod in approval. They will not actively cheer because that might make Ebenezer start talking to them.

“NICE WEATHER, HUH?” The megaphone operator continues.

“Yeah, I guess... You know that I’m right next to you right?”

“YES!! WHY?!”

“Just, you know, checking... um, I have to talk to my mom.”

“OH, DON’T LET ME STOP YOU!”

“Alright. Bye then.”

“IT WAS NICE TALKING TO YOU!!!”

The whole scene leaves you with the impression are witnessing a conversation between a human being and a space creature with an amplified mouth organ. The creature is obviously trying to understand how we humans communicate, though not altogether successfully. This is OK since Ebenezer’s name is Ebenezer, which means he may in fact be a martian.

I was initially put on megaphone duty, but was told that I sound deeply creepy. While I object to the decision, it is possible that a twenty something male yelling “ARE YOU EIGHTEEN?!” at college women could give the wrong impression.

Today was, by the way, spent at Iowa State University, which is distinguished by highly active students (we witnessed over 500 vote early), a jaw-droppingly beautiful campus, and Memorial Union hall whose custodial staff abbreviate ‘custodial’ ‘CUS’ and ‘Memorial Union’ ‘MU,’ which means that all cleaning supplies are marked with the delightful Acronym ‘MUCUS.’

We’ll spend the night in Des Moines this evening then get out on the street here tomorrow. There are only nineteen days left to promote our product.

-- Nick Brown

Debate Party

DSC_0043, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday – 15,485
Miles travelled today – 7

10:28 p.m. – Issues are boring. It’s a hard fact but true. You watch McCain or Obama trash one another and - for the political junkies and debate freaks among us - it’s like watching a fight-to-the-death cage match. You watch them speak to the future of the economy or tax rates in their economic plans and it’s like watching reruns of 60 minutes. The fundamental issues that will effect the future of our generation are pretty dull.

And yet... we do follow them. Among the noteworthy surprises of criss-crossing this country is that everyone has a base for his opinions. The lefties in New York are calling the red-state deer hunters cretins and halfwits. The right-wingers in Kentucky claim the blue-state cabal is a terrible force of arrogant fools bent on the destruction of American values. But ask any individual you encounter in a gas station or a downtown bar and he will have a personal experience or governing philosophy as to why he thinks as he does.

We are in ‘The Waiting Room’ (http://www.waitingroomlounge.com/) in Omaha, Nebraska tonight where we just watched the third and final debate of this presidential election. As I write this I am sitting at a bar as Isiah(http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=50255237), Kidz in the Hall (http://www.myspace.com/kidzinthehall), and Murs(http://www.myspace.com/murs) are readying themselves to perform and we are readying ourselves to listen.

It’s not what you might expect of us youngsters. There is no talk of which candidate looks better, who wears boxers or briefs, or who we could see ourselves hanging out with.

“That [expletive deleted] has never had to deal with health insurance in his life.”

“Yeah, well your [expletive deleted] has no [expletive deleted] idea what foreign policy is about.”

“These [several expletives] might as well just spend the time yelling at one another.”

Admittedly, the youth in this bar are a touch foul-mouthed. But listening to the chatter during the debate and the post-performance discussions, I have yet to hear mutterings of Bill Ayers, 80’s stock scandals, ACORN donations, or McCain’s crashed planes.

Instead, I have heard heated talk over health insurance, economic policy, and education. It’s not necessarily oration, but it is on point. And while the bar dwellers are sometimes overwrought, sometimes over-certain, and frequently over-intoxicated, they have all been talking about issues and, contrary to every expectation, I have yet to hear a boring conversation.

--Nick Brown

Young Latinos Pledge to Vote!

Last Thursday the Hispanic Heritage Foundation held a LOFT (Latinos On the Fast Track) event bringing together people of the Hispanic community to recognize its youth award recipients. These award recipients are all students excelling in academics from sports to math and science, and all represent the future of the Hispanic community in the United States. CSI Miami star Adam Rodriguez attended the event and spoke of the importance of nurturing the Hispanic youth so they can truly reach their full potential. MTV Tr3s VJ, Carlos Santos moderated the event and took time out for una foto with members of the Rock the Vote team.


MTV Tr3s’ Mi TRL counts down the top ten artists in the Latino community including reggaeton band Calle 13 who has been supporting getting out the youth vote this election! Many people at the event spoke of the importance of voting this election so that the Hispanic community is represented. The best way to make sure you voice is heard is to vote! Go to rockthevote.com/electioncenter for important election information and make sure you pledge to vote!

