ROCK THE VOTE EMBARKS ON THE ROAD TRIP ’08
Rock the Vote, the leading organization for youth and politics, has announced plans for a three week road trip designed to fully maximize voter registration, education, and engagement efforts in key youth markets.
Already it’s a historic year for Rock the Vote. More than 1.4 million people have registered to vote through www.rockthevote.org, making this the largest youth voter registration drive in history. In the last two weeks alone 231,371 people have downloaded voter registration forms from Rock The Vote’s website. Additionally in 2008, Rock the Vote has engaged more than 2.5 million members and over 100,000 mobile phone activists, plus innovative online programs are attracting the attention of millions more. Now we are taking our efforts to the streets, to build our community street teams, engage new voters in person, and inspire millions to get involved.
The Road Trip ’08 is a state-of-the-art mobile road show designed to reach out to the nation’s youth that will traverse key states delivering the hottest local and national musical talent and guest speakers from the areas of politics, sports, film and TV to spread the word. The Road Trip ’08 will visit high profile events and college campuses in these markets beginning September 13th in Nashville, TN. The kick off date will feature a performance from former American Idol and recording artist Melinda Doolittle, as well as local Nashville artists to be announced soon. Talent will be announced in the coming weeks, and focus on community leaders to national spokespeople.
Since 2008’s election stands to be remembered as the most historically significant and hotly contested race in many years, promoting Rock the Vote’s mission to “engage and build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country” has never been more vital. Turnout amongst young voters has increased dramatically in the 2004 and 2006 elections and again in 2008 primary elections. This November, the 45 million young voters are poised to turnout and make their issues and voices heard.
The Road Trip ’08 tour bus has been outfitted with computer kiosks that will assist in voter registration and educate users about the election process. These kiosks will also field requests for absentee ballots, teach users about key issues, inform users about voting poll locations and much more. The artistic design of the bus itself was conceived by Shepard Fairey, the celebrated contemporary artist/graphic designer who emerged from the skateboard scene with his famous “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” campaign.
“The Road Trip ’08 will take our work to the streets, reaching out to young people in America’s small cities and towns bringing together musicians, politicians and celebrities with the goal of educating and registering new voters and fueling record turn out in November, said Heather Smith, Executive Director, Rock the Vote.
The dates and cities for The Road Trip ’08:
Saturday, September 13 – Nashville, TN
Monday, September 15 – Blacksburg, VA
Tuesday, September 16 – Richmond, VA
Thursday, September 18 & 19 – Philadelphia, PA
Saturday, September 20 – State College, PA
Sunday, September 21 – Pittsburgh, PA
Wednesday, September 24 – Akron, OH
Thursday, September 25 – Cleveland, OH
Friday, September 26 – Kent, OH
Saturday, September 27 – Columbus, OH
Sunday, September 28 – Cincinnati, OH
Tuesday, September 30 – Bloomington, IN
Thursday, October 2 – St. Louis, MO
Saturday, October 4 – Iowa City, IA
Monday, October 6 – Minneapolis, MN
For more information on The Road Trip ’08 and Rock the Vote go to www.Rockthevote.com.
ABOUT ROCK THE VOTE
Rock the Vote’s mission is to engage and build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country. Rock the Vote uses music, popular culture and new technologies to engage and incite young people to register and vote in every election; giving young people the tools to identify, learn about, and take action on the issues that affect their lives, and leverage their power in the political process. Rock the Vote is creative, effective, and controlled by nobody’s agenda but their own – they tell it like it is and pride themselves on being a trusted source for information on politics. www.rockthevote.org