Between Minneapolis and Omaha

DSC_0006, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday – 13,569
Miles traveled today – 378

8:04 p.m. CDT – Between Minneapolis and Omaha

This is far too beautiful a country to let it all go to hell. Even on an overcast day, tearing through the swampland in southern Minnesota, you can't help but to stare at a dilapidated barn on the side of the road or a long prairie vista. Try though it might, photography can't capture the wonder of traveling through the open vistas of America.

Photography taken behind the bug-encrusted front windshield of the bus can't even come close.

We are in the American heartland now, but it is a rapidly changing heartland. Apple pie, family farmsteads, and rows of corn are competing with sushi, wind farms, and cornrows. And speaking of newer hairstyles: we are dashing towards Omaha for a concert with Murs (http://www.myspace.com/murs) tomorrow.

To those who haven't spent much time in, and I use the term lovingly, the fly-over states, it may seem that 'Rock' is as out-of-place in Omaha as a cruise ship would be. Not so. My family is from Omaha and my cousin still lives here, happily drumming away in a metal band. The youth in the midwest scream for music and politics as much as anywhere. Nor is that necessarily a recent development. Speaking of the 1930's Kansas City, another midwestern hub, biographer David McCullough writes:

"Forty dance halls and more than a hundred nightclubs were in operation offering... some of the best blues and jazz to be heard anywhere in America... This, too, was heartland America, no less than the old-fashioned, country-town peace and quiet..."

Not that we are here to engage in anything so reckless or debauched as blues or jazz. I merely point out that New York and LA, the traditional homes of Rock, ought not to be allowed exclusive claim to the unrest that spawns music and political activism.

No, this is far too beautiful a country to let it all go to hell and young midwesterners realize that as well as anyone.

--Nick Brown

Pete Yorn Rocks the Vote

Pete wrote American Blues Vol. 1 on the 4th of July after reading the morning paper. He was moved by how much negativity he was reading about and how even groups were boycotting Independence Day because they were so disgusted with the state of our Nation. He sent the song to some friends and one of them (a really old friend of his who is actually a huge reason he didn't give up on a musical career back in 1998) was really affected by the message. His friend always has had an unwavering faith in America and has always been able to laugh when times got tough. So, he decided to make a video and at the end send a message for people to get out and vote.

Pete Yorn is joining Rock the Vote Road Trip tomorrow in Omaha.

-- Kelly Fogel

Broken Social Scene on the Bus

Broken Social Scene on the Bus, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday – 7,072
Miles travelled today – 3

9:34 pm CDT – Minneapolis, MN

Our sponsors - hallowed be their names - have begun to permeate our existence. FLOTV, a company that broadcasts live television onto cell phones, made an appearance at breakfast this morning when our recent-college-grad production assistant Frack (actual name Chad) brought TV to breakfast. The screenplay treatment of the morning would have run something like this:

Waitress: So you'll be having...?

(long pause)

Me: Chad!

Frack (looking up from table): what?

Me: What are you eating?

Frack: Oh... (stares back at table)

Me: Chad!

Frack (looking up from table): What?! Eggs. Fried.

Me: Alright. New rule: no TV at the table.

Frack(defensively): It's 'The price is right.' And it's the last round.

Scene.

We are in Minneapolis today where we are getting voters at two separate events with Broken Social Scene (http://www.myspace.com/brokensocialscene). The first was at the startlingly named 'Electric Fetus' record store and the second is presently occurring at 1st Avenue and 7th Street Entry.

I will be dashing in presently, but I have these words of wisdom from the band first:

"I really think that we [Canadians] should get to vote in your elections because basically we just have to deal with it when you guys screw up, but since we can't, well, you guys really should."

Scene.

To all the skeptics

There have been some great news stories out there lately about how many new people - particularly new young adults - are getting registered to vote this year. Nine million according to the Associated Press - and here at Rock the Vote, we hit two million registration downloads last week, and are already long past that, ending last week at 2.3 million.

But at the same time, I'm seeing tons of stories with headlines like "Young voters: Engaged, but will they vote?"or with skepticism like in that Associated Press story, which follows talk of new registrations with sentences like "If they show up" and the authoritative-sounding "Historically, voter turnout among new registrants has been low."

Now, when I read that, I got suspicious. I know that in 2004, 81.6% of registered 18-29 year olds voted, a turnout rate not low by any definition.

Of course, not all of those were new voters, so I decided to check it out a bit further.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2004:

• 83.3% of registered 18-year-olds voted;
• 79% of registered 19-year-olds voted;
• 81% of registered 20-year-olds voted;
• 82.3% of registered 21-year-olds voted.
  

Nearly all of these voters were "new" by virtue of age, and all were new to a presidential election.

What's the lesson? Whether young or new, or young and new, if a person is registered to vote, they are very likely to cast a ballot.

So to all the skeptics I want to say - knock it off! You're telling the easy story, the "will those darn kids really vote?" - but not the factual story. Don't believe me, believe the facts: you can be sure that those kids will indeed overwhelm the polls come November 4th.

Now, does that mean political campaigns or organizations like Rock the Vote should look at the new registration numbers and sit back and relax for the next three weeks? Of course not. (damn)

For the campaigns, the fight is only beginning for the hearts and minds of these new voters - while our polling does show that young voters heavily favor Senator Obama, there are plenty of young voters for all candidates to target and persuade - 44 million eligible 18-29 year olds, to be exact, from the most diverse generation in American history. A prime persuasion and turnout target for both presidential campaigns and for candidates on down the ballot. And you can bet that the campaigns that get out there and ask for young people's votes - go to campus, knock our doors, attend candidate forums, and phonebank us - will reap the benefits on Election Day.

And for Rock the Vote and our partners in nonpartisan youth outreach, we want to make sure that we get young people all the information they need to vote on Election Day - polling place info, facts on voting rights, early voting and absentee voting details, and more.

Voting can be confusing for those brand new to the process - what ID do I need? where do I go? can I vote where I go to school? how do I get an absentee ballot? - and we're hard at work making sure we make that info available to everyone we can reach. (check out our Election Center) Part of the reason 81.6% of 18-29 year olds voted in 2004 was the massive GOTV efforts Rock the Vote and other organizations - PIRGs New Voters Project, the U.S. Student Association, Black Youth Vote, Music for America, the Bus Project, the College Republicans, the Young Democrats, and more - implemented leading up to Election Day. And we're doing the same - just more and better - this year.

So please, skeptics, give the youth of America some credit. Or at least get the facts straight. We're paying attention, we're getting registered, we're organizing our friends, and we're planning to vote. We'll see you on Election Day.

Between Milwaukee and Minneapolis

Saturday, October 11th, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday – 18,930
Miles travelled today – 336

2:37 pm – Somewhere between Milwaukee and Minneapolis

We have reached that point in the electoral process, I think, where you could not watch any TV station in the country for an hour without some mention of one or both of the presidential candidates. The news networks' standard riveting ticker headlines ("Chicago Club found haunted") now also carry mundane campaign updates ("Palin arrives in Missouri"). And it's hard to drive more than a mile or two of highway without seeing a yard sign for one candidate or another. We are, in short, in the all-encompassing season of the American campaign where politics cannot be ignored.

We saw this first hand at a refueling stop this afternoon. The bus pulled in at one of those truck-stops/megastores that speckle the interstates of Wisconsin and Minnesota: the kind of place where a single building contains a restaurant, slot machines, showers, bathrooms, a convenience store, and a 'souvenir shop' filled with porcelain lawn creatures and John Deere paraphernalia. We opened the bus door, prepared to dash inside to find something irresistibly tacky to buy, and were immediately assaulted by two teenagers and a band. The band, The Urgency, wanted to hand off a demo CD and the teenagers - one of whose eighteenth birthday was today - wanted to register to vote.

"We were at the McDonald's and we saw the bus and we wanted to get a picture and it's his birthday," the younger of the two teens said, in what was basically a single breath.

He explained how they sometimes see tour busses pass through when they are at the McDonald's and had seen Nelly's bus and Beyonce's bus and well, a bunch of other busses, and how it was worthwhile to run across and see who had come into town. This bus looked a lot better than the others though.

The band, meanwhile, pointed out that we used to work out with MTV and they had just done something with MTV and could they hand us a demo CD because, you know, you never know...

I had been napping for the hour before we stopped and the sudden rush of strangers and conversation was baffling to me, as if I had rolled out of bed to find myself on the floor of the New York stock exchange surrounded by heavily caffeinated traders screaming buy and sell.

The van, our satellite vehicle, stayed an hour behind us and its passengers were not subjected to this spontaneous outpouring of enthusiasm. Instead, they visited a hedgehog show in Milwaukee. A hedgehog show? you ask. Yes... I don't quite understand either. A quick googling confirms that such shows exist and are sanctioned by the International Hedgehog Association (IHA). Disappointingly, I didn't see the thing, so I am left to speculate.

But the mere absence of knowledge or personal experience has never dissuaded me from reporting, so I can say with conviction that the show took place in a dug out cave deep in the recesses of a network of tunnels under Milwaukee and was run by gnomes. The winning hedgehog was small, adorable, and sang a stirring rendition of 'God Bless America.' Miss Hedgehog Congeniality did a very nice public service announcement for us, but the tape was lost. Everyone was already registered and concerned with the candidates' stances on gardening.

They too are focused on the election.

--Nick Brown

Parkside Highschool in Racine, WI

DSC_0093, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Friday, October 10th, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday – 16,475
Miles travelled today – 130

12:10 pm – Every year at each convention there is a made-for-TV-though-not-necessarily-aired-by-anyone moment where some precocious teen steps to the podium and explains how she represents the future of the whatever party she is in front of. The crowd applauds and then continues to trade tickets for that night's parties while they wait for the main speakers.

Racine, Wisconsin has adopted a resolution that allows for more significant participation from the not-quite-old-enough crowd. Any kid with a signed permission slip can take election day off to help work the polls or to campaign.

That resolution may help account for the staggering enthusiasm we were greeted with at Horlick High School and Parkside High School. We had no bands with us and our resident DJ is in New York for a couple days, yet students charged outside to greet us, swarmed onto the bus, and then danced or just listened as we played hip hop from an iPod.

There are some few states that are still registering voters and Wisconsin is one, so apart from enthusiasm we also picked up around forty new voters.

***

Today's event came after a day with the bus and without internet in Chicago. Chicago may be the most American city in America. Sure, LA and New York are glorious metropolises with history and character, but they don't have that certain something. And what exactly is that certain something? Square feet. America's third largest city is a town of enormous two-flat apartments. Really enormous. For what I pay in New York, I could get have an apartment large enough to host touch football games. I hypothesize that most Chicagoans could have a small zoo in their building without really noticing it and many people here actually commute from the bedroom to the front door. There may in fact be cities within the city of Chicago that have yet to be discovered because some irresponsible apartment dweller hasn't bothered to explore all the rooms in his new condo and then one day he walks down to check the boiler and Boom! A door he didn't notice with some room that he hadn't gotten around to and four thousand people have been living there.

To those of us in apartments that make a stockade seem roomy, the whole thing is enough to make you want to throttle a Chicagoan out of envy. Of course Chicagoans have long anticipated this, so when one shows a Manhattanite the eleven bedroom place he is getting for $250 a month, he runs to some far corner of his apartment where the hapless New Yorker could never hope to find him.

Actually: you can see the best that our country aspires to and also our national failures and social disgraces in Chicago. Driving down lakeshore avenue there are the skyscrapers that made the city famous and then the dark and sordid facades of the state street high rises. I was driven away from the city by work and the miserable weather two years ago, but as we approached I couldn't focus on anything besides my mounting excitement.

"If you look off to the left you'll see US Cellular field in a second," I informed my sleepy and indifferent co-workers. "And then to the right there is the Illinois Institute of Technology and then - we'll see downtown in a second - you can see the Hancock building. Also, if we take lakeshore drive... well that doesn't really make sense, but we can take Wacker drive and you can see where they shot the car chases in Batman... oh, and there's the bean downtown, which is technically called the skygate so we should go there too. Did you know that they reversed the flow of the Chicago river at one point? Anyone?" The passengers in my car had drifted off and I was left spouting random trivia and factoids from the driver's seat for the full hour it took us to slog through rush hour traffic.

In point of fact, we did have young voters fill out pledge forms (URL: http://www.rockthevote.com/pledge/) at one Chicago institution. TJ and Dave (http://www.tjanddave.com/) are my favorite Chicago improvisors. They perform every Wednesday night at 11:00 at the IO theater (http://chicago.ioimprov.com/) (IO used to stand for Improv Olympic, but the litigious wing of the International Olympic committee saw to it that the theater was reduced to two meaningless letters). From scratch, TJ and Dave improvise a forty-minute one act play. At its worst, it is merely funny. At its best: transcendent.

--Nick Brown

We Love Voting with BotherVoting.org

The folks at BotherVoting.org have made a bunch of crazy voting-themed e-cards that you can send out to your friends.


BotherVoting.org is a spin-off project of Someecards.com, a site that’s got a variety of amusing e-cards to liven up any occasion.

New MTV/USA Today Poll: Young Voters Engaged in the 2008 Election

On Monday, MTV, USA Today, and Gallup released a new poll on young voter attitudes toward the presidential candidates and the upcoming election. The survey confirmed the primary finding of the recent Rock the Vote poll: young voters are engaged in the political process more than ever, with 75% indicating that they are already registered to vote.

Young people are aware of the unique nature of the 2008 race. Over two-thirds of the 18-29 year olds surveyed indicate that they have given quite a lot of thought to this year’s contest between John McCain and Barack Obama. More than 80% feel that this is one of the most important elections of the last fifty years. And no matter who wins the White House, young people believe the new president will have a measurable impact on their lives.

On the issues, young voters don’t differ much from the electorate as a whole. 30% of registered young people listed the economy as the single most important issue this November, while 13% named the war in Iraq. When asked to list all issues influencing their decision, health care/insurance, foreign affairs, and energy/gas prices also made the list.
However, despite concerns about the economy and the war, young voter attitudes toward the future reflect the generally upbeat perspective the Millennial Generation use to greet almost every other area of their lives. In the poll, 67% of respondents reported feeling very or somewhat optimistic about the country’s future.

Of course, the MTV/USA Today survey also produced interesting findings on the presidential candidates. When asked who they would prefer to have a beer with (52% - 27%), have as a teacher in class (65% - 27%), have as a boss (63% - 28%), or ask for advice (51% - 36%), young people preferred Obama over McCain. However, this doesn’t mean they’re not interested in John McCain: when asked whose private diary they would most like to read, respondents chose McCain over Obama by 43% to 39%.

Finally, on the most important question 26 days out from Election Day, the news was good for the Democrats. Young people identified themselves as Democrats/Democratic-leaning over Republican/Republian-leaning by a 2-1 margin. And if the election was held today, 61% would vote for Barack Obama, while 32% would cast their ballot for John McCain.

Leaving Ohio

Leaving Ohio, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Tuesday, October 8th, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday - 78,930
Miles travelled today - 450

7:28 pm – Somewhere between Columbus and Chicago – Goodbye Ohio, hello Illinois! Goodbye Columbus, hello Chicago! Goodbye Bengals and Hello Bears! We are off to the land of endlessly disappointing baseball, impossibly tall skyscrapers, and eight-month winters.

The Ohio registration deadline was yesterday, and while early voting runs on up through election day, we are leaving Ohio and heading on to the Windy city (named for long-winded politicians not wind, though both are there). Tonight we will take the mother ship to The House of Blues for a concert with Nelly. The second phase of this tour has begun. We are still registering voters in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and several other states whose deadlines have not yet passed. But now we are beginning to concentrate on getting young voters out to the polls, a pretty substantial task in its own right. And, obviously, our primary purpose as an organization.

Which brings up a point: while we are a nonpartisan organization, we are not an indifferent one. There is nobody on this tour who does not have fierce political convictions of his own. We don’t all agree, but we do care. I mention this because with the coming of registration deadlines comes a slight change in our mindset. Before, we were seeking to expand the pool of available young voters. We were fighting against the complications of bureaucracy that prevent eligible people from voting. If anything it was an educational mission. We were trying to help young people understand the paperwork behind the process. Now we begin to shift towards a mission of motivation. If we were fighting against complication before, now we are fighting against apathy. Fight may not be the best word. Among the youngsters in this election, voting has become hip. Nine times out of ten, you ask one of us if we’re making it out on November 4th and the response is ‘Hell Yeah I’m voting.’

But there are the exceptions. There are potential voters, and we have met more than a few, who don’t vote because they are actually against the process of voting. Some are Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are forbidden from voting by their faith, and some are that ever present contingent of hermits, cranks, and cantankerous backwoods crazies who simply object to anything that shows support for our government. And then there are still the few - and they truly are few - among our generation who are just lazy. The most common expression of this laziness is the line “I don’t really know enough about the issues to pick one candidate over the other.” That may well be, but anyone with an internet connection or access to printed material can find out which candidate he or she thinks is right with a relatively small amount of research. And honestly, there is no voter who knows as much as he should, no politico who can see which candidate will better deal with our future. So you make your best guess. I have my own reasons for voting, but they are hardly more relevant that the millions of others out there. And - in a shameless plug for a good organization - you can fight this apathy and offer your own reasons to vote at amillionreasonstovote.com.

-- WRITTEN BY NICK BROWN

GET LOOPT

Get Loopt. It's an awesome social mapping service for your mobile phone. Just download Loopt onto your mobile phone to receive alerts when your friends are nearby, share status updates and geo-tagged journal photos, and explore places and events recommended by your friends. For example, you can use Loopt to coordinate with your friends helping to register voters, share status updates on election issues, and explore photos your friends put up of Rock the Vote events. Here's a taste:

If you have an iPhone, check out the Loopt Mix feature in particular and add the Rock the Vote badge to your profile to discover other Rock the Voters around you.

We really think Loopt will be a powerful tool to mobilize and engage young voters. Let's connect with each other on Loopt and get ready to rock it in November. Go here to learn more and download Loopt!: www.loopt.com

p.s. - You can also text "GET" to LOOPT (56678) to download Loopt now.

Dayton, OH

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday - 27,862

Miles travelled today - 135 so far

3:37 pm – During the bad old days of the cold war, Soviet intellectuals hammered home a somewhat dubious claim. Freedom of speech, they argued, is not protected in the United States. How could they advance this perfidious rumor? Well, it was based around that most American of institutions, the shopping mall. The argument runs like this: because a shopping mall is the primary place of commerce and therefore the common meeting ground of US citizens and because it is privately owned, the owners of a mall can suppress any assembly, speech, or petition (very obscure pun intended) they don't like. So the "freedom of speech" in the US is a hollow facade that allows only the fat cats to say what they please.

Obviously, there are huge problems with this argument. The first and most obvious being that a mall is hardly the only - or even the primary - place that opinions are expressed and passed on.

But today it was hard not to feel a little sympathetic to the bad old Soviets. Today we got kicked out of the mall of Dayton for registering voters.

The mall has a no soliciting policy, with 'soliciting' defined broadly enough to include registering voters one day before the Ohio deadline, asking for nothing, giving out nothing, and generally maintaining a quiet, reserved presence. It was particularly frustrating because we were fairly successful. While there were no doubt cantankerous passersby who objected to a stranger approaching them with any question, however benign, most of the mall patrons were pleased to have us there, particularly the 14 or so we registered before being evicted.

I am tempted to write a long harangue on the importance of civic participation. But I'm not going to mention here that our nation is founded and maintained upon that principle. Nor will I suggest that the mall's policies literally embody Soviet criticisms of this country. I come here to bury my frustration, not to exacerbate it.

I will, however, suggest that if you read this and find it shameful that the highest-up people we were allowed to speak with kicked out a charity group whose sole purpose is to register voters one day before the registration deadline in Ohio, then you might express that opinion here: http://www.daytonmall.net/go/suggForm.cfm

Meanwhile, we are off to friendlier pastures outside an event with The Onion's, editors in Columbus this evening.

Carney at Toledo

Carney at Toledo, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday - 40,629
Miles travelled today - 140 so far

7:23 pm - At some point today, Rock the Vote registered our 2 millionth voter. Last election, the total electorate consisted of 122 million voters, which means Rock the Vote has registered 1.6% of the total voters of 2004. This may not sound like much but it is a huge number. Applied selectively, 2 million voters could have flipped every swing state for one candidate or the other in 2004. 2 million voters is more than three congressional districts; there are fifteen states whose total population is less than 2 million; and - if they voted as a block - 2 million voters could easily be the difference in this election.

What I am saying is that I think a self-congratulatory pat on the back is in order.

Way to go us.

As for the day itself: we spent it at Toledo University, hosting a concert with Carney during the tailgates for tonight’s game against Ball State.

There are some October days, before the leaves have really fallen but after they have yellowed, when you can step outside and the air feels crisp and brings back a hundred memories of halloweens and thanksgivings and touch football games. On days like this you can find yourself staring off into nothing, caught off guard by the simple pleasure of breathing. The sun is brighter, the colors sharper, and sounds clearer than on other days, and however wrong your life may be an autumn afternoon can convince you that it will be OK.

Today was such a day and we spent the twilight hours tossing a football with the band before heading toward Columbus where we will spend two more days trying to register anyone we can get our hands on before the deadline Monday night.

--Nick Brown

Registering in Cleveland: Part II

DSC_0025_2, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday - 41,763
Miles travelled today - 8

11:33 am — We are in Cleveland today. This is my second ever visit to Cleveland. The first being last week. I have thus gathered the following facts about the city: 1) there is a Hard Rock Cafe that is willing to play the debates for exhausted and cranky Rock the Vote staffers 2) The Rock and Roll hall of fame is here somewhere, and 3) in parts of the city there are schools with metal detectors in the doorways and police in the halls.

I have only a single picture of the imposing exterior of John Marshall High School. The school was clearly designed to fend off viking raiders and it rises from its basic suburban surroundings like a citadel from the plains. But for the heavy police presence and metal detectors at every entrance, the school was a straightforward stop packed with the students who were eager to have us. I did not get a chance to explore, but I assume the school had arrow slits on the upper floors and vats of boiling tar on the roof.

4:12 pm — Let us be clear, lest some further misunderstanding occur: you can register and learn where to vote at www.rockthevote.com. The information you find there will be accurate, up-to-date, and any forms printed will work. I mention this because we encountered a very insistent woman in downtown Columbus who was there, in principle, to register voters. In practice, her enthusiasm outshone her knowledge.

“Rock the Vote is using the wrong forms!” she hollered for anyone listening. “They’re xerox copies! Don’t register with them!”

For the record: a xerox copy of the correct form is also the correct form. Also for the record: we were not using xeroxed forms.

“Honestly, we are doing the same thing you are,” Mary, our production manager, assured her. But to no avail. She screamed threats and slander until we finally persuaded her to wander off to some other part of the city, where she is no doubt ranting still.

Tonight we are to hover outside a New Kids On The Block concert advertising the upcoming deadline and encouraging the people here on to the polls.

--Nick Brown

Early Voting in Ohio: Day 3

DSC_0199, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday — 35,836
Miles travelled today — 123 miles so far

6:12 pm — Sickness and injury, all thoroughly deserved, have plagued us this trip. I should explain: we are deservedly sick because tour manager Ebenezer, brought back some terrible flu-like infection from Scotland and we did nothing to protect ourselves. I mean nothing. Nothing at all. Sharing jackets? Check. Sharing food? Check. Sleeping hardly at all? Check. Hand-sanitizer? Obviously not. We may as well have simply injected ourselves with concentrated virus samples.

And our injuries? Well, we are injured because we are astonishingly clumsy people.

An example? I’m glad you asked.

Let’s look at dinner last night. Mary, our tour manager, is very diligent about scheduling. When she says be in the hotel lobby at 8:30, she means be there with your luggage, having already eaten, shaved, showered, and otherwise groomed yourself. We have all come to understand this and strive to be there when we are told. But we never are. Never ever. Individually, the people on this tour are very bright. We are capable problem solvers, creative thinkers, and generally mature reasonable people. But as a collective, we are brainless infants who must be constantly coddled and reprimanded. We are each told every night how important it is to be on time and then the next day someone is late and Mary must give him or her a lecture.

So last night at dinner, Mary tried to preempt this lateness by lecturing on timeliness before we were actually late as we walked out of the restaurant and back towards the hotel. She begged us, she appealed to our sense of higher duty, she wheedled, she pled, she enjoined... and then she walked into a light pole. Hard. We had been power walking, so Mary had built up a real head of steam before hitting this perfectly huge pole with a deep gonging sound. Obviously we were concerned for her welfare at the time, but with hindsight I can say that it was a thing of beauty.

It was also far from unique. Trips, falls, drops, crushed fingers, and minor boo boos are an unfortunately common experience this trip.

Which all brings me to what was so magical about today: this morning, with the exception of Mary’s slightly pole-battered face, we were in sound health for the first time this tour as we hosted Carney for a quick concert in front of the Ohio state house in Columbus.

So feel free to congratulate us.

This evening we head to Cleveland for a show with Rise Against. Four days until the voter registration deadline.

Early Voting in Ohio: Day 2

DSC_0008, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday: 26,381
Miles traveled today: 200 or so

5:02 pm – Somewhere between Akron and Columbus – The Rock the Vote Bus tour is kicking into full blown register and vote mode, which means we have split into smaller, more efficient groups. The bus is, of course, the mother ship, but we are now also using small cruiser vehicles for smaller missions. The cruisers in question: Miles — a beat-up ’94 Volvo station wagon that lives up to its name, having now broken 185,000 miles on the odometer — and Bessie, a minivan that can fit seven of us on a good day. Frick and Frack, our PA’s, bought a football, a frisbee, and a soccer ball to hurl around in dull moments, so Bessie is admirably living up to the stereotype of the minivan. All we need are some granola bars and Sunny D tucked into a cooler in the back and we could just as well spend our time ferrying children to soccer games.

Autumn has hit this state and we have suddenly found ourselves slightly blue in the lip and shivering during the shortening days. Somehow none of us anticipated that the seasons would progress as they normally do so our suitcases are stuffed full of shorts and sandals. We shivered through the morning before tearing across highway 71 to Lebanon, OH, where we took our first mini-stop in Bessie to register voters at a Warren Career Center. The mother ship stayed behind at the hotel for some reorganization and some last-minute preparation for the final six frantic days before the registration deadline here in Ohio.

Warren Career Center saw our first experience with potential voters who openly feared and disliked the idea of registering to vote. Why they refused is up for speculation since most were tight-lipped about their reasons. Feeling patriotic and loquacious a few of us made grand little speeches about the virtues of participation in our democracy, but we made little progress. We left with some few registrations and a simmering frustration.

Feeling down, we regrouped at a Wendy’s around the corner and stuffed ourselves full of pre-cooked bacon and low-grade beef patties. A republic relies on the participation of the people. That’s about as incontrovertible a statement as you can make in this country. But these folks would have none of it.

Fat and corn syrup can ease a lot of things though and it eased our frustration. After fast-fooding at Wendy’s and reuniting with the mother ship for the afternoon, we hovered near the Montgomery county election center in Dayton, walking or sometimes driving people to the polls and watching them register and vote.

On one such drive those of us riding in Bessie were lost to the mother ship and we were forced to wander our way alone, while the bus headed back to Lebanon to make another attempt to persuade the reluctant students of Warren Career Center to make themselves heard.
--Nick Brown

SuperPets!

The next time you're hanging out on MySpace, take a moment to get ready for 11.04.08.


The SuperPets app on MySpace has a new Rock the Vote pet, for you to share with all your friends.

Celebrities Unite to Get Out the Latino Vote!

According to the Pew Hispanic Center 50,000 young Hispanics turn 18 every month!

A lot is being done to make sure that this population is represented in the upcoming election. Celebrities such as Juanes, Paulina Rubio and Daddy Yankee have joined our cause to try and get as many young Hispanics registered to vote as possible. Read the article on their recent PSA's for Rock the Vote at MetroLatinoUSA.com and watch the videos!

Remember that many registration deadlines are coming up. Visit RocktheVote.com to find out your state's registration deadline and make sure you and your friends and family are registered.

Where is the love?

Last Wednesday, David Segal wrote an article in the Washington Post lamenting the lack of passion and political engagement from young people today. He dismissed young voters as inarticulate, uninterested in the world around them, and lacking in intellectual curiosity when compared with the student protestors that threw Nazi flags and pitchers of water on foreign ambassadors in 1968.

This has got to stop.

Despite the surge in voter turnout among 18-29 year olds in 2004, 2006, and the 2008 primaries, many analysts and members of the media have stuck by their assertion that young people are apathetic, uninformed, and unwilling to participate in the political process. Perhaps this willing ignorance to the facts is rooted in the lack of visible protest and unrest in the Millennial Generation that Segal points out.

However, just because young people aren’t burning effigies of political leaders in the street doesn’t make them less interested in or informed about the world – it just means they’re not interested in refighting the culture wars of the 60s. Student protests of the Johnson and Nixon era, while radical and attention-grabbing, didn’t affect much actual change. In fact, they caused a backlash from a majority of Americans and elected officials that deemed them unpatriotic and ungrateful.

Do young people today think things in this country have gotten off track? You bet. In the latest RTV poll of 18-29 year olds, a full three-quarters of respondents said they thought the country was moving in the wrong direction. But, they’re not taking their anger out by trying to avoid or destroy “the system.” The Millennial Generation has learned the power of playing by the rules of the game – in their own way.

They stay informed through a variety of formats – they watch TV, read internet news sites and blogs, share articles and videos with each other on Facebook and MySpace, and organize events via text message. They spend their weekends registering voters, knocking on doors for their favorite candidates, and talking to their family and friends about the issues they care about. And, most importantly?

They vote.

Keep rockin’, people. We’ll show ‘em in November